Michigan State Men's Basketball in Very Select Company

Michigan State men's basketball is one of just 10 teams to have finished inside the KenPom Top 100 every year since 1997.

Michigan State Spartans Head Coach Tom Izzo celebrates after cutting down the last loop of the net at the end of MSU's 69-62 win over Temple U. in the NCAA South Regional at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on March 25, 2001, advancing the team to the Final Four in Minneapolis. Izzos Net / David P. Gilkey, Detroit Free Press

Coach Tom Izzo has established quite the legacy for Michigan State men's basketball in his many years at the helm.

No matter where the Spartans finish in the standings or the NCAA Tournament, year after year, the storied program is regarded as one of the most decorated in all of college basketball.

College Basketball Report published a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday a list of the only 10 teams in men's college basketball to finished in the KenPom Top 100 every year since 1997. Michigan State was one of them.

The only programs that have never finished outside the KenPom top 100 since 1997:

Duke
Kentucky
Kansas
Michigan State
Arizona
Villanova
Wisconsin
Alabama
Xavier
Oklahoma State

— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) May 31, 2024

That's been nearly Izzo's entire career as head coach of the Spartans. The Hall-of-Fame coach led Michigan State to the Final Four in 1999, its first appearance in the semifinal since winning it all in 1979. Despite falling short, the Spartans returned the following year to claim the 2000 national title.

Michigan State nearly repeated the following year before falling to Arizona in the 2001 Final Four.

That three-year run is tied for the third-best in men's college basketball history in terms of consecutive Final Four trips. It is the most recent three-year Final Four run, with the next closest being Kentucky's run from 1996 to 1998.

Izzo, of course, didn't stop there, as he led the Spartans back to the Final Four just four years later when Michigan State fell to the eventual national champion, North Carolina, in 2005.

Michigan State then made a run all the way to the title game four years later, where it was once again bested by the Tar Heels. That was the last time the Spartans have been to the national championship game.

Since then, Michigan State has appeared in the Final Four twice more -- once as a No. 7 seed in 2015 and most recently in 2019 when it knocked off a Zion Williamson-led Duke team in the Elite Eight.

Izzo and the Spartans have appeared in 26 straight NCAA Tournaments.

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