With the college basketball season tipping off next Friday, this is your Michigan State basketball “starting five,” the five biggest things you need to know/the five most pressing questions.
As it’s the preseason, there are no “knowns.” There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know. Sorry for getting Donald Rumsfeldian on you, here’s your Michigan State basketball starting five.
Why are the preseason expectations for Michigan State basketball all over the map?
I’ve seen some experts pick State to finish second in the Big Ten. Others say ninth; and everywhere else in between. Basically, Wisconsin is the cream of the crop and you can put a several teams second. The top seven or eight in the league are could be determined by…let’s just put it this way, everyone in the league other than the bottom three or four will be very competitive this season. The Big Ten won’t be the best league in the nation from a standpoint of they have the most great teams.
They will be the league in the country though from the standpoint of their bottom feeders will be the strongest, and that makes the overall product very good. So the Spartans have their work cut out for them.
Could this be more of the kind of team that Tom Izzo traditionally enjoys?
No team, with the exception of maybe Michigan, lost more talent in the Big Ten than MSU. And like their bitter rivals, they also bring a ton of talent back. However, this Michigan State basketball team has less talent than your typical Tom Izzo side. So why is that good?Why is that something Izzo would appreciate? Because they’ll have to be tough, play a lot of defense and rebound. They have to out-work other Spartan teams in order to stay up at that level.
Remember a couple years ago when Izzo referred to his squad in a pejorative light with the infamous phrase “pretty boy jumping shooting team.” This unit will have to adopt a mindset that is polar opposite if they’re going to be in the conference race.
What will become of the proud Michigan State basketball tradition of the superior point guard position this year?
State fans really shouldn’t miss Keith Appling. It seemed like he was in East Lansing forever, and never lived up to the hype. Overall his career was lot closer to being Marcus Taylor, or post Achilles injury Kalin Lucas than it was Mateen Cleaves or Magic Johnson. Or even Eric Snow, Steve Smith or Scott Skiles for that matter. Maybe this isn’t fair, as Appling wasn’t a true point to begin with. The one is a position that Michigan State basketball fans need not worry about- Travis Trice will be just fine.
Are comedians Key & Peele upset that LouRawls Nairn is an example of life trumping art?
Like Key and Peele said in a stand-up after their legendary and world famous “East/West College Bowl” sketch….D’Brickashaw Ferguson and Silverberry Mouton one upped their stellar comic bit. Likewise for Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and LouRawls Nairn. Who’s been a great distributor in the two exhibitions, but has scored just two points in 38 minutes.
How far will this Michigan State basketball team go, and who will largely determine that?
Probably a sweet 16 maybe. It mostly rests on Branden Dawson and Denzel Valentine
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2