Big Ten men’s Bracketology: Michigan State surges as regular season winds down

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Two Saturdays ago, Bubba Cunningham sat on national television saying that Michigan State was close to making the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee’s top 16 teams in an early look at the NCAA tournament bracket. A little over a week later, it is hard to imagine that the Spartans haven’t barged their way into that group.

Michigan State had the best week of any Big Ten team, beating Purdue at home Tuesday and rival Michigan on the road Friday. Add in last week’s road smackdown against Illinois, and the Spartans have won three consecutive games over teams in the top 25 in NET Ranking by an average margin of 12 points. That is a strong stretch.

It feels like this team has shaken off any nerves associated with getting Tom Izzo the all-time Big Ten wins record. With that milestone in the rearview, they can focus on doing what all Izzo teams do: Playing hard-nosed, fundamentally sound basketball on both ends of the floor. If they keep playing this way, they will not be left out of the top 16 come Selection Sunday.
Let’s check in on the current NCAA tournament bracket projections for the Big Ten:

Wisconsin Badgers

Projected seed: 2

This week’s schedule: vs. Washington Tue. (Peacock), at Michigan State Sun.
Wisconsin waxed a good Illinois team by 21 points on Tuesday, which feels more representative of this team than the four-point home overtime loss to Oregon Saturday. It took a season-high 17 turnovers from the Badgers and a deep three from Jackson Shelstad in the final seconds of regulation to hand Wisconsin just its second home loss of the year.

Michigan State Spartans

Projected seed: 4

This week’s schedule: at Maryland Wed., vs. Wisconsin Sun.
Michigan State has climbed back up the seeding list by soundly beating good teams. It has two more opportunities to do that this week against ranked teams in the Terrapins and Badgers. There is no rest for the weary in the Big Ten, but right now, the Spartans are the ones doling out the punishment.

Purdue Boilermakers

Projected…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/big-ten-men-bracketology-michigan-140000411.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2025-02-24 14:00:00

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