The Spartans are coming off a surprising season, winning the conference by three games and reaching the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight. They will shoot to do it again under Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo in his 31st season. Michigan State is the fifth-highest ranked Big Ten team in the AP Top 25, modest expectations for a team that lost several players from last year.
Coen Carr is one of the best athletes in basketball. Point guard Jeremy Fears Jr., a redshirt sophomore, and senior big men Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper have a lot of experience. Sophomore guard Kur Teng is a pivotal player because of his 3-point shooting.
Guards Trey Fort (Samford), Divine Ugochukwu (Miami) and Denham Wojcik (Harvard) were added from the portal. The 6-foot-4 Fort averaged 14.6 points last season as a second-team All-Southern Conference player. Highly touted freshmen Jordan Scott and Cam Ward are expected to be in the rotation. A lot was last from last year’s team, including Jase Richardson, who entered the draft. Three players transferred (Tre Holloman, Xavier Booker and Gehrig Normand) and three key players (Jaden Akins, Szymon Zapala and Frankie Fidler) were out of eligibility. Transfer Kaleb Glenn, who played at Florida Atlantic last season, had a season-ending knee injury.
The Spartans open against Colgate at home Monday. Home games also include No. 14 Arkansas (Nov. 8), No. 6 Duke (Dec. 6), No. 7 Michigan (Jan. 30), No. 17 Illinois (Feb. 7) and No. 12 UCLA (Feb. 17). They play on the road against No. 24 Wisconsin (Feb. 13), No. 1 Purdue (Feb. 26) and the rival Wolverines (March 8) to close the regular season. No. 9 Kentucky (Nov. 18) in New York and No. 25 North Carolina (Nov. 27) in Fort Myers, Florida, are neutral-site games.
Michigan State was picked to finish sixth in the Big Ten last year and went on to win the conference for an 11th time under Izzo, whose team reached the Elite Eight for the 11th time. ... The Spartans have played in 27 straight NCAA Tournaments, tied with North Carolina (1975-2001) for the second longest behind Kansas' active run of 35 in a row.
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
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