NCAA Basketball: Ranking the last 25 NCAA Tournament champions

15) 2000 Michigan State Spartans

Record: 32-7, 13-3 in Big Ten

That team is the 2000 Michigan State Spartans.

Tom Izzo’s national championship team has a special place in Michigan State lore and in Big Ten history. They’re the last team from the conference to win the title, but they were extremely hot and cold throughout the course of the season.

The cold? They started the season 9-4 and closed non-conference play with a four-point loss at the Wright State Raiders. Wright State!

The hot? They beat five top-10 teams throughout the course of the regular season.

However, we’ll give them a pass for their slow start because of the way they rounded into form once they crossed into conference play. Michigan State swept the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles on their way to earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They won every tournament game by double digits. Of course, it helped that they had a relatively easy path to the championship.

The Spartans are still the only team in NCAA Tournament history that did not face a top-four seed in either the Final Four or national championship game. However, they did beat the No. 4 Syracuse Orange and the No. 2 Iowa State Cyclones in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, respectively.

Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson were both first-team All-Big Ten performers, yet freshman Jason Richardson had the best NBA career of the 2000 Spartans. It’s a close call but, considering how good the Spartans were when they were healthy and at their best, they get the nod over UConn and crack the top 15.