So, for the first email of the year, I present Mark, from Los Angeles, California:

"Brown plays a Princetonesque slow-down game that sucks the air out of the ball. I think you'll be seeing a lot of low scores against them. And you're absolutely right, you should be questioned for making a prediction after one game -- especially the first game. Should everybody be picking Michigan State to win the NC since in their second game they had 6 players score in double figures and wiped the court with a team who plays the kind of game 95% of the teams play, which is more indicative of how the season will go?

Btw, next time one team holds another team to a total of 35 points, don't try to spin it as a positive for the dominated team. It makes you sound like you have no idea what you're talking about."

Well, thanks Mark.

But honestly, I still think Michigan State is in trouble this year no matter what style of game they are facing. While they may be 3-0 to start the season, the record can be deceiving. But before I get ahead of myself, let me go back to Brown. In the second game of the regional, when they played Central Michigan, a team Youngstown State beat 74-50, they lost. And Central Michigan didn't score 45 points like the Spartans against that slow down game, they scored 71.

Plus, I think my point was that a team like Michigan State shouldn't be unprepared for a team like Brown, even if they play a different style. Tom Izzo had almost a month to prepare the team for the game. And he knows the type of game that Brown plays. This team is not ready for this season, no matter how much they dominated Youngstown State in their second game or The Citadel in their third.

And they should have dominated those teams. Last season, both teams went 6-21. No matter how great their recruiting, or how much improved their players may be over last season, they should not be able to compete with a team like the Spartans with better visibility and better ability to attract great players. These are teams picked to finish last in their conferences by everyone. If Michigan State didn't win like they did against Youngstown and The Citadel, then maybe the problems were deeper than I thought.

But maybe it is the messenger that is the problem here. Let me give you a man who knows this team even better than I do - the Head Coach, Tom Izzo.

During Izzo's press conference on Monday, his first statement was:

"We're a work in progress."

A work in progress which has struggled with a young lineup no matter how great their talent is. They are being out hustled on the floor by Izzo's own admission, which is unacceptable for a program of the caliber of Michigan State. They are turning the ball over way too much, even more than their opponents, opponents which we have already seen are not very good.

Coming back to the Youngstown State game, Michigan State did dominate, but part of that domination was the extra time to prepare. Again, Tom Izzo:

"We made Youngstown a big deal - the prep, the extra time, the walk through at seven in the morning - and I thought they responded very well."

It is not a good sign when you need extra preparation to get up to play a team like Youngstown State. The Penguins are not that great. Heck, I didn't even think they would get past Central Michigan like they did. It usually takes a few weeks for Youngstown to get their first win. They played The Citadel on Sunday, and won big again, despite the short time to prepare. But again Izzo was not pleased:

"If we play like this in New York, you guys will have a lot of time to hit the nightlife, because you won't have to write much. We have to improve drastically in the next couple of days."

Izzo now has 4 days to prepare to play one of the top young lineups in the game, in Texas. Texas's players are not making the mistakes that Michigan State is. Texas's team is more talented, despite being younger. Texas could honestly wipe the floor with Michigan State in New York on Thursday. And the schedule doesn't get easier from their with Maryland or St. John's the next day, Vermont after that, and a Boston College team, expected to be good, and that Vermont beat, two games later.

I am not saying that Michigan State won't be decent this year. I think they will improve over the season enough to maybe get into the 15 to 18 win range, but the Big Ten will again be a tough season. 15 to 18 wins is a step down from last season, and part of that is the losses from last season. I am not saying anything that we didn't already know about this team. Or that their coach didn't know about this team.

"We're a better basketball team than we were two weeks ago. The problem is we've got to get to be a lot better basketball team."

Ben Miraski writes for MRISports.com and is a featured blogger on FanIQ. Readers can contact Ben at bmiraski@mrisports.com