Longtime college basketball analyst and reporter Mike DeCourcy has Michigan State as a national championship contender next season.
Sporting News released their way-too-early top 25 rankings for next season on Monday, and DeCourcy has the Spartans as a top five team as we look ahead to the 2025-26 campaign. DeCourcy listed Michigan State at No. 5 in his early rankings for next year.
DeCourcy has only the following teams ahead of the Spartans in his rankings: Duke (No. 1), Arkansas (No. 2), Houston (No. 3) and Florida (No. 4). From the Big Ten, DeCourcy included the following teams behind Michigan State: Purdue (No. 6), Michigan (No. 11), UCLA (No. 14) and Oregon (No. 22).
Here's a bit of what DeCourcy had to say about the Spartans:
"One of the benefits of such a deep rotation this past season is the Spartans still have a solid core group following a few transfer subtractions. Reserve point guard Tre Holloman would have been a great player to have around another year, but he also might have remained a backup if he’d stuck... The frontcourt is solid, at the very least. This obviously sounds incongruous, but it would help MSU for Tom Izzo to consider adding one serious impact transfer, preferably someone who can operate at a high level on the perimeter."
Michigan State appears destined to return at least four guys with starting and key minutes experience in point guard Jeremy Fears Jr., forward Coen Carr, forward Jaxon Kohler and center Carson Cooper. Jase Richardson continues to be the true game-changer for the Spartans because if he returns, you could argue Michigan State should be even higher on this list. But if he leaves, I'd personally drop the Spartans a bit.
It'll be interesting over the next few days to see where other college basketball analysts have the Spartans in their super early rankings. This may be the high-point for Michigan State, but it also could be the norm. We will see soon.
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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: MSU hoops ranked near top of Sporting News' way-too-early 2025-26 poll
