Adreian Payne News

Tom Izzo said Thursday he and Adreian Payne would attend tonight's annual Dick Vitale Gala benefiting the V Foundation at the Ritz Carlton in Sarasota, Fla.

Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo speaks at The Salvation Army of Kalamazoo "Inspiring Youth To Dream" fundraising event Thursday evening at Valley Family Church in Portage.

The votes are in, and 3,233 Michigan and Michigan State fans have selected the player from their teams - each others, or their own - that they would pick first if they had the option.

Collins, who left the Duke bench after 13 years to take over at Northwestern, will bring his Wildcats to PNC Arena Dec.

Tom Izzo isn't wasting any time running possible lineups and rotations through his head now that Gary Harris and Adreian Payne are back in the fold for another season.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo is mixing it up on the recruiting trails with his fellow future hall of fame coaches, wedging his way into the battle for the services of the best prospect in the Class of 2014, Jahlil Okafor .

MSU has had 13 players drafted in Tom Izzo's tenure, six of them in the first round.

Now that we know who's staying and who's moving on to the next level, we can start fully analyzing the college basketball landscape for the 2013-14 season.

Now that Spartan hoopsters Gary Harris and Adreian Payne have announced their intention to return to MSU next year, there is a lot of chatter about a 2013-2014 Final Four season.

Tom Izzo and Gary Harris are two reasons why Michigan State will yet again be a team to beat next year Streeter Lecka/Getty Images His presence in the paint will be missed, but thanks to the return of Adreian Payne, the Spartans will have muscle and finesse under the basket to alleviate pressure and compensate for Nix's departure.

It didn't take long for the decisions of Adreian Payne and Gary Harris to return for another season of college basketball to translate into All-American talk.

Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State : Smart was the nation's best freshman in 2012-2013, and made the decision to return to school for his sophomore year despite being a projected top five pick.

Mitch McGary signs an autograph for a young fan during Michigan's basketball banquet on April 16.

When Kansas freshman Ben McLemore declared for the NBA Draft on April 9, he became just the third Jayhawk to leave school after just one season in Lawrence.

Pressure? What pressure? Asked about the expectations for next season that took a sharp turn to the north as soon as Adreian Payne said, "I'm gonna stay," Tom Izzo invoked his friend Jim Leyland.

Adreian Payne played must-see basketball for roughly two months last season. It was enough to propel the 6-foot-10 Michigan State junior from enigma to -- at the least -- late first-round draft pick.

Now that the deadline to declare for the NBA draft has passed, a look at the top 32 teams for 2013-14: Russ Smith made the most surprising and impactful stay-in-school decision of this offseason, and he should be considered the early frontrunner for the 2014 Wooden/Naismith Awards.

With the deadline to enter the NBA Draft having come and gone at midnight on Sunday night - and with the last-minute decisions made by Adreian Payne, Andre Roberson and Isaiah Austin - we now have a full list of all the meaningful college hoopers that made the decision to jump to the league early.

It was a day of mourning in Charlotte, as the community reels from the death of a sixteen-year-old hit by a train on his way home from school.

For a while, everything was breaking right for Big Ten men's basketball teams who didn't have candidates to leave school early for the 2013 NBA draft.