{"id":2309,"date":"2023-04-04T19:06:22","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T23:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/?p=2309"},"modified":"2023-04-04T19:15:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T23:15:41","slug":"where-michigan-state-basketball-ranked-way-too-early-projections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/?p=2309","title":{"rendered":"Where Michigan State basketball is ranked in way-too-early projections"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Where does Michigan State basketball stand in everyone&#8217;s way-too-early rankings for the 2023-24 season?<\/h2>\n<p>The college hoops season is officially in the books and a national champion has been crowned. Michigan State basketball finished the year with a Sweet 16 berth and subsequent overtime loss to Kansas State.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t the ideal finish to the season, but not many thought that the Spartans would make it that far.<\/p>\n<p>But the future in East Lansing is bright. Not only are most of the starters from this Sweet 16 team returning in 2023-24, but Tom Izzo is bringing in the nation&#8217;s No. 3 recruiting class.<\/p>\n<p>The expectations for the 2023-24 team are at an all-time high but after finishing the season on the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, where does everyone have Michigan State ranked to start the year? Yes, it&#8217;s far too premature to even predict that but the top sites have released their way-too-early rankings for next season.<\/p>\n<p>Where are the Spartans projected by each site?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/4374061\/2023\/04\/04\/ncaa-mens-basketball-top-25-2023-2024\/\">The Athletic<\/a> ranked Michigan State <strong>No. 6<\/strong> in their way-too-early rankings behind only Marquette, Purdue, Creighton, Miami, and FAU. And this projection was based on Malik Hall and Tyson Walker both leaving.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/story\/_\/id\/36058691\/uconn-huskies-no-1-2023-24-way-too-early-top-25-men-college-basketball-rankings\">ESPN<\/a> also ranks MSU <strong>No. 6<\/strong> in the early Top 25 rankings behind UConn, Marquette, Duke, Kentucky, and FAU. This one also has the Spartans losing Walker and Hall with Jeremy Fears as a projected starter.<\/li>\n<li>Slightly lower on the Spartans is <a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/LongFormArticle\/College-basketballs-Way-Too-Early-Top-25-for-2024-207767366\/\">247Sports<\/a> which said that the ranking of <strong>No. 12<\/strong> is based on the fact that there&#8217;s no decision from Walker or Hall yet.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/stories\/college-basketball\/college-basketball-power-rankings-all-too-early-top-25-for-2023-24\">FOX Sports<\/a> has Michigan State as the <strong>No. 8<\/strong> team in the nation. The Spartans are the Big Ten&#8217;s second-best team behind Purdue in this edition.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/2023\/04\/04\/mens-college-basketball-2023-2024-way-to-early-top-25-rankings\">Sports Illustrated<\/a> projected Michigan State as a top-10 team as well, coming in at <strong>No. 10<\/strong>. They said that this will be MSU&#8217;s best team since Cassius Winston.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/ncaa-basketball\/news\/college-basketball-rankings-uconn-ucla-way-too-early-top-25\/pzbporqftx38isgvw0j3eq0q\">Sporting News<\/a> has the Spartans just outside the top 10 at <strong>No. 11<\/strong> overall. Not a terrible ranking, but definitely one of the lower ones.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/heatcheckcbb.com\/college-basketball-way-too-early-top-25-rankings-for-2023-24-season\/\">Heat Check<\/a> also has Michigan State at <strong>No. 10<\/strong> with the assumption that all the seniors are gone and Izzo doesn&#8217;t add anyone from the portal.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/watchstadium.com\/jeff-goodmans-preseason-top-25-for-2023-24-04-03-2023\/\">Jeff Goodman<\/a> has the Spartans listed at No. 3 and is the highest on Michigan State heading into next season.<\/li>\n<li>Last but not least, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ncaab\/2023\/04\/04\/college-basketball-early-top-25-connecticut-duke-lead\/11589978002\/\">USA Today<\/a> has Izzo and Co. at <strong>No. 7<\/strong> in the way-too-early rankings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Where do you think Michigan State basketball should be ranked to start the 2023-24 season?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MSU is getting a lot of love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[59,190,189],"class_list":["post-2309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","tag-featured","tag-michigan-state-basketball","tag-michigan-state-spartans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}