Michigan State basketball slides up a seed line in latest bracketology

There are two things that don’t matter much before Jan. 1 in college hoops: bracket projections and rankings. But seeing as I love bracketology all year round, I’m going to focus on where Michigan State basketball is projected anyway.

So as we all know, the Spartans were left out of the recent AP Top 25 despite going 2-1 in Maui with a win over North Carolina to finish in third place of a loaded field. Their only loss in Maui was to now-No. 16 Memphis. It was a successful trip and I think every Spartan fan would tell you that. But AP voters opted to keep a UConn team that went 0-3 in Maui at No. 25 for some reason — Michigan State is No. 26.

But enough about the rankings, let’s dive into where top bracketologist Joe Lunardi projects the Spartans in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

Obviously Michigan State had a good week which followed up a disappointing stretch against Bowling Green and Samford where they needed a late surge to blow by the Falcons and a first-half comeback to hold off the Bulldogs. The Spartans beat Colorado handily in Maui before losing by eight to Memphis and then beating No. 12 North Carolina in overtime — the game was controlled by MSU.

The past week of play impressed Lunardi enough to have the Spartans “trending up” and jumping to a No. 7 seed from their previous 8-line.

Michigan State is projected by Lunardi as the 7-seed in the South Region, facing Georgia in round one. Not an ideal matchup as the Bulldogs are one of the nation’s surprise teams and the South Region is based in Atlanta.

It’s good to see Tom Izzo’s team getting some love, but the ceiling is much higher than a 7-seed and we’ve all seen that.

Other Big Ten teams to make the projected field are:

• Purdue (No. 3 – East)
• Oregon (No. 4 – West)
• Wisconsin (No. 5 – Midwest)
• Illinois (No. 6 – West)
• Ohio State (No. 6 – Midwest)
• UCLA (No. 8 – Midwest)
• Michigan (No. 8 – South)
• Maryland (No. 10 – East – last four byes)
• Indiana (No. 11 – South – last four byes)
• Nebraska (first four out)

Michigan State basketball has lost to a projected No. 1 seed (Kansas) and a No. 4 seed (Memphis) this season while beating a No. 5 seed (North Carolina). Need to add to that resume, starting this week against Minnesota and Nebraska.