Michigan State snubbed in ESPN's Way-Too-Early Top 25 college basketball rankings for 2022-23
Kansas had barely finished cutting down the nets after winning the national championship before ESPN released its Way-Too-Early Top 25 college basketball rankings for the 2022-23 season.
As the name suggests, these are very early projections of where teams will stand heading into next season, as several players are still making decisions about their playing futures.
Unfortunately, Michigan State was not included in ESPN's early Top 25, but was listed among the "Next In Line" at No. 30 overall.
Obviously, rankings such as these don't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but it is eyebrow raising that the Spartans could be left out of preseason rankings for the second consecutive season. In the previous 27 years of Tom Izzo's coaching tenure, Michigan State has been unranked in the preseason only five times.
ESPN has four Big Ten team currently ranked in their Too-Early Top 25, starting with No. 11 Michigan. The next highest conference team was No. 17 Illinois, though the article made it clear the Fighting Illini holding that ranking was entirely dependent on if Kofi Cockburn elects to return to Champaign.
No. 21 Indiana and No. 23 Purdue were the other two Big Ten representative in the rankings, while Ohio State joined MSU in the "Next In Line". The Buckeyes hold the No. 27 spot.
There are several unknowns still to be sorted out for Michigan State's 2022-23 roster, but this is what we expect:
I'm going to assume that freshman Max Christie will withdraw his name from the 2022 NBA Draft pool once he receives his evaluation, and I expect him to be in a Spartan uniform for his sophomore season.
For now, I'm also going to assume that Joey Hauser does not return with his extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm also going to assume that senior walk-ons Michael Peterson and Jason Whitens do not return.
With that established, here is Michigan State's current projected 2022-23 depth chart heading into the offseason:
Point Guards
- A.J. Hoggard (Jr.) - projected starter
- Tyson Walker (Sr.) - 6th man/potential starter
- Tre Holloman (Fr.) - key reserve
- Steven Izzo (Sr.) - walk-on
Shooting Guards
- Max Christie (So.) - projected starter
- Jaden Akins (So.) - key reserve/potential starter
Small Forwards
- Pierre Brooks (So.) - role player
- Keon Coleman (So.) - walk-on
- Maliq Carr (R-So.) - walk-on
Power Forwards
- Malik Hall (Sr.) - projected starter
- Jaxon Kohler (Fr.) - key reserve/role player
Centers
- Julius Marble (Sr.) - projected starter
- Mady Sissoko (Jr.) - key reserve
Obviously, there will be names added to this depth chart between now and the start of the regular season. Michigan State has 10 scholarship players listed above, with three scholarships still available.
Izzo has already been active in the transfer portal, and the Spartans have a decent shot to land West Virginia small forward Jalen Bridges, who is expected to visit East Lansing soon. As you can see above, small forward is a position of need for MSU.
The center position is another one that Izzo and his staff will look to address in the portal. Marble played some good minutes as a reserve center this season, and even started a few games, but his best role appears to be that first big off the bench for the Spartans.
Michigan State's guard rotation will be interesting to watch in 2022-23. In an ideal situation, I would start Hoggard and have Walker come in off the bench. Hoggard is the better distributor of the basketball of the two, and this would allow Walker to focus more on being a bench scorer for MSU. Incoming freshman Tre Holloman is an intriguing prospect, and is likely too see the floor quite a bit, despite the logjam at his position.
Christie, meanwhile, is an obvious starter, though it's unclear as of now if that would be at shooting guard or small forward. Again, that depends on what help Izzo and his staff brings in from the portal. Fellow sophomore Jaden Akins showed some good things this past season, and I expect his game to take a leap this offseason. It's not beyond the realm of possibility to see Akins start at shooting guard and Christie slide down to start at small forward.
In the frontcourt, Hall is a shoe-in to start at power forward in my opinion. He looked like an All-Big Ten player in several games for MSU this season, but we need to see more consistency out of him. Could Hall slide up and start at small forward to make room in the starting lineup for incoming freshman Jaxon Kohler? That depends on how quickly Kohler adjusts to the college game, and what Michigan State adds to the roster at forward this offseason.
We'll be keeping a close eye on how the Spartans' roster changes and evolves as we get deeper into the offseason.
