I've looked through a lot of preseason rankings, both online and a couple of magazines (I'm old). It is interesting to me that Sparty and OSU have similar projections: as high as 3rd in the Big 10/Top 25 in the country and as low as 8th/9th in the Big 10 and barely a Top 50 team.

They both lost their top 3 scorers, though I am nearly certain Sueing would have been one of ours. But that is where the similarities end.

The Buckeyes try to replace that production with transfers and Freshmen. One transfer is a stud (Holden) but from one of the worst leagues in America. McNeil and Ice are really solid starting vets from probably the best league in America the last two years. But they were on middling teams and both have glaring weaknesses (Ice-outside shooting, McNeil-defense). Bucks also have 4 Top 70 Freshmen that all have the potential for major roles/impact and they cover every position on the court between them. The only negative is that none are 5 star sure fire studs. Though I disagree with CBS Sports' Matt Norlander's prediction for the Bucks (#38 nationally), his reasoning makes sense: "The portal is leading to a lot of situations around the country wherein it's hard to gauge a team's ceiling or floor because it's hard to figure how revamped rosters with veteran players will fit together." Of course he says that for osu, and picks Illinois to win the Big 10 based mainly on 2 transfers (Shannon Jr, Mayer) and a couple of high rated Freshmen (Skyy Clark and Ty Rodgers). Also has the Illini 9th in the country.

But on to the Spartans. They brought in zero impact transfers. Though Zed has his flaws and will have much more pressure with an expanded role and likely quite a few more mins for the Buckeyes, Sparty's only veteran center is Maddy Sissoko (1ppg, 1.1 rebs per game). They do have two Top 80 Frosh coming in and a couple of potential breakout Sophomores. But their ranking is based almost entirely on roster continuity and 4 solid vets: Hall, Walker, Hauser, and Hoggard. All are good college players and two are pgs which is a good spot to have depth at, but they averaged between 7 and 9 pts apiece last year. I agree with Norlander in saying "Malik Hall is probably MSU's most talented player." But this dude is wildly inconsistent. He scored 2 total pts in 32 mins in his last two games (Duke and Davidson). Maybe he puts together a huge KBD type season, but hard for me to see it.

So what type of team make up would ya'll prefer between these two teams? I take the Bucks in a heartbeat, though I am obviously biased. And I say that with me thinking we could easily get pummeled by San Diego State (terrible match up), embarassed at Cameron Indoor by Duke, and possibly drop 1-2 more before December begins. Heck, I'd probably take Sparty over us straight up if we played them in the first few weeks of the year.

But I love the potential of this Buckeye squad even if it is a little scary given all the new faces. And I fully expect the FireHoltmann crowd to have a field day on here and social media in the first month or two. But one last thing to keep in mind: Arkansas lost their not so secret scrimmage to Texas 90-60. Now Texas is much better than Wake on paper. They are preseason #13, but Arkansas is #10 and I have seen them in some folks' preseason Top 5. They also have 11 new scholarship players between transfers and Freshmen. Lost by 30pts. Something to think about.