The Big Ten has gone over 20 years without a national champion, but a strange year for the league could cause chaos in Chicago.
It feels like we are always looking for who the next Big Ten team to win a national championship will be at this time of year. It has been over two decades since Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans cut down the nets in 2000, creating a very long drought for one of the country’s proudest basketball conferences.
2023 has been challenging for the Big Ten, which hasn’t seen many teams outside of Purdue make consistent noise in weekly power rankings or polls. The Boilermakers are without a doubt the best team the Big Ten has to offer, although squads such as Indiana, Northwestern, Illinois and Rutgers have had their moments this season.
The Big Ten Tournament is set to begin in Chicago later this week and there are a few potential sleepers who can create a little chaos ahead of March Madness. One team, however, is well-positioned to wreck the brackets at the Big Ten Tournament this week.
Michigan State is always a Big Ten Tournament threat under Tom Izzo
It hasn’t been a vintage year for the Spartans, who are a bit thin on the interior and find themselves in the middle of the pack in the conference standings. A look under the surface, however, finds that Michigan State is as battle tested as any team in the country right now.
Izzo is a coach who loves to schedule hard to test his players and this season was no exception. Michigan State’s schedule in the non-conference portion of the season featured games against five power conference programs and Gonzaga, a run of games the Spartans went 3-3 against.
The highlight of Michigan State’s season was a win over Kentucky at the Champions Classic in November but they also took Gonzaga to the wire on an aircraft carrier, showcasing this team’s potential. Dates against Alabama and Villanova also helped build some mental fortitude with this team, which has picked up quality wins in Big Ten play over Indiana, Rutgers and Iowa.
The Spartans also have plenty of firepower on the perimeter as they hit nearly 40 percent of their threes as a team. That kind of shooting is often critical in tournament situations since getting hot for a few days is all it takes to advance deep into March.
Having a Hall of Fame coach like Izzo on the sidelines is also a huge advantage for Michigan State since few coaches are better in a tournament environment than Izzo. The Spartans have historically done very well in situations where they don’t have a lot of time to prepare for their next opponent, a testament to Izzo’s coaching ability and ability to remain calm under the pressure of March.
Getting out of the Big Ten Tournament won’t be easy but there isn’t a truly unstoppable team in this conference. The Spartans have shown they can hang with the Big Ten’s best throughout the season and their ability to shoot from deep alongside their coaching edge could be enough to make it deep into the week in Chicago.
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