Sparty

Izzo is March is one of our favorite phrases, isn’t it? Brian pointed out Matt Norlander called Michigan State the 2nd most likely team to win a national title out of the Big 18. They proceeded to blown off the court by UW-Madison. Are they the 2nd most likely team to win a national title do the Big 18? No, no they’re not.

They’ve now lost 3 of 4, which includes a double digit loss at home to Michigan and a loss at Minnesota to go with the blowout loss in Madison. Izzo better be March because he isn’t February at the moment.

They got as high as number 4 in KenPom following a blowout win over a terrible Maryland team on January 24th. They also briefly had the best defense in the land. Since then, they’ve given up 79 to Rutgers in a 73-possession game, 76 to the Gophers in 53-possession game, 83 to Michigan in a 73-possession game, 82 to Illinois in a 71 possession game and them 92 in a 68 possession game. The defense has flatlined since that blowout win over Maryland.

The offense has never been good enough to win a title, hovering in the 40’s most of Big 18 play. The offense isn’t terrible other than turning it over way too much. A great rebounding team, the offense thrives off 2nd chance possessions.

Jeremy Fears is this year’s dirtbag Big 18 player. Fears is a good PG, they type of a player the media likes because of gaudy assist stats. A terrible shooter who hunts fouls which works for him because he 90% from the line but only 25% from 3. Expect to hear a lot of announcers to push the redemption narrative like Jason Benetti did last Saturday night.

The schedule includes road trips to Indiana, Michigan and Purdue. A 3-3 finish is possible which would mean a 4-6 finish in regular season play. Don’t know that’ll happen but this isn’t a team that is the second most likely to end the Big 18 title drought.