With one of the best coaches and players in the country, Michigan State basketball looks to finally get over the hurdle and add another championship.
The tradition continues! It’s another year of our countdown of the top 100 preseason teams in college basketball until the start of the season. Each day, we will reveal the next team until we reach the team slotted at number one. Up next: Michigan State basketball.
Tom Izzo and Jeremy Fears Jr. That’s all you need to know. Izzo is as good as it gets, making nearly 30 straight tournaments and being one of the few active coaches with a national championship. Then, there’s Fears, the Second-Team All-American last year and the favorite to be the player of the year in college basketball. Pair them together for one more year, and at worst you’re a second-weekend team.
Then, there’s everyone else. They return a lot from last year, over 60% of their minutes from a team that went 27-8. That includes Coen Carr, the human pogo stick who has shown improvement in other parts of his game each year. Thinking about the highlights we’re going to see from him this season immediately gets you excited.
Jordan Scott and Jesse McCollouch are the next examples of guys who are trusting the Izzo development program and opted to stay instead of hitting the portal as so many athletes do. Along with the returners comes a top 15 recruiting class, led by Jasiah Jervis. Don’t be surprised if he’s starting alongside Fears in the backcourt sooner rather than later.
The most interesting spot in the lineup is that center spot. Carson Cooper and Jaxson Kohler have held down the spot for so many years that it wasn’t even a consideration. Now, they bring in the 7’2 Anton Bonke from Charlotte, hoping he’ll fill in that role for them. If not, look for McCollouch and freshman Ethan Taylor to try to fill that role.
The non-conference is a little underwhelming compared to other teams around their status, but the Big Ten should be as difficult as ever. This team has what it takes to take the crown and be in the mix in April to cut down the nets for the first team since the start of the century.
Head coach: Tom Izzo (32nd season overall, all at Michigan State)
2025-26 record: 27-8 (15-5)
2026 postseason finish: Lost in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament
Notable departures:
- Jaxon Kohler (12.5 PPG, 8.9 RPG, 1.3 APG)
- Carson Cooper (11.1 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 1.5 APG)
Notable non-conference games:
- vs. Duke (Nov 10 – Champions Classic)
- at Tennessee (Nov 17)
- vs. Arkansas (Nov 26)
- vs. Gonzaga (Dec 19)
Projected Rotation
PG: Jeremy Fears Jr. (6-2, 190, Jr.)
2025-2026 stats: 15.2 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 9.4 APG, 1.3 SPG, 43.1 FG%, 88.5 FT%
SG: Kur Teng (6-5, 200, Jr.)
2025-2026 stats: 7.3 PPG, 2.0 RPG, 1.0 APG, 81.0 FT%
SF: Coen Carr (6-6, 230, Sr.)
2025-2026 stats: 12.0 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 1.2 APG, 0.5 SPG, 0.8 BPG, 51.8 FG%
PF: Jordan Scott (6-8, 200, So.)
2025-2025 stats: 5.8 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 1.2 APG, 0.7 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 41.1 FG%, 37.0 3P%, 70.2 FT%
C: Anton Bonke (7-2, 266, Sr.)
2025-2026 stats: 10.6 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 1.0 APG, 1.5 BPG, 57.6 FG%, 65.3 FT% (Charlotte)
6: Jasiah Jervis (6-4, 200, Fr.)
247Sports Composite No. 33 ranked recruit
7: Jesse McCollouch (6-11, 245, So.)
2025-2026 stats: 2.4 PPG, 1.3 RPG, 0.2 APG, 0.5 BPG, 47.9 FG%, 92.9 FT%
8: Cam Ward (6-9, 230, So.)
2025-2026 stats: 5.1 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 0.3 APG, 0.5 BPG, 58.9 FG%
9: Ethan Taylor (7-2, 252, Fr.)
247Sports Composite No. 43 ranked recruit
10: Kaleb Glenn (6-7, 215, Jr.)
2024-2025 stats: 12.6 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 0.6 APG, 53.1 FG%, 41.0 3P%, 62.4 FT% (FAU)
Michigan State basketball team MVP: Jeremy Fears Jr.
The preseason college basketball player of the year earned the title for a good reason. His strongest asset is his playmaking. Fears averaged 9.37 assists per game last year in college basketball, the most in the entire sport. Against Louisville in the Round of 32, he had 16 assists, and had a 17-and-17 game in conference play against Maryland. He’s more than a passer, though, showing he can score 31 against the champions Michigan and 20+ in four straight games to close the regular season.
Fears shot 88.5% from the line on six attempts a game, and improved his field goal percentage from his sophomore year. He’s not a great three-point shooter, but that’s his only offensive weakness, it seems. Defensively, he’s solid as well, averaging over a steal a game and utilizing his speed to turn defense into offense. He’s had a few “Graysen Allen-esque” plays where he may have taken a cheap shot at an opponent, but as long as he’s on the court, Michigan State basketball should be feared (pun intended).
Michigan State basketball make-or-break player: Jordan Scott
Scott was a solid recruit out of high school, being ranked somewhere around the 50-70 mark on most recruitment boards. He had a decent freshman year, averaging about six points a game and three rebounds. He scored in double figures in six straight conference games, but settled down to end the season, averaging just five points in the NCAA Tournament. He started 13 of the 35 games, doing the little things right as he learned from Cooper and Kohler.
As a sophomore, the Michigan State fans are expecting big things from Scott. What they’re really looking for is his three-point shooting. He showed flashes of a good shot, but it wasn’t consistent. If he can space the floor for them, that adds a whole other dimension to an offense that doesn’t feature many shooters. Defensively, he can be a player who does the little things, and with a year of experience, he should be smarter about fouling.
We’ve seen so many good wings come out of this Michigan State basketball program, and Scott could be the next. The program is just hoping it’ll be now, and not in a year or two.
Key statistic: Opponent Rebounding
If you win the rebound battle, you’re probably going to win the game. Michigan State was the best in the entire country in opponent rebounds per game, allowing just 28.3 per game. When you have an offense as efficient as Michigan State’s, limiting second opportunities defensively is so important to achieving success.
Obviously, having Kohler and Cooper on the floor was huge, since they were so good at boxing out and playing with each other. They’ll need Bonke and Scott to do the same, a big ask. Hopefully, with his 7’2 frame, that won’t be a problem, and they still have the high-flying Carr who can grab any rebound in his space. They’ve been top 15 in the category in back-to-back years, and as a result, they’ve won 57 games. Expect this to be a key focus once again in 2026-2027.
Michigan State basketball 2026-27 projections
Projected conference finish: 2nd in the Big Ten Conference
Projected postseason ceiling: NCAA Tournament Final Four