CBB expert shares interesting Michigan State basketball starting 5 prediction

If you follow college basketball somewhat closely, you’ve probably heard the name Jon Rothstein before. Rothstein is a college basketball insider for CBS Sports and probably the biggest college basketball fan in the country.

On Monday, he released his Big Ten preseason predictions (more to come on that later) but in his article he also gave his prediction for Michigan State basketball’s starting five.

And a couple of his selections are very interesting.

Rothstein’s Michigan State basketball starting five

Two of the projected starters above are very straightforward. Both Jaden Akins and Frankie Fidler are guarenteed starters in my eyes at the position Rothstein listed, so I see no issues there.

The first debatable selection is Jeremy Fears Jr. as the starting point guard. My starting five prediction agrees with Rothstein here, but I think it’s worth mentioning Tre Holloman who could push Fears as the starting point guard. That will be an interesting battle to watch this offseason.

Next we have Xavier Booker who will be a undoubtedly be a starter, just not at center. Booker fits more naturally as a forward, so he should be put in Coen Carr’s spot.

With Carr being moved out of the starting five, that leaves the center spot open. My guess is Carson Cooper will be the starter there, but similarly to point guard Jaxon Kohler has a case to be the starter as well.

Big Ten standings prediction

Along with the predictions to Michigan State’s starting five, Rothstein also ranked all 18 Big Ten teams as well. And he has Michigan State as the No. 7 team in the conference.

In my opinion this ranking is a little low, but not low enough to get upset over. Michigan State being slightly above average in the Big Ten is a fair assumption after all the turnover on a roster that didn’t do particularly well last season. But a few of the teams above MSU don’t make much sense to me.

Ohio State, Oregon, and Maryland are teams 4-6 in Rothstein’s rankings, and I would potentially put Michigan State above all three. None of those teams has a proven roster, and I know neither does Michigan State, but I think Tom Izzo deserves the respect to be the most likely out of all those head coaches to figure it out.

Thankfully for MSU they’ll have a chance to prove themselves on the court soon, and I’d bet they finish above seventh in the conference this year.