2. Connor Cook vs. 15. Jason Richardson

It’s hard to imagine this region not coming down to the top two seeds. Connor Cook has all of the MSU passing records and all of the MSU winning records. He led the best three-year stretch of football MSU has had since the 1960s and set the standard for QB play at MSU. His teams won the Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, two Big Ten titles and made the College Football Playoff in 2015. He did this despite not even being the starting quarterback until four weeks into his sophomore season when he eventually replaced Andrew Maxwell. We forget now, but Cook was probably the third or fourth pick among fans to start the 2013 season behind Maxwell and Damion Terry. Boy were we all wrong, Mark Dantonio included.

Cook takes on Jason Richardson. It seems absurd that Richardson would be a 15 seed, but this tournament is loaded. J-Rich was a freshman reserve on the 2000 national title team, but was an All-American as a sophomore helping guide that team back to the Final Four. Richardson was too talented to stay at MSU beyond that and the NBA came calling. Richardson had a nice NBA career highlighted by two Slam Dunk Contest titles. Had he stayed longer at MSU he would have shot up this list. Had he played more as a freshman he would have shot up this list. Still, 15 is probably too low.

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