EAST LANSING – Michigan State’s women’s basketball team has bludgeoned a number of its lesser opponents in the decisive manner in which it took care of Penn State on Wednesday night. It was one of those games where it seemed if those two teams played 437 times, MSU would have won 437 times.
But we know that’s not how it always works. For example, three days earlier, Penn State somehow knocked off previously unbeaten Ohio State.
For this MSU team, which is still trying to break through against the Big Ten’s upper crust, these merciless efforts against middling teams might seem ho-hum, but they’re a credit to the focus and maturity and relentless pressure the Spartans are playing with under second-year coach Robyn Fralick.
And these sort of wins, for the time being especially, are absolutely essential.
MSU’s chances of contending for a Big Ten championship this season are slim, given losses at Nebraska and Maryland already and how strong the top of the league is with the additions of UCLA and USC, both ranked in the top five. But MSU has a shot at winning its way to a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament and, in the women’s game, that means hosting the first two rounds.
If you look at the NCAA’s NET Rankings today — the best gauge for where a team sits in terms of seeding — the Spartans (16-3, 6-2 Big Ten) are No. 18. The top 16 teams in the eyes of the NCAA tournament selection committee earn those top four seeds.
MSU has hosted NCAA tournament games before, though not since the tournament format changed 10 years ago, giving those top 16 teams the opportunity to host. In 2016, MSU was a No. 4 seed, but didn’t have access to the Breslin Center because of the MHSAA state basketball tournament. The Spartans had to go on the road to 5-seed Mississippi State and lost to the Bulldogs in the second round, which led to the university making sure Breslin would be available if the MSU women ever earned the chance to host again.
They haven’t, until perhaps this year.
It’s not a spoken internal team goal, but it’s one for fans to keep an eye on.
“All we wanted to accomplish was being good tonight, because that’s what it takes for the things you really want,” Fralick said Wednesday after beating Penn State, 82-61. “We talk a lot with our team about being an every-possession player, being an every-possession team. And when you can stay in that space, that leads to really good things.”
Winning on Saturday at Michigan (noon, BTN) — which is No. 24 in the NET — would be another step toward really good things.
It’s a massive game for rivalry reasons, for conference standings reasons and for postseason reasons.
“It has all the elements,” Fralick said.
The women’s game offers that one extra element — that carrot of the top four seeds getting to host NCAA tournament games.
Playing at home matters. MSU hasn’t lost at Breslin yet this season. The Spartans as a 9 seed famously beat 1-seed Duke in 2009 in the NCAA tournament in East Lansing, under a previous tournament format. There’s no way MSU wins that game if it had been on the road. Just like MSU likely would have beaten Mississippi State in 2016, if it had been at home.
“We’ve consistently stayed in the top 25, which is cool,” MSU point guard Theryn Hallock said. “We haven’t done that in years. But I think to be able to be in that top quad of four, we have to keep working and we have to protect our home floor.”
Most of MSU’s marquee games this season are on the road — including trips ahead to UCLA, USC and Ohio State. But if the Spartans can beat Oregon next Thursday at Breslin and Michigan in East Lansing on Feb. 9 and Minnesota at Breslin late in the season — and not blow a game to the Penn States of the world — that might be enough for their NCAA tournament to run to begin on their home court.
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Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU women’s basketball is in contention to host NCAA tournament games
