Basketball Ranked No. 10 in Preseason Poll
East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State's men's basketball team is ranked No. 10 in the country in the Associated Press Preseason poll, released on Monday afternoon.
The Spartans, who finished the 2017-18 season ranked No. 5 in the AP poll, received 1,024 total points.
Kansas, with 37 first-place votes, was ranked No. 1 with 1.581 points. They are followed by Kentucky (19 first-place votes) at No. 2, Gonzaga (one first-place vote) at No. 3, Duke (four first-place votes) at No. 4 and Virginia (two first-place votes) at No. 5.
The top-10 is rounded out by Tennessee (one first-place vote) at No. 6, with Nevada seventh, North Carolina eighth and Villanova ninth.
This is the seventh-straight year the Spartans have opened a season ranked among the preseason top-25 and the 11th time in the last 12 years. Under Head Coach Tom Izzo, Michigan State has been ranked in the preseason 19 times.
The Spartans are one of three Big Ten schools ranked in the Top 25, joined by Michigan (No. 19) and Purdue (No. 24).
MSU plays No. 1 Kansas in the Champions Classic in Indianapolis, Ind. on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
The 2018-19 MSU schedule features five other opponents, or possible opponents, ranked among the AP Preseason top-25 – Tennessee (No. 6), North Carolina (No. 8), Michigan (No. 19), UCLA (No. 21) and Purdue (No. 24).
The Spartans play an exhibition game against Northern Michigan on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at the Breslin Center. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.
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