Michigan State Basketball Ranked #12 In Preseason AP Poll
Michigan State men’s basketball is ranked #12 in Monday’s AP men’s preseason basketball poll, four days after their 93-69 exhibition win over Northwood.
The Associated Press announced its preseason Top 25 for men’s basketball on Monday,ranking the Michigan State Spartans at #12. The Spartans were ranked #9 in the USA Today Coaches Poll released earlier this month.
Duke leads the poll after garnering 58 of the 65 available number-one votes. They are followed by Kentucky, Kansas, returning-champion Villanova and Oregon in the top five.
The Spartans are one of five Big Ten teams ranked in the poll, led by Wisconsin at #9. The other Big Ten teams ranked include Indiana (#11), Purdue (#15) and Maryland (#25). Ohio State and Michigan both also received votes, picking up 18 and eight respectively.
Michigan State finished 2015-16 ranked #2 in the AP Poll and earned a two-seed in the NCAA Tournament before their stunning first-round 90-81 loss to Middle Tennessee State in the first round.
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Bridges shines in debut as Spartans beat Northwood in exhibition
The Spartans played their first exhibition game on Thursday, defeating Division II Northwood 93-69, led by five-star freshman Miles Bridges, who led the team with 33 points—including making all five of his three-point attempts—eight rebounds and four blocks.
Bridges was the only member of Michigan State’s highly-touted freshman class among Michigan State’s starters, although several others saw a large amount of playing time and made their presence known on the stat sheet. Nick Ward scored 19 points and had seven rebounds. Another freshman, Cassius Winston, led the Spartans with nine assists.
Despite all of that, head coach Tom Izzo still had some criticism for his team afterward, saying he “was just disappointed in the first half… we didn’t do the effort-related things, we’ve got to defend, we’ve got to rebound.” He did say, however, that Bridges “played decent, but he did it all within the framework of what he was doing. Very smooth and very comfortable… I think he fit into what we said we were going to do with him and he handled that very, very well.”
Freshman Joshua Langford missed the game with a hamstring injury but is expected to return this week. Senior Gavin Schilling and graduate transfer Ben Carter both remain out with knee injuries suffered earlier this month, with no timetable for their returns.
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Michigan State will play their second of two exhibition games on Wednesday, when they host Division II Saginaw Valley State at the Breslin Center at 7:00. The Spartans will open their regular season on November 11 in Honolulu against #10 Arizona in the Armed Forces Classic.