Spartans Set To Take On Difficult Schedule In 2003-04
10/14/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 14, 2003
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Tom Izzo wants his Michigan State basketball program to be the best.
So, the Spartans will play the best.
Izzo believes Michigan State will play one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the history of college basketball this season.
The Spartans play Kansas (Nov. 25), UCLA (Dec. 20) and Syracuse (Jan. 3) on the road. Duke will visit the Breslin Center on Dec. 3. Michigan State will play Oklahoma at The Palace on Dec. 6, and Kentucky on Dec. 13 at Ford Field before an expected crowd of 75,000.
Those six premier teams will challenge Michigan State before it even begins Big Ten play against a handful of teams expected to challenge it for the conference championship.
"We want to be a program that will play anybody, anyplace, anytime," Izzo said Tuesday during media day. "That's what I want to be about and that's what I want our players to be about."
The Spartans' opponents, who have won a total of 32 national championships, include seven of the top 11 winningest college basketball teams, 14 teams that played in the 2003 postseason and eight teams coming off conference championships.
"It's a dream schedule," junior guard Chris Hill said. "Our team is extremely excited about the teams we're playing, and the places we're going to play. When you're a little kid, you dream about playing for, or against, teams like Kansas, Duke and Kentucky and we're getting to play all of those teams, and more, all in one year."
Michigan State has been one of the top teams in the country the past five years, but it is two years removed from its three straight Final Fours and four consecutive Big Ten titles.
Over the past five years, the Spartans have won 134 games, trailing just Duke (158) and Kansas (136). They have played 59 teams ranked by The Associated Press, and Kentucky is second with 55 games against ranked teams.
The first AP poll will be released Nov. 10, but the Spartans have already been ranked No. 2 in the country by three preseason magazines and No. 3 by two others.
Michigan State returns five of its top six scorers from last year's team, which advanced to an NCAA regional final and finished 22-13.
The starting lineup likely will be: junior Alan Anderson, point guard; Hill, shooting guard; junior Kelvin Torbert, small forward; sophomore Paul Davis, power forward; senior Jason Andreas, center.
Playing time will be spread around with returning players coming off the bench such as sophomore guard Maurice Ager, junior guard Tim Bograkos, senior guard Rashi Johnson and redshirt freshman forward Delco Rowley.
The Spartans lost just two key players - Aloysius Anagonye and Adam Ballinger - and added a highly rated recruiting class, highlighted by two McDonald's All-Americans: Shannon Brown of Illinois and Detroit's Brandon Cotton.
"Everybody is going to worry about playing time, but playing time always works itself out," Izzo said. "It doesn't worry me one bit. Playing time will be left up to the players. Our best teams here had nine guys playing 10 minutes or more."
Michigan State will open the season with "A Magical Journey" at 10:30 p.m. EDT Friday night at the Breslin Center, an event the public is invited to attend for free. Players and coaches will sign autographs and the team will scrimmage shortly after midnight.
By LARRY LAGE, The Associated Press
