Michigan State was faced with the daunting task of heading down to the Hoosier State to face No. 8 Purdue and Indiana on the road this past week. The Spartans came away 2-0 and now have a much better NCAA Tournament resume than they had previously.
Adding two Quad 1 wins to the resume was massive for the Spartans’ hopes of jumping up to a 2-seed. It was also important for Big Ten Tournament seeding and earning that coveted triple-bye.
The biggest win was at Purdue on Thursday, but Sunday’s dominant victory at Indiana was also impressive. It was the first time that Michigan State had beaten both Purdue and Indiana on the road in the same season since 2013-14.
With the wins, Michigan State improved to 24-5 on the year and 14-4 in conference play.
To me, and some respected bracketologists, that resume screams “2-seed”. The Spartans shook off a rough stretch where they lost 3-of-4 games not too long ago to bounce back and win four straight over UCLA, Ohio State, Purdue, and Indiana.
Where will the No. 13 Spartans be ranked in Monday’s AP Top 25 rankings update?
Michigan State should see the biggest rise this week
I’m fully expecting Michigan State to be the biggest riser in this week’s rankings after picking up those two road wins and watching several top 10 teams go down.
Considering that five top-10 teams went down last week and the No. 11 team lost, too, I would expect a healthy rise for the 13th-ranked Spartans. I see Michigan State jumping Nebraska, Virginia, Illinois, Gonzaga, and Purdue for sure, but there’s also a slight chance we see them rise above Houston and/or Iowa State who also lost last week.
I’m going to say the Spartans will jump Houston as well — the Cougars just lost three in a row.
I see the top seven teams looking something like this:
- Duke
- Arizona
- Michigan
- UConn
- Florida
- Iowa State
- Michigan State
AP voters could very well keep Houston at No. 7 and that would mean Michigan State is No. 8.
I’ve been wrong for a couple of weeks in a row, underestimating how much voters respect Michigan State, so I’m going with a respectable jump. This would follow the same trend.