EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State opens its men’s basketball season Monday night at the Breslin Center, where the sixth-ranked Spartans host Quinnipiac in the first meeting ever between the programs. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
Tom Izzo starts his 32nd season as head coach and has called this roster possibly the deepest he has had. Expectations are high: the Final Four comes to Detroit in April, and a run there would be the ninth of his career.
The centerpiece is senior point guard Jeremy Fears Jr., who weighed the NBA draft last summer before coming back. He led the country with 9.4 assists per game last season and paced the team at 15.2 points, and the Big Ten made him its preseason player of the year in October. Senior forward Coen Carr, who started all 35 games and averaged 12.0 points, is also back.
The biggest hole is in the frontcourt. Carson Cooper is now with the Memphis Grizzlies and Jaxon Kohler moved on to BYU, taking a combined 23.6 points and 16 rebounds a game with them. Anton Bonke, a 7-foot-2 center who put up 10.6 points and 8.3 rebounds at Charlotte, arrives to help fill that gap.
The preseason was mixed. Michigan State beat Incarnate Word 89-59 in its Izzone Campout game, then lost exhibitions to UConn at home and at Marquette. Freshman guard Jasiah Jervis averaged 13.3 points across the three games and hit 8 of 15 from 3-point range.
Quinnipiac, coached by Tom Pecora, went 19-13 last season and was picked to win the Metro Conference. The Bobcats like to run and led their league in scoring at 75.3 points per game in conference play.
The schedule gets much harder quickly. A Nov. 10 date with second-ranked Duke in Chicago comes first, followed by a trip to eighth-ranked Tennessee on Nov. 17 and a Thanksgiving game against 12th-ranked Arkansas in Detroit. Both rivalry games with 16th-ranked Michigan fall in February, on the 13th and the 26th.
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