The ESPN basketball commentators have now weighed in with their post-NBA-decision top 25s:
- Andy Katz has MSU all the way up at #2, behind just Kansas.
- Pat Forde is almost as high on the Spartans--placing them #3 behind both Kansas and Villanova.
My two cents: From a strict addition/subtraction standpoint, you can probably justify the #2 ranking (or #3, considering how much talent Kentucky has). My gut says expectations should be a little lower than that, though: in the 5-8 range, say.
While we didn't lose anyone to the NBA draft, losing two battle-tested seniors like Travis Walton and Goran Suton arguably hurts more than losing a couple underclassmen would. And Tom Izzo teams rely more heavily on depth/cohesiveness than other top college teams do. Most of the parts seem to be there to play Tom Izzo's brand of basketball next year, but it remains to be seen how they all fit together, particularly in the front court.
Where do all of you see the Spartan cagers relative to the other national powers going into next basketball season?