About two weeks ago, I was asked if it would be a disappointment for MSU to barely sneak into the NCAA tournament. What a dumb question, I thought.
MSU’s 17-year tournament streak started just four years after I was born. I’ve been alive for six Final Four appearances, but because I was just a kid, I wasn’t fully aware of the 1999–2001 stretch at the time.
In 2005 I watched MSU storm past Duke and Kentucky before seeing the Spartans bow out to a powerhouse in North Carolina in the Final Four. In 2009 and 2010 I saw back-to-back Final Fours and I thought I was witnessing basketball royalty. If Shabazz Napier didn’t turn into Kemba Walker 2.0 last year, I would have seen a seventh Final Four.
If there was one thing I learned about MSU while I was growing up, it was to never count out Tom Izzo in March. His teams will go through an almost-scheduled lull, getting people to doubt their capabilities come tournament time.
So in a season like this one, where the Spartans are up and down until mid-February, all I thought MSU needed to do was sneak into the postseason, nothing more, nothing less. Whether it’s a No. 1 seed or a No. 10 seed, if MSU can get into the dance, the team always has a chance to do some damage.
On the heels of a four-game win streak, this year’s team is proving that it won’t need to sneak into the tournament — it belongs there.
Playing with hypotheticals, even if MSU was part of the last four in, I don’t think it would be anything that Spartan fans should fret over. In college basketball, it’s very hard to sustain success the way that Izzo has.
The blue bloods of college basketball are clear — Kentucky, Duke, UCLA, Kansas, Indiana and North Carolina. But in Izzo’s 20 seasons at the helm, he’s vaulted MSU into the upper tier of college basketball programs.
If we think that squeaking into the tournament is a disappointment, let’s look at programs like Florida and Connecticut.
Florida has won two championships and UConn has won three since MSU’s title in 2000. This year, neither program will likely make the tournament. UConn also missed out in 2010 and 2013. Doesn’t MSU stack right up with those teams? Even in a down year, it appears as though the Spartans will find a way in.
How about North Carolina? A year after they beat MSU in the title game, UNC failed to make the tournament in 2010 with a roster that included three current NBA players. One of college basketball’s finest programs led by one of the game’s finest coaches in Roy Williams couldn’t produce a tournament team.
And UCLA? The Bruins didn’t make the tournament in 2003, 2004, 2010, 2012 and probably won’t this year. UCLA is trying to regain solid footing among the elite, something that will take time.
The tournament field is larger than ever, but in ways, maneuvering through a treacherous conference season is harder than ever. Super conferences are starting to form (eyes on the ACC and the Big Ten), and it’s becoming difficult enough to compete consistently within a team’s own league, let alone the entire country.
So as we panicked all year long over whether or not Izzo could right the ship, maybe we should have kept things in perspective. If this year is as bad as it gets, and granted losing to Texas Southern at Breslin is bad, then we really are watching a royal college basketball program.
It’s not a lock that MSU will make the tournament. At the moment, however, they’ve done plenty to assure themselves a spot, a position I’m confident handfuls of programs around the country wish they were in.
