Michigan State Basketball: 2016-17 Game-By-Game Predictions
With the regular season starting on Friday, it’s time to make some predictions about the upcoming Michigan State Spartans’ basketball season.
The Michigan State Spartans will try to improve on last year’s disappointing first-round NCAA Tournament exit this season, as they attempt to replace several outgoing starters, including Player of the Year Denzel Valentine, with a set of promising young freshman in 2016-17.
The Spartans come into the season ranked #12 in the AP Poll and as the season gets underway, all eyes in East Lansing are fixed on freshman Miles Bridges, ranked #8 among this year’s freshman class nationwide by ESPN, who started turning heads right away with a dazzling 33-point performance in Michigan State’s opening exhibition win over Northwood two weeks ago. Head coach Tom Izzo described Bridges as having “no ego.” “He’s just a good kid,” he says, “he’s a tough kid.”
Bridges is just one of four freshmen, along with Josh Langford, Cassius Winston and Nick Ward, who will be expected to contribute in a big way for Michigan State this season.
Langford (ESPN #19) is a 6’6″ guard who is can contribute on both the scorecard and the glass. Winston (ESPN #31) won Michigan’s Mr. Basketball award earlier this year and will likely spend a lot of time running the point.
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Ward (ESPN #39), who Izzo describes as a “poor, poor man’s Zack Randolph.” will need to contribute on the glass right away as the Spartans await the returns of two big men, Gavin Schilling and graduate transfer Ben Carter, from knee injuries. Schilling and Carter both had surgery on their knees and have no expected date of return.
Senior guard Eron Harris, who averaged about 21 minutes and nine points per game in 2015-16, is the only returning starter from last year’s team, which won the Big Ten Tournament and earned a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament before being upset by #15 seed Middle Tennessee State in a 90-81 shocker.
Izzo, recently inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, makes no bones about his team and sees their weaknesses despite their potential. He recognizes that the Spartans “have no big eagles,” as he puts it, and said at the Big Ten Basketball Media Day that “the leadership is going to come from Tum Tum Nairn.”
A junior from the Bahamas, Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn averaged only about three points and three rebounds per game last season, but Izzo thinks he will be an important factor in the team’s success in 2016-17. “I think there’s enough respect for him that he’s going to be our leader and I don’t think there’s any question in anybody’s mind, it’s going to be him.”
Izzo also recognized that “there’ll be times on the court when, you know, he’s not on the court, that it’s going to be a concern of mine and we’re going to have to get someone, maybe it’s an Eron Harris, maybe it’s one of the young guys, somebody’s going to have to step up. I’ve been lucky, they always have.”
“I like my team,” Izzo says, “I don’t love them yet, because I haven’t seen a game. But I like them because they work their tail off, they spend a lot of time in the gym, they handle themselves in the classroom.”
In regards to his team’s schedule, he said, “We’re going to have to survive that early schedule… as we always do, you don’t play for a lot in November, you play for a lot in February and March and that’s kind of what you’ve got to build for.”
So, with the season getting underway on Friday, it’s time to go game by game through the Spartans’ schedule and venture a guess at their success in the upcoming season. Of course, that’s easier said than done coming from the guy who picked Michigan State football to win 11 games this season. Oops.
The Spartans are thrown into the fire right away on Friday, as they take on a top-10 opponent at the Armed Forces Classic in Honolulu.