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College basketball rankings: Tolu Smith's foot injury knocks Mississippi State out of preseason Top 25 And 1 – CBS Sports
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College basketball’s offseason starts in April and lasts until November. It’s basically a seven-month block of time where the early weeks are filled with departures from rosters and additions to rosters. Eventually, though, things settle down, projected lineups start to take form, and that’s when fanbases of teams that appear good on paper begin to get excited and look forward to what’s to come.
Mississippi State was one of those fanbases.
And I hope Mississippi State is still one of those fanbases. But there’s no getting around the fact that some optimism was ripped away from the program Thursday when the school announced that Tolu Smith, a preseason All-American candidate, suffered a foot injury that will sideline him until sometime after the calendar flips to 2024.
“We’re going to support and care for Tolu’s mental and physical well-being during every step of the recovery process,” said Mississippi State coach Chris Jans. “We will continue to move forward with our preparations for the upcoming season as Tolu and his family would expect us to. He will continue to serve as a team leader from the sidelines until we welcome him back on the floor.”
Simply put, it’s a big blow.
Smith averaged 15.7 points and 8.5 rebounds in 27.6 minutes per game last season. He was the star of a team that secured a No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and the biggest reason why the Bulldogs were 25th in Version 21.0 of the 2023-24 CBS Sports Preseason Top 25 And 1 college basketball rankings. But now that it’s clear that Smith won’t be available to start this season, and isn’t expected back until at least January, it’s sensible to drop the Bulldogs from Version 22.0 of the Top 25 And 1.
MSU has been replaced by Alabama.
Yes, the Crimson Tide lost five of the top six scorers from last season’s team that earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. But they still have an elite coach in Nate Oats, a returning double-digit scorer in Mark Sears, two other returning rotation players in Rylan Griffen and Nick Pringle, and enough reinforcements via the transfer portal and high school ranks to make it reasonable to assume they’ll be talented enough to compete for a third trip to the Sweet 16 in what would be a four-year span.
In: Alabama
Out: Mississippi State
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