Michigan State basketball: 2019-20 season review and 2020-2021 first-look preview

After beginning the year with sky-high expectations as the preseason no. 1, Michigan State was on pace for another March Madness run before the NCAA Tournament was canceled.

Fresh off a run to the Final Four in 2019 and with nearly every key player back from that team, expectations were through the roof for Michigan State. For the first time in program history, the Spartans began the year atop the preseason polls, but it didn’t last long after they dropped their first game to Kentucky at Madison Square Garden in the Champions Classic.

An early-season injury to shooting guard Joshua Langford, who was supposed to provide outside shooting punch for Michigan State, threw Tom Izzo’s rotation out of whack. The Spartans suffered a few bad losses in the non-conference schedule, including a loss to Virginia Tech in Maui and a big letdown vs. Duke at the Breslin Center, before seeming to get back on track at the beginning of Big Ten play.

That run of success wouldn’t last as Michigan State dropped three straight games in early February to fall out of the polls entirely, marking the first time since 2013 the preseason no. 1 in the AP poll became unranked at any point in the season. Reaching rock bottom proved to be a turning point for the Spartans, who finished the regular season strong by winning six of their last seven games.

That hot streak helped Michigan State earn a share of the Big Ten’s regular-season title and the no. 2 seed in the conference tournament. The Spartans were set to return to action in the quarterfinals on Friday, March 13 before the remainder of the Big Ten tournament was canceled.