Michigan State basketball: Opportunities for resume-building wins are dwindling

Michigan State basketball is trying to build its resume before the NCAA Tournament but opportunities are dwindling.

Some people will tell you that Michigan State basketball might not make the NCAA Tournament this season. As of today, I don’t think there’s a threat of missing out, but obviously that can change quickly. Regardless of where you stand in that debate, we all can agree that MSU needs to add some more high quality wins to its resume.

Unfortunately, that’s going to be difficult to do.

The Big Ten is a little down this season. There are a couple of really good teams, a couple of above average teams, and then a lot of really bad teams. That makes it tough for a team like Michigan State which needs some high-quality wins added to its resume, because there really aren’t that many opportunities left on the schedule.

The NET rankings are something the NCAA Tournament selection committee looks at when selecting and seeding teams. Within those rankings are Quad 1 games that are those games when you play the best teams in the country according to the NET rankings. Quad 1 games are the ones every team needs to take advantage of. Typically, MSU has a lot of these opportunities during the Big Ten season, but that isn’t the case this year.

Remaining resume-building Quad 1 games

As it stands today, Michigan State only has three more Quad 1 games on the schedule. Those games are:

• Jan. 26: at Wisconsin
• Feb. 10: Illinois
• March 2: at Purdue

Only three Quad 1 games with 12 games left on the schedule is not something you want to see. Especially when MSU could really use some marquee wins added to its resume, it won’t have many of those chances.

There is one other game that has a chance to turn into a Quad 1 game. The Spartans travel to Minnesota on Feb. 6 which as of today is a Quad 2 game. Depending on how Minnesota finishes this season, this game could slide up to a Quad 1. But it’s more than likely that these three games will remain MSU’s only chance at getting those coveted Quad 1 wins.

Those three games are extremely important the rest of the season. If the Spartans can win two of those three, then I think we’ll all be very confident heading into Selection Sunday. Even one win wouldn’t be bad either, but the Spartans can’t lose all three. They could find themselves in a dangerous spot come Selection Sunday if that’s the case.

What about the games against bad opponents?

The flip side of this is that Michigan State still needs to win those other games that aren’t quad 1 games. Losing some of those other games could destroy MSU’s resume. I’m thinking of games like the two against Michigan or even the Spartans’ road game at Penn State. Losing those games could hurt the resume even more than winning the Quad 1 games would help it.

So, as is the case every year, each game is extremely important for MSU for different reasons. Whether it’s adding a marquee win to the resume or avoiding the crushing losses, the Spartans need to be ready for every game left on their schedule. But these three Quad 1 games, in my opinion, carry the most importance.