nERD: 18.32

Historical Comp: 2007 Ohio State Buckeyes, 35-4, 1 seed, lost in National Championship

Michigan State's ranks between 5th and 10th in both offense and defense, which helps to compare them to the Ohio State team that lost in the National Championship with first-round picks such as Greg Oden, Mike Conley, and Daequan Cook. These two teams were impressively effective shooting and defending at each end of the court, allowing them to rank highly in both shooting percentage and shooting percentage defense, two categories Michigan State currently leads the country in.

Also very similar to the 2006-07 Buckeyes is Michigan State's reliance on youth. Coach Tom Izzo currently starts four sophomores and a freshman. Those sophomores were four of the top-five leading scorers on a team last year that endured some growing pains and were ultimately bounced in the second round of the tournament as a 9 seed. The development of Miles Bridges and Nick Ward has been evident.

The Spartans will certainly be a national title contender and will likely be able to avoid many more blemishes on their resume given the lack of power inside the Big Ten this year.