Michigan State Basketball: Comparing 2015-16 Spartans to this year’s squad
By Ryan Kay
The 2016 NCAA Tournament
The reason for this team being labeled a failure not just by the national media and other team fan bases but by the Michigan State fans and alums is because of the devastating loss to number 15 seed Middle Tennessee State in the NCAA Tournament.
To make matters worse was the fact that Middle Tennessee State did not go far in the tournament after defeating MSU by losing to Syracuse in the next round. The irony is that if Michigan State had won, they would have played the Syracuse a school in which they lost in the second round in last season’s NCAA Tournament.
Middle Tennessee State plays in Conference USA, which is not Power 5 conference but is not even close to being labeled a lower tier conference in college basketball. MTSU has had success on the basketball court by winning their conference tournament championship in 2016 and 2017 and being the conference regular season champions in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018.
It can be argued that even though it was an upset, it was not even in the top 10 in terms of upsets in men’s college basketball NCAA Tournament history.