BREAKING: How Far Did MSU Drop in the Rankings?

Michigan State men's basketball's 13-game win streak came to an end with its loss to USC on Saturday. As expected, they took a drop in the rankings.
Feb 1, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA;  Michigan State Spartans forward Coen Carr (55) dribbles the ball against the USC Trojans during the second half  at Galen Center. Mandatory Credit: William Navarro-Imagn Images
Feb 1, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Michigan State Spartans forward Coen Carr (55) dribbles the ball against the USC Trojans during the second half at Galen Center. Mandatory Credit: William Navarro-Imagn Images / William Navarro-Imagn Images
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Michigan State men's basketball is experiencing some adversity right now, fresh off its first Big Ten loss of the season.

The Spartans were bested by USC on Saturday, a game in which Michigan State was never able to get ahead and even found itself down by 15 at one point.

Michigan State had previously been ranked No 7 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and USA Today Coaches Poll. But after their loss over the weekend, the Spartans fell a bit.

Michigan State dropped by just two spots in the two polls on Monday. And fortunately for the Spartans, they will have a chance to get right back on track with a win against UCLA on Tuesday, a team that is currently riding a five-game win streak.

You can view this week's AP Top 25 HERE.

You can view this week's USA Today Coaches Poll HERE.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo addressed the media after the loss to USC. Below is a transcript from his opening statement:

Izzo: "I had an assistant that said, ‘What starts bad, ends bad.’ And the start was atrocious. Wanted to go inside right off the bat. Turned the ball over twice. We took a couple of bad shots, I think it was 9-3, and I think we only had one shot. And then, we got down 21-27, and give our guys credit, they bounced back, but USC played better than us. I thought the biggest things that happened in the game -- we got punched in the mouth. That doesn't happen to us very often, and I don't know if we responded very well. Then, before half we did a little better job. But when you don't take care of the boards like we did, even though we outrebounded them by 1 -- that's kind of a facade, they had a couple of times when they had three or four rebounds in a row and scored both times, one on the 3 and one on the 3-point play. And then, uncharacteristically, we shot poorly from the free-throw line, which we’re an 83% free-throw shooting team. And what did we end up shooting? 57% or something. Had a couple of those goofy turnovers, and that's usually the difference in the game. But give credit to USC, they played well. And I’ve been waiting to see how we would respond under some adversity, and today, we didn’t respond very well, so we’ll have to fix that quickly since we have another game coming up.”

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Aidan Champion
AIDAN CHAMPION