Michigan State Basketball: What Can the Spartans Do in the Tourney?

It's no secret that the Michigan State basketball squad have underachieved this season. Don't confuse that statement with me saying that they're not a good team because that would be false.

The Spartans are equipped with talent at all positions but their young minds aren't capable of using all of that talent when it is needed the most. This is a team that started off the season strong and showing that they had a chance to bring home a NCAA Title back to East Lansing.

But some minor slip-ups around midseason may have caused others to give MSU a second look and ask, "Is this team really championship bound?" It's not like they were automatically picked to have a big season but with only little competition surrounding them, it's kind of hard not to give them the title as "favorites."

The Spartans showed some of their bad habits and their inconsistency by losing to teams that should've been easy wins. Teams like Iowa, Northwestern, and even Ohio State. It kind of reminded me of some of the bad habits that the Michigan Wolverines football team had. I don't know if it was cockiness or just a sign of mental flaws. Whatever it was, it showed the weaknesses of the Michigan State Spartans.

This really was the year that State should've won the Big Ten, and if not that, they had a great shot at winning the Big Ten Tournament. They only came minutes...seconds from pulling off a close game against the Wisconsin Badgers, but costly fouls and immature play led them to basically blow that game.

The Spartans had four key players foul out within a span of two and a half minutes and that led to a 65-63 loss in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament. Not to mention, they had a fourteen point lead with about 8 minutes to go in that game. With that, Wisconsin was able to take the title home after an easy win against the Illinois Fighting Illini; a team that I'm sure the Spartans would've been able to beat.

Don't get it twisted though because I'm not ripping the Spartans. This is a talented team with mental flukes in the regular season. They are capable of knocking off tough opponents, but losing at the wrong times. One of the wrong times was in the Big Ten Tourney.

Despite that, the Spartans still have a number five seed in the NCAA Tourney and they have to face off against Temple. As much as people want to yell out "Upset Alert, Upset Alert!", I highly doubt that it'll happen.

Why is this? Tom Izzo is one of the smartest coaches in the NCAA and he knows how to prepare his team for a run in the tournament. It may seem like the Spartans haven't gone deep in the tourney in the past couple of years, but that is only because they've ran into tougher opponents. For instance, last season they were knocked out by a pretty good North Carolina team. They did make it a close game, but the youth couldn't find a way to get past them. And since 1999, they've made the Final Four four times.

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