The Michigan State Spartans had an overall very successful season by record standings, and winning the outright Big Ten regular season conference championship. Sophomore Miles Bridges again lead the team in points per game with 16.9 and was no doubt the player State relied on during most games to help put them over the hump when they needed it most. Highly touted freshman big Jaren Jackson Jr. had a slow start to his college career, but really picked it up big time the more games he got under his belt and proved to be a big time force down below in the paint. His outside shooting was pretty solid with him shooting close to 40 percent from the three point line and averaging about three blocks a game as well. The Spartans will be expecting a lot from Bridges and Jackson Jr during the tournament if they wanna have any chance making it past the third round. Nick Ward will need to keep things locked down below with Jackson Jr and provide a big presence to grabbing rebounds, blocking shots and playing tough mentally defense. Sophomore Cassius Winston has shown quite some growth from his freshman season, and he will need to be the one to set the tempo for the offense and to hit some big shots for this team to compete with other great guards. If the Spartans don't let distractions come back to haunt them and can play great team defense each night, then they just may have a shot at beating favorites like Duke and Kansas who will more than likely be waiting for them in back to back games. The road ahead is a very tough one but you should never count out a team that is coached by Tom Izzo in March. Watch out for Michigan State to possibly surprise a lot of people when this is all said and done.
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