Michigan State basketball dominated Mississippi State from start to finish on Thursday. Tom Izzo extends a tourney record.
Let me know if you’ve heard this before. Tom Izzo wins an NCAA Tournament game with the lower-seeded team. That’s exactly what the Spartans did on Thursday when the 9-seed Spartans dominated 8-seed Mississippi State 69-51.
This is not a surprise for MSU fans, it actually is just more of the norm and what’s expected in East Lansing.
Most wins as lower-seeded team
The win over Mississippi State was the 17th NCAA Tournament win for Tom Izzo as the lower-seeded team. This is the most out of any coach in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
There are many reasons Izzo is Mr. March, but this may be the biggest of them all. March Madness is full of upsets, and the Spartans have contributed to that more than anyone else.
Sure Michigan State is never pulling off the massive upsets we see, like 14-seed Oakland beating 3-seed Kentucky Thursday night (shoutout Rocket Watts), but that doesn’t mean these 17 upsets aren’t meaningful. Especially considering how many deep runs Izzo’s made as a low seed. Tom’s made the Final Four as a 5-seed twice and a 7-seed once. Those seeds just don’t make it that far, so I’d honestly put those runs on the level as a 14 vs. 3 upset like we saw Thursday.
Greatest first game from a lower-seeded MSU team
During the postgame press conference, Izzo went as far to say “I thought this was one of the better first game performances of a lower-seeded (Michigan State) team.”
There’s definitely a lot of truth to this as Michigan State dominated the Bulldogs the entire game. MSU started out hot and got out to a 20-8 lead and never looked back. They were locked in defensively all game and didn’t have many rough offensive stretches either. They even hit a lot of threes against the No. 7 ranked 3-point defense in the country as well.
The Spartans will have another chance to add to Izzo’s lower-seeded win total on Saturday. Michigan State takes on 1-seed North Carolina with a chance to make its second consecutive Sweet 16. A win in this game would be one of the greatest in Izzo’s tenure in my opinion.
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