Michigan State's Exhibition Losses: Good or Bad?

Michigan State's quest to reach the Final Four for the first time in nearly 10 years begins Monday, with the regular season tipping off against Quinnipiac. However, the Spartans have already played three exhibition games, with the last two being the most important. Unfortunately, Michigan State dropped both of those games last week, creating some underlying concern among Spartan fans across the nation.

But is it really a bad thing that the Spartans lost their two exhibition games, or could it be playing right into Tom Izzo's hands?

For years, Izzo has put his teams through a gauntlet to open the season, scheduling nonconference opponents that are harder than a math quiz on the final day of your senior year. The Spartans go through this gauntlet to put themselves in a position to succeed when Big Ten play arrives, as well as in the tournaments that follow the regular season.

This has been Izzo's approach for as long as anyone can remember, and it didn't let up this year. The Spartans have one of the hardest nonconference schedules in all of college basketball, and the challenge even started during exhibition play.

Michigan State opened last week's exhibition slate against the UConn Huskies. The Spartans dropped that game and looked outmatched, leaving fans wondering for the second straight year whether this team was good enough. However, UConn is an excellent team ranked inside the top four nationally. Losing to a team of that caliber provides an opportunity to learn about your roster. Izzo has never been afraid to have his teams face early adversity to see what they're made of.

Then came the second game against Marquette, another good team with a storied basketball program. However, Marquette doesn't have the same expectations as Michigan State this season, with the Spartans entering the year ranked No. 6 nationally in the preseason poll.

Michigan State was expected to win, but unfortunately, the Spartans were outmatched again, nearly from beginning to end. Marquette held the lead for 35 of the game's 40 minutes.

The slow starts in both games brought back familiar frustrations for Spartan fans, who watched their team spend much of last season digging itself out of early holes.

So, the question is whether these two exhibition losses should concern fans about this year's team. Was too much hype placed on Izzo and Michigan State, or is this simply a case of exhibition basketball giving the Spartans an opportunity to find themselves, correct their mistakes and use these losses to become the team they're projected to be?

There are certainly flaws in Michigan State's game that showed up early and often during these exhibitions, especially in the frontcourt. The Spartans need to get smarter, stronger and faster up front. Michigan State was outrebounded by Marquette, something Izzo rarely allows to happen.

Shooting also remains a concern for the Spartans, and first-half scoring cannot become as big of an issue as it was last season.

However, there is still plenty of good coming out of Michigan State. Jeremy Fears Jr. appears to have picked up right where he left off, while Jordan Scott looks bigger and stronger. Freshman Jasiah Jervis has also made an impression, leading the team in 3-pointers made in each of the last two exhibition games.

The Spartans will have plenty of opportunities to test themselves with one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the nation. Everything gets underway Monday, and Michigan State will have to show that the lessons learned during exhibition play can translate into success when the games start counting.