Tom Izzo believes Michigan State’s NCAA Tournament run as a No. 7 seed helped show that the Big Ten is college basketball’s best league.

MSU was the lone B1G team to make the Sweet 16. The Spartans lost in overtime to No. 3 seed Kansas State Thursday night in New York City, meaning the conference will not be represented in the Elite 8 or Final Four.

The B1G sent 8 teams to the Big Dance. Six of those teams were seeded in the 7-10 range. After Thursday’s MSU-KSU game, Izzo told reporters that the lower-seeded teams helped show the strength of the conference.

“No matter what anybody says, top to bottom, I have no problem standing up and saying we have the best league in the country,” Izzo said of the B1G. “When you have that number of teams beating the hell out of each other every day, I don’t think we’re worn out from it. I just think you get a bad seed from it.

“So we had all these teams with 7, 8, and 9 seeds. I’m not saying that was wrong, but that’s what happens when — I’d like to see some teams come in and survive this league and the places we play. …

“I’m proud of my team, but I’m proud of the league, too. Disappointments is disappointments, but I think as a 7 seed, maybe we showed how good our league was instead of, like some people, the other way around.”

Izzo said he’ll be supporting the B1G by pulling for Wisconsin to continue winning in NIT play.