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ESPN's Jay Bilas: Michigan State can "end the Big Ten's national championship drought"

Originally posted on FanNation Spartan Nation
By Matthew Lounsberry | Last updated 11/6/23

As the 2023-24 men's college basketball season gets set to begin tonight, few national analysts are higher on Michigan State than ESPN's Jay Bilas.

On Monday, the well-respected and renowned college basketball analyst released his Top 68 teams heading into this season, matching the number of teams selected into the NCAA Tournament for March Madness. In his rankings, Bilas placed the Spartans as the preseason No. 3 team in the country, one spot ahead of reigning Big Ten champion Purdue (No. 4).

The only teams Bilas holds in higher regard than Michigan State heading into the year are No. 1 Kansas and No. 2 Duke, though he has the Spartans squarely in the mix of the national championship race. Here's what he had to say about MSU...

No. 3 Michigan State Spartans: Tom Izzo has been quite vocal in his opposition to the transfer portal and has chosen to use it sparingly. As a result, Michigan State has developed like an old-school program that has been constructed around the same guys, losing very few along the way, and getting old together. This will be Izzo's best team in several years, and last season's Spartans squad made the Sweet 16. Michigan State has a veteran crew that has struggled at times and triumphed at times but has been bloodied together and toughened up by adversity in the old-school way. Nobody in the Big Ten has better guards than All-Big Ten performers A.J. Hoggard and Tyson Walker, and Jaden Akins, Malik Hall and Mady Sissoko have played a lot of high-level minutes in the Big Ten. The newcomers are all freshmen, and they are a talented bunch, led by big man Xavier Booker, point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. and one of the most spectacular athletes in the country in lefty Coen Carr. Carr is the best dunker in East Lansing since Jason Richardson, and he is a fabulous offensive rebounder, and there is no more valued skill by Izzo than rebounding. If Michigan State takes care of the ball, which improved last season, the Spartans can add to Izzo's eight Final Fours and help end the Big Ten's national championship drought. The Spartans are the last Big Ten team to win one, in 2000.

Bilas makes an excellent point on Izzo's lack of use of the transfer portal. While Michigan State does have a transfer on the roster, and an important one in that, Tyson Walker, this is the graduate senior's third year with the program. Bilas listed Walker on his second team All-American list.

Few, if any, teams in the country have played as much basketball together as Michigan State's roster, and that chemistry should serve the Spartans well as they pursue the sport's ultimate prize in 2023-24. Michigan State's season tips off tonight against James Madison (8:30 p.m./BTN) at the Breslin Center.