The initial NET rankings were released on Monday, and Michigan State basketball was surprisingly low.
Michigan State came in at No. 41 in the first batch of rankings released on Monday. That is surprisingly low for a team that is just outside the Associated Press (AP) Top 25 and just inside at No. 25 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.
The NET rankings — which stands for NCAA Evaluation Tool — is used as the contemporary sorting tool to measure a team’s quality and help evaluate team resumes for selection and seeding in the NCAA tournament. This is simply another tool similar to KenPom or other similar power rankings systems.
Michigan State is 6-2 overall and 1-2 in Quad 1 games this year. The Spartans’ rankings is most likely lower than expected due to narrow wins over Bowling Green and Samford — who are not highly-rated teams.
The Spartans will get the opportunity to boost their NET ranking in a pair of conference games this week. Michigan State first heads to Minnesota on Wednesday before hosting Nebraska on Saturday.
Click here to see the complete NET rankings as they stand today.
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