Can Tom Izzo and Michigan State Keep Their NCAA Tournament Appearance Streak Alive?
Two weeks ago Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans had no chance of making the NCAA Tournament, but things have changed a lot since then.
The Spartans have had one of their most difficult years in recent memory on the basketball court in 2021. Michigan State has struggled to pick up wins in the BIG10, and pretty much everyone had written them off. MSU has found some magic recently, and now they have a chance to play their way into the NCAA tournament.
Michigan State has the third longest active streak of NCAA Tournament appearances with 22 in a row. Sparty fans had feared that the streak would come to an end this year after the team got off to such a bad start.
Michigan State has now beaten two of the top 5 teams in the country in the last week, and everyone is starting to see the team we expected to see at the beginning of the year. Michigan State beat 5th ranked Illinois, and last night handled their business against 4th ranked Ohio State.
So what does this mean for Michigan State?
Well the only thing that everyone agrees with is that if Michigan State wants to get into the NCAA Tournament, they need to win the rest of their regular season games.
That won't be easy considering Sparty has a tough schedule ahead of them. Games against Maryland and Indiana are ones that we all expect MSU to win. The last game of the season though is the big one. Michigan State will take on the 3rd ranked Michigan Wolverines . . .and the game is in Ann Arbor.
Nobody is happy about Covid, but I think Tom Izzo might be breathing a little easier knowing that Crisler Arena will be empty for that game.
If Michigan State can win their last three games, I don't see how the NCAA can keep them out of the tournament. This will cause a lot of issues when you are filling out your bracket, because who wants to see Tom Izzo and the Spartans as a 13 seed?! That's going to be an upset special no matter who they face off against.