I’m going to be bold and say it — this year’s squad is in the fast lane to becoming as talented, if not more talented, than the 1999-2000 national championship team with Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson.

Both teams are very well balanced, but MSU’s last national championship team needed Peterson to score more than 16 points a night — or things didn’t look so hot.

Take any MSU player out of the lineup and what do you have?

A whole floor full of guys who can score in double digits if given the chance.

Take Peterson out?

You make Cleaves and Charlie Bell do a lot more, mixing their niches up. After all, Peterson was the Spartans’ leading scorer in 22 games and the leading rebounder in 10 as well.

Not to mention this year’s team shares the ball better. In 16 Big Ten games, the 1999-2000 MSU team dished out 249 assists. Impressive isn’t it? But in eight Big Ten games, this year’s Green and White team has already hit the 145 mark – averaging one on 68.9 percent of its field goals.

At that rate, MSU could have 290 assists at the end of their 16th Big Ten game.

The 2007-08 team is a defensive juggernaut when it comes to swatting opponent’s shots. They’ve rejected 99 shots in just 21 games while the 2000 team blocked 105 in all 39 games.

Coach Tom Izzo’s newest group of guys is even shooting better from the field (48.8 percent) than his team eight years ago (47.4 percent).

There is nothing better right now than MSU’s bench depth. They’re a deep team that is deadly from every aspect.

The three nonstarting freshmen are combining for 22.1 points a game while Cleaves’ team’s entire bench didn’t even average that much — at just 19.9 a game.

Izzo wants his team to get better. He doesn’t think they’re there yet.

But they’re definitely on the right track.

The numbers don’t lie.