Michigan State's NCAA Push: Get Your Closer Look at Top Three Options!

Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that the NCAA Tournament tips off this week. It's never a great feeling to go from getting bounced in the first game of the conference tournament before the NCAA Tournament, which is what Michigan State basketball will look to do this week, but at least you know they'll be well-rested. Below, we outlined three burning questions for the Spartans going into another March Madness for Tom Izzo.

1. Can the Spartans return to form on defense? After being one of the most elite defenses in college basketball all season, MSU has had three straight games giving up 80-plus points, losing two out of those three games, and nearly coughing up a loss to Rutgers on senior night.

The defense has disappeared at the wrong time. MSU will need to figure that out this week, or they'll be heading home early in the tournament. 2.

How will the shooting guard rotation shake out? I wrote about it on Sunday , but it's kind of crazy to think how important Divine Ugochukwu's injury has been for the Spartans, considering what his role was originally expected to be going into the season. Since Divine went down, MSU has experimented with different rotations to plug that position, with Jordan Scott and Kur Teng getting the bulk of those minutes over senior transfer Trey Fort.