9. Michigan State Spartans
Last Week: No. 10
Michigan State moves up this week thanks to a couple of very strong performances. For starters, they absolutely dismantled nationally-ranked Iowa by a score of 90-68 at the Breslin Center. Big man Nick Ward was absolutely tremendous in this matchup, scoring 26 points in 23 minutes on perfect shooting from the field on 10 attempts. As a team, the Spartans shot 51.7% from the field. Then, the Spartans reprised that performance with a huge road win over Florida (63-59).
In my opinion, the biggest takeaway regarding Michigan State so far has been their play on both ends of the floor. The Spartans can really win games with either their offense or defense and that allows them to match up well with a lot of teams. With the junior trio of Joshua Langford, Cassius Winston, and Ward leading the way, MSU is more experienced than they have been in years past.
This experience will likely help fix some of the inconsistencies we have seen from Tom Izzo’s teams in the past few seasons. If MSU continues to post strong performances night after night, they will definitely compete for the Big Ten title as a top-10 team. The Spartans next four games all come at home and they should be able to move up in these rankings even more soon.