College basketball fans are free to debate the merit of preseason rankings, especially those arranged several months before the season. Tom Izzo always at least on eye on them, though, as he’s apt to comment on the Spartans’ placement – or lack thereof – particularly early in the season.
Izzo likely won’t have much to complain about when the official AP poll drops later this year. All indications are his Michigan State squad will enter the season on the short list of true contenders to win it all. And with the Final Four returning to Detroit, with MSU as the administrative host school, it’s a good year to have a good-looking squad.
CBS Sports, in its latest edition of its Top 25 And 1 rankings, slotted MSU at No. 6, just ahead of Arizona and one place behind Texas. Florida is CBS Sports’ preseason No. 1 team, followed in order by Duke, Illinois, Connecticut and the Longhorns.
On the Spartans, CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish wrote: “This ranking is based on the Spartans returning five of the top eight scorers — specifically Jeremy Fears Jr., Coen Carr, Kur Teng, Jordan Scott and Cam Ward — from a team that finished 27-8 and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. That core will be joined by a recruiting class highlighted by Charlotte transfer Anton Bonke and four-star prospects Ethan Taylor, Carlos Medlock Jr., Julius Avent and Jasiah Jervis.”
Elsewhere in the top 25 are Big Ten foes Michigan (No. 8), UCLA (No. 17), USC (No. 20), Purdue (No. 21), Indiana (No. 23) and Ohio State (No. 25). MSU is set to face several ranked teams in the non-conference season, too, in No. 2 Duke, No. 10 Arkansas, No. 14 Gonzaga and No. 15 Tennessee (plus No. 4 UConn in an exhibition game).
Click here for CBS Sports’ complete Top 25 And 1 preseason rankings.
After a slight post-pandemic dip, relative to program standards under Izzo, the Spartans returned to the upper rungs of the sport the past two seasons with a Big Ten championship and consecutive appearances in the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Last year, MSU finished 27-8 overall and reached the Sweet 16 as a 3-seed before falling to 2-seed UConn.
The Spartans have to replace their starting frontcourt from that team, as forward Jaxon Kohler and center Carson Cooper both moved on via graduation. Reserve guards Trey Fort and Denham Wojcik also graduated out of the program, while versatile guard Divine Ugochukwu transferred to LSU.
In the arrivals line, center Anton Bonke came aboard via the transfer portal, a 7-foot-2 center picking the Spartans after playing last season at Charlotte. MSU also brought in a touted four-player freshman class made up of shooting guard Jasiah Jervis, center Ethan Taylor, point guard Carlos Medlock Jr. and forward Julius Avent. All four were four-star prospects ranked among the nation’s top 100 players coming out of high school.
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