CHICAGO - The Big Ten shed some light Sunday on who the major players are in both men’s and women’s basketball this season.

MSU men’s head coach Tom Izzo has to deal with being at the top, while women’s head coach Joanne P. McCallie will strive to get to there.

With five seniors returning and a pair of top recruits poised to make an impact this season, it was announced Sunday at Big Ten Basketball Media Day at the Chicago O’Hare Marriott Hotel that the MSU men’s basketball team was the coaches’ preseason choice to finish first in the league.

In his sixth season, Izzo said he wasn’t very concerned about how his team may react to the top ranking.

“I worry about it a little, but not very much,” Izzo said. “We’ve been through it before; we’ve been picked to finish high the past few years.”

Second place went to Illinois and third went to Wisconsin, which made an appearance in the Final Four last year.

In the media poll, MSU was chosen to finish second in the Big Ten ahead of Wisconsin but behind Illinois, who boasts a new coach and guard Cory Bradford, the preseason Big Ten player of the year as chosen by the coaches and media.

“I think the early expectations are a little high, but there is a window of opportunity to be very good this year,” said first-year Illini head coach Bill Self. “I’d rather be at a place with expectations than to have none. I’m a lot happier to win with pressure than to lose without it.”

Bradford was second-team All-Big Ten last season and led Illinois in scoring, averaging 15.4 points per game.

Joining Bradford on the preseason All-Big Ten team as selections by the coaches are MSU senior guard Charlie Bell, Ohio State center Ken Johnson, Indiana forward Kirk Haston and Michigan forward LaVell Blanchard.

The media’s picks for the All-Big Ten team are nearly identical to the coaches, with the exception that Penn State guard Joe Crispin was named instead of Haston.

Three new coaches joined the Big Ten ranks in the offseason. Mike Davis replaced Indiana head coach Bobby Knight, who was fired in September. Self takes the reins of the Illinois program after Lon Kruger became the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks’ head coach in May.

At Northwestern, Bill Carmody replaces Kevin O’Neill, who took an assistant coaching position with the New York Knicks.

Considering the distribution of talent and coaching changes, Wisconsin head coach Dick Bennett felt there will be a lot of parity in the league this season.

“The league will be from top to bottom the best it’s been since I’ve been in the league,” he said. “You’re going to see some very balanced-type games. It’s going to possibly be a duplication of what football has done.”

In women’s basketball, Purdue has won three straight Big Ten titles, and the coaches and media picked the Boilermakers to win a fourth league championship.

The MSU women’s basketball team was not listed as a top squad in the league, nor did it have any players make the All-Big Ten preseason team.

In her first season as MSU women’s head coach McCallie said she’ll use the men’s team as a model for how she wants her team to play.

“I think we’re going to have a blue-collar style of play,” she said. “We can’t be casual. Every day my team’s getting better and making more of an effort.”

Purdue is the only school in the Big Ten to win a women’s national championship, which it did against Duke in 1999. Leading the Boilermakers this season will be guard Katie Douglas, who was picked by both coaches and media as the preseason Big Ten player of the year.

The coaches and media chose Penn State to finish second, while Illinois and Wisconsin were both picked to finish third.

With MSU’s top two scorers from a year ago lost to graduation, McCallie said the offense won’t be as potent as it was last season.

“We’re not going to be an incredibly talented offensive team,” she said. “All our players are capable of averaging 8 to 10 points per game.”

Returning is MSU’s third leading scorer from a year ago - senior forward Becky Cummings. She averaged 15.1 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per game. She also led the Big Ten and was third in the nation with a .621 field goal percentage.