15. Michigan State (12-2)
It’s very possible that Tom Izzo has built another special team here in East Lansing but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. After all, he’s taken the Spartans to eight Final Fours during a fantastic career and has been in a relative drought of success. This team has looked the part of a potential contender this season and did rack up some nice wins in nonconference play, but let’s not pretend like the Big Ten is any kind of cakewalk.
In fact, there were question marks in Michigan State’s final nonconference game, as they won 114-97 over Cornell back on Monday. Jeremy Fears Jr. led the way with 21 points and 11 assists, though winning a shootout over that Ivy League team wasn’t exactly expected. The opposite transpired on Friday night, with the Spartans falling late in a 58-56 road loss at Nebraska. Jaxon Kohler had 19 points and 11 rebounds but Michigan State fell in league play for the first time.
After cultivating a shootout win earlier in the week, the Spartans just were too sloppy with the basketball and didn’t have the offense to take care of business against the Cornhuskers. This was a very winnable game for Michigan State and a performance that Izzo’s squad likely won’t repeat this season, but we can’t ignore the recent struggles either. They’ll try to shake that off and have three straight games at home, beginning with USC this upcoming Monday.