Michigan State basketball is deeper and better than last season’s Final Four team

The Wooden Legacy title game between Michigan State and Providence was built as a meeting of the two best players in college basketball. On one side was PC’s Kris Dunn, the do-it-all point guard who bypassed the NBA for games like this. On the other was Denzel Valentine, the MSU senior who entered nearly averaging a triple-double. If you watched the way both decimated the earlier rounds of the tournament, the pregame hype didn’t register as hyperbole.

But as the Spartans made a second-half surge on Sunday night to take control and eventually secure a 77-64 win, it became apparent that Tom Izzo’s group is far more than a one-man show.

This Michigan State team is stacked with depth. It has shooting on the perimeter, playmaking in the backcourt and a long and bouncy freshman who’s just starting to develop into an interior presence. Throw in an all-around star in Valentine and it’s becoming clear that these Spartans are even better than the team Izzo led to his seventh Final Four last season.

If the rest of college basketball isn’t scared yet, it should be.

Credit a Providence team no one put in their preseason top 25 for being able to stick with Michigan State as long as it did. The Friars were leading by three with eight minutes left when Dunn was briefly forced to the bench after picking up his fourth foul. That’s when Michigan State started to make its move, using a small ball lineup to go on a 15-3 run that cemented the win.

For the Spartans, depth means flexibility. Izzo has a number of effective lineup combinations at his disposal, and the one that owned crunch time on Sunday featured Valentine at the four with three shooters and freshman big Deyonta Davis inside. That Izzo had three reserves close out the game shows how deep this team is.

Valentine’s ability to orchestrate the offense and contribute on the glass allows everything else to fall into place. Izzo placed reserve guards Matt McQuaid and Eron Harris next to Bryn Forbes on the perimeter and inserted Davis for starting center Matt Costello. Everything ran through Valentine, and he rarely made the wrong decision. With three snipers dotting the perimeter and Davis at the rim, MSU blitzed Providence right out of the game.

Harris came to MSU from West Virginia, where he averaged 17.2 points per game as a sophomore. He’s only 4-for-14 from three this year (he shot 42 percent from deep at WVU), but he’s already been so effective probing the opposing defense and taking the ball to the rim. When he’s on the floor with Forbes (who was great against Providence, finishing with 18 points), the Spartans have two 6’3 guards who can create their own offense off the dribble or be major spot-up threats from three.

The development of Davis is even more promising. Izzo’s first McDonald’s All-American since Gary Harris, Davis is instantly filling MSU’s biggest need from last year: an athletic big man capable of holding together the defense and finishing in the paint. He gives the team a dimension it doesn’t have with Costello on the floor. After scoring 12 against Providence, Davis has now hit double-figures in scoring his last four games.

When you consider that Michigan State doesn’t even have injured big man Gavin Schilling, it’s obvious that Izzo is working with an embarrassment of riches this season. And it’s all happening a year before what’s considered the best recruiting class of Izzo’s career arrives on campus.

MSU began the season at No. 13 in the polls but has shot to No. 3 after its big win over Kansas. Everyone saw what Izzo did with a decidedly less talented group last season, taking a No. 7 seed to the Final Four. This season, that type of NCAA Tournament run will be the expectation and not a pleasant surprise.

Few realized it at the onset of the year, but college basketball has another elite team. If you think the Spartans are intimidating now, just wait until Izzo gets them to peak in March, as he always does.

It’s been a nightmare start to the season for Wichita State. After beginning the year as a top 10 team in the preseason polls, the Shockers are now 2-4 after getting blown out by Iowa 84-61 on Sunday.The biggest reason for Wichita’s struggles? Star point guard Fred VanVleet is out with a hamstring injury.

VanFleet first injured his hamstring in an October scrimmage. He only made it through three minutes of the Shockers’ opener against Charleston Southern before suffering an ankle injury. He returned to play 30 minutes in Wichita State’s next game, a loss to Tulsa, but re-injured his hamstring and hasn’t played since.

Making matters worse, Wichita State is also missing its top interior player after Anton Grady left a loss to Alabama on a stretcher. Grady has fortunately left the hospital, but his return doesn’t sound imminent:

There’s hope VanVleet can return for Wichita’s next game on Dec. 5 vs. St. Louis. Coach Gregg Marshall better hope so. The rest of the Shockers’ non-conference schedule isn’t getting any easier:

Monmouth’s bench celebrations are getting a tide wave of attention at the moment, and rightfully so. The creativity, the execution, the seemingly endless list of ideas .... this is the new gold standard for bench celebrations. Sorry DePaul:

It also might be overshadowing the fact that no mid-major in the country is hotter to start the season. The Hawks are building momentum after finishing with a winning record last season for the first time since 2006, already taking out UCLA and Notre Dame before upsetting USC 83-73 on Sunday.

5’8 junior guard Justin Robinson has been the catalyst. He scored a combined 77 points this weekend in games against ND, Dayton and USC. Freshman guard Micah Seaborn has also been immediately effective as a shooter. He poured in 20 points with four threes against the Trojans.

You might know Monmouth for its bench celebrations now, but they could be on the radar out of the MAAC come March for entirely more substantial reasons.

You already know we love UC-Irvine center Mamadou Ndiaye. We need a ruling: does he jump on this dunk? And no, please don’t yell at us that it’s a charge.