It seems like a yearly occurrence, and one that almost seems strategic in the way Izzo uses it, but it seems destined that every season, Michigan State Basketball will leap to the top of the NCAA rankings, only to get knocked down a peg.
On Sunday, the Spartans were upset by Northwestern and that loss has caused them to tumble eight spots down the AP Poll to No. 12 from No. 4.
Remarkably, Rutgers now sits one spot ahead of MSU at No. 11 after upsetting Illinois. Iowa and Wisconsin both sit in the top ten to round out of the top of the Big Ten. MSU faces Wisconsin on Christmas day to attempt to prove that the Northwestern game was more of a hiccup than an emerging trend. Izzo seems to always use these losses, especially when his team was possibly starting to get a little too confident in their abilities, to instill lessons in his teams. He’ll have a lot to work with after Sunday’s brutal beatdown.
