Michigan State’s Exhibition Losses: Good or Bad?

Michigan State’s quest to reach the Final Four for the first time in nearly 10 years begins Monday, with the regular season tipping off against Quinnipiac. However, the Spartans have already played three exhibition games, with the last two being the most important. Unfortunately, Michigan State dropped both of those games last week, creating some underlying concern among Spartan fans across the nation.

But is it really a bad thing that the Spartans lost their two exhibition games, or could it be playing right into Tom Izzo’s hands?

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For years, Izzo has put his teams through a gauntlet to open the season, scheduling nonconference opponents that are harder than a math quiz on the final day of your senior year. The Spartans go through this gauntlet to put themselves in a position to succeed when Big Ten play arrives, as well as in the tournaments that follow the regular season.

This has been Izzo’s approach for as long as anyone can remember, and it didn’t let up this year. The Spartans have one of the hardest nonconference schedules in all of college basketball, and the challenge even started during exhibition play.

Michigan State opened last week’s exhibition slate against the UConn Huskies. The Spartans dropped that game and looked outmatched, leaving fans wondering for the second straight year whether this team was good enough. However, UConn is an excellent team ranked inside the top four nationally. Losing to a team of that caliber provides an opportunity to learn about your roster. Izzo has never been afraid to have his teams face early adversity to see what they’re made of.

Then came the second game against Marquette, another good team with a storied basketball program. However, Marquette doesn’t have the same expectations as Michigan State this season, with the Spartans entering the year ranked No. 6 nationally in the preseason poll.

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Michigan State was expected to win, but unfortunately, the Spartans were outmatched again, nearly from beginning to…

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Publish date : 2026-10-30 15:31:00

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