Tom Izzo and Michigan State basketball suffered their first loss of the 2025-26 season on Saturday afternoon, hosting a really good Duke team and falling 66-60.
The Spartans are now 8-1 on the season after losing to the No. 4 team in the country, and they will be looking to bounce back this week at Penn State to improve to 2-0 in the Big Ten. That’s not going to be an easy win because no road battle in conference play ever is, but Michigan State should get back on track against the also 8-1 Nittany Lions who haven’t played anyone this season.
This past week was a tough one, though, for Izzo and the Spartans. They were able to handle a solid Iowa team by 19 points at home, and then they let a win slip through their fingers against Duke on Saturday afternoon. It was one of those “how did they lose that?” games that felt like it was trending toward a huge Michigan State victory, but a late meltdown changed the outcome.
Izzo took full blame for the loss, and he said that he’s not frustrated or disappointed, but rather “pissed off” — in his own words.
Losing that game definitely hurt, because a win would have likely vaulted the Spartans into the top five, but now, Michigan State is trying to hang on to a spot in the top 10.
Where will AP voters have Michigan State on Monday afternoon?
Predicting where Michigan State basketball will be ranked
Michigan State got a bigger bump last week than I expected, so I’m going to be more positive in my prediction and assume that AP voters saw how close the Duke game was and that the Spartans should have won. The six-point gap in the final score was not indicative of how close it really was — a 3-pointer that hit every part of the rim with just over 30 seconds left put Duke up six when it looked like the Spartans would have a chance down one score.
So where do I think Michigan State will fall this week?
I actually believe AP voters will drop the Spartans out of the top 10, but there’s a chance that even No. 1 Purdue could fall further than Michigan State because of its 23-point home loss to No. 10 Iowa State. The Cyclones are going to jump the Spartans, but I also see BYU, Gonzaga, and Houston leaping MSU.
I’m going to say No. 11 on Monday, but I could also see No. 10. Anything further of a drop shows that AP voters didn’t watch the Michigan State vs. Duke game.