Praise starting to come the Spartans way

Here's a quick to hit by Mike Trogan @ MLive to pick up your day: 

Adding to the abrupt 180 by Jason Whitlock that Phil wrote about earlier, a few experts from ESPN heaped praises on the Green and White today.

The following is from Andy Katz's Sweet 16 preview:

ESPN, March 23: Izzo continues to prove that Michigan State is one of the top five programs in the country under his leadership. MSU has a legitimate chance to get to Detroit and play essentially at home, something that hasn't been done since Duke played in the 1994 title game against Arkansas in Charlotte.

Nice to see State referred to as a top five program in the country. It is also interesting to hear MSU finally being recognized as a legit Final Four contender.

Pat Forde went a step further and recognized Michigan State as one of the top ten programs of all time.

ESPN, March 23: Seventy percent of the programs I'd rank in the all-time top 10 are in the Sweet 16. In no particular order, that's North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Louisville, Michigan State, Connecticut and either Syracuse or Arizona. The only ones missing: UCLA, Kentucky and Indiana.

Going into the tournament it was en vogue to trash the Big Ten and Michigan State. Now after winning two games that a two seed should be expected to win, Tom Izzo is a master at coaching in March again.

I think that some of these pundits actually talked themselves into believing that MSU was bound to lose on the first weekend.

Good thing is that most have come to their senses, with the exception of Digger who was already picking Kansas about two minutes after the MSU-USC game ended.