Barack Obama’s bracket includes one Big Ten team in Sweet 16

Michigan (No. 32), Minnesota (No. 34), Penn State (No. 36) and Indiana (No. 40) are also in the top 50 of the NCAA attendance rankings. With that said, that doesn’t mean the Big Ten wasn’t fun. The Spartans finished lower in the Big Ten standings than usual in a four-way tie for fifth, but they’re still a team that anyone dreads to see in March.

The Oklahoma State men’s basketball team will face MI in the NCAA Tournament’s round of 64 Friday in Indianapolis. Underwood will plan accordingly for the Big Ten Tournament MVP come Friday. MI fans know first hand just how good SC can be.

This season, it took a while for Michigan to click in conference play, but beginning with a 29-point win over Michigan State on February 7, the Wolverines started looking like one of the elite teams in the Big Ten. The Big Ten, however, isn’t all that far behind. Aside from that, the Big 12 ended up being just about the status quo.

Izzo spoke earlier this week about MSU’s lack of a rotation this deep into the season and cited several factors.

NCAA Tournament Bids/Seeds: (4) Purdue, (5) Minnesota, (7) Michigan, (6) Maryland, (8) Northwestern, (8) Wisconsin and (9) Michigan State. The one year that not much was expected, they rolled through the regional as a 2 seed before falling to Duke in the Final Four. Another freshman, Nick Ward, ranks second on the team in scoring.

The NIT features 64 teams, just like the NCAA Tournament, but has the team with the best record in each matchup host the game.

Winston – a talented freshman point guard from Detroit – has seen his minutes go up and down all season, thanks in large part to lapses defensively. He’s sank three in four games and four in two games. Lagoski earned her first career bars title vs. Arkansas (2/25) with a career-best 9.875.

Michigan State has 6 less wins than Wisconsin, and Wisconsin is an eight seed.

Jankoska led the charge in helping a younger MSU team land a spot in the big dance.

Lagoski has been the Spartans’ anchor on floor throughout her career.

Maryland finished second in the Big Ten, and they should be a six seed.

Sure, the Big Ten probably wasn’t what it had been in the past few seasons.

The Spartans have recorded their top three scores of the season in the last month and are getting stronger as the season goes on.

This is not the first NCAA Tournament meeting between Izzo and Miami Head Coach Jim Larranaga.

This season’s continual improvement matches that of the 2016 Spartan squad that was also peaking at the end of the season. No team was truly dominant from wire to wire, and several teams made surprising runs throughout the year. Ohio State is also ranked in the AP and USA Today polls at No. 11/10, while Purdue is receiving votes in the final AP poll, and in and MI are receiving votes in the latest coaches’ ballot.

Ward is a kid man you can trust on the line now, and everyone knows how crucial shooting freebies is in the tournament.