Michigan State basketball is not the favorites to win the Big Ten this season, not even to finish in the top three of the league, according to media members that cover the conference.
The annual Big Ten preseason media poll — which is jointly tabulated by The Columbus Dispatch and The Athletic — came out on Tuesday and listed the Spartans at No. 4 in the league, coming in behind Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. Despite winning at least a share of the regular-season title the past three years, MSU didn’t receive a single first-place vote in this year’s media poll.
Here is a breakdown of the voting from the 28 beat writes (two from each school) with first-place votes in parentheses:
- Illinois – 376 (16)
- Iowa – 350 (6)
- Wisconsin – 347 (6)
- Michigan State – 323
- Rutgers – 249
- Michigan – 241
- Ohio State – 229
- Indiana – 212
- Purdue – 179
- Maryland – 141
- Minnesota – 121
- Penn State – 72
- Nebraska – 54
- Northwestern – 47
All offseason the hype train has been pumping for Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin so I’m not surprised to see those three teams ahead of the Spartans. But what did surprise me was to see junior small forward Aaron Henry left off the All-Big Ten team. Henry earned 7 votes and was just left off the list behind Franz Wagner of Michigan, Nate Reuvers of Wisconsin, and Kofi Cockburn of Illinois.
Here are the All-Big Ten team selections with the number of votes in parentheses:
- Luka Garza – Iowa (28)
- Ayo Dosunmu – Illinois (28)
- Trayce Jackson-Davis – Indiana (24)
- Kofi Cockburn – Illinois (11)
- Nate Reuvers – Wisconsin (11)
- Franz Wagner – Michigan (11)
Joey Hauser (2 votes), Joshua Langford (1 vote) and Rocket Watts (1 vote) were the other Spartans who received votes in this poll.
Click here to see more on this year’s Big Ten preseason media poll.
