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Tom Izzo’s diatribe on the ill-timed opening of the transfer portal during the NCAA tournament made for splashy headlines and provided a ton of positive reinforcement from around college basketball for the Hall-of-Fame coach’s beliefs.
His focus was on the now, his team chasing another Final Four.
When Michigan State basketball returned from Atlanta, falling a game short of that goal, Izzo’s attention shifted. Immediately. And necessarily.
The Spartans’ roster underwent swift changes less than 36 hours after losing to Auburn in the Elite Eight. Tre Holloman and Gehrig Normand entered the portal, both seeking new opportunities. Xavier Booker followed them later Tuesday, landing within the Big Ten as he committed to UCLA on Friday night.
Couch: Analyzing next season's Michigan State basketball roster, player by player
Izzo? He’s been busy. That phone he wielded behind home plate during the Tigers’ home opener was glued to the same ear Thursday as he walked from the Breslin Center to talk with Jonathan Smith’s football team.
It’s a reminder that, no matter how successful a coach or his season, the work now extends far beyond the first tipoff and final whistle. The requirement is to constantly recruit both inside your own program and to prepare for potential (seemingly inevitable) losses through a transfer system that is both broken and as robust as ever before.
“When you're involved in all these changes – and you're really involved, because you're on committees – it was nice to see a bunch of guys that played for each other and played for the university and played for the name on the front along with the name on the back. That's my new motto,” Izzo said in the locker room last Sunday after MSU’s 30-7 season came to a close. “I heard coaches say, ‘You should always play for the name on the front, not the name on the back.’ I say to hell with that, you should play for the name on the front and the name on the back. Because you're playing for your family, you're playing for yourself. And I'm coaching for my family, so I'll put Michigan State on the front and I'll put my dad on the back. That's cool with me. …
“I don't know if as many guys will play for the name. I think my guys will. But we'll see, we'll see.”
Barring further attrition – rumors constantly churn, with parameters for NIL deals as fluid as the overflowing waterways around the state – MSU has a strong nucleus returning. Jeremy Fears Jr. can be a big-time leader and showed marked improvement at point guard over the final few weeks, as did Coen Carr on the wing. Add in the development in the post of Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper, and that is 4/5ths of a strong starting lineup. Especially if Kohler continues his ascent as an inside-outside scoring threat.
It's a five-man game, though. Jase Richardson’s impending decision on whether to enter the NBA draft or return to MSU is clearly the most critical to what the Spartans will look like and what Izzo needs to pursue. With the graduation loss of Jaden Akins, Richardson’s team-leading 3-point shooting would be even tougher to replace. Same with Holloman’s outside game, though he also could still reverse course and return.
Jesse McCulloch, who redshirted this season, will be counted on to replace the minutes departing with Booker’s transfer and the graduation of Szymon Zapala, an unheralded diamond-in-the-rough portal find from Izzo and his staff. Still, the loss to Johni Broome and Auburn showed MSU needs to add another staple Izzo post player who can play bully ball down low on offense and deliver a shot-blocking presence to counter opposing big men. As highly regarded as incoming freshman forward Cam Ward is, experience and age still matter on the low block.
Izzo also needs a lengthy wing in the Max Christie-Denzel Valentine-Maurice Ager mold. Jordan Scott, another incoming freshman, could use a veteran with a two-way skillset to foster his transition into the college game. MSU’s three-guard combo of Fears, Richardson and Holloman struggled at times against opponents who put rangy, long-armed and physically sturdier defenders on them. Kur Teng, who played just 59 minutes as a freshman mostly in mop-up time, should provide 3-point shooting, but he can’t replace the versatile defensive dynamo Akins turned into over the final few months in checking some of the nation’s best perimeter players.
Transfer Frankie Fidler eventually settled into a better-suited small forward role, but his dearth of outside shooting and lack of ball-handling skills showed in moving up from the mid-major level and forced Izzo to play smaller lineups more frequently. Carr is more a tweener, and his developing but scant perimeter shooting still allowed defenses to sag in the paint and limit Kohler’s interior presence.
All of which makes Izzo’s workload in the coming weeks every bit as hectic as it was in preparing for the NCAA tournament. Busy days with quick turnarounds – phone calls and sales pitches replacing X and O diagrams and film breakdowns. Trying to make up ground recruiting against programs whose season ended sooner or who prioritized the portal in different ways and means. All while learning to navigate the burgeoning monetary component that, for more than 25 years, did not exist legally in college baskeball.
On paper that Sunday night in Atlanta, it looked like MSU had plenty of pieces to replicate its run this season and perhaps take it farther. Izzo in the immediate aftermath of missing out on a ninth Final Four flashed back to the journey to his first in 1999. He tried to draw a thread line through his 30-year career to the current time with new challenges and new rules that have markedly changed his profession and the sport.
Couch: A Michigan State basketball season worth cherishing ends with hope that there's even more ahead
“It was (Mateen) Cleaves after we got beat in the Sweet 16 (in 1998) that said, ‘We're coming back here.’ And then we got beat in the Final Four, and he said, 'We're coming back again,’” Izzo said. “It was a little different. Everybody knew everybody was coming back everywhere. I do think that helps. It'll be interesting to see how they handle that with each other. But there was enough disappointment and people taking blame and all the things in that locker room.
“You know what? They could all leave tomorrow, and I'll feel proud of what they've accomplished and proud of who they are, because I watched it. It wasn't phony. Tears aren't phony.”
Neither is the dramatic change in the landscape of college basketball that has Izzo feverishly working the phones looking ahead to the next run rather than reflecting on the one that just ended.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
Subscribe to the "Spartan Speak" podcast for new episodes weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tom Izzo feverishly works phones to rebuild Michigan State basketball
Continue reading...
His focus was on the now, his team chasing another Final Four.
When Michigan State basketball returned from Atlanta, falling a game short of that goal, Izzo’s attention shifted. Immediately. And necessarily.
The Spartans’ roster underwent swift changes less than 36 hours after losing to Auburn in the Elite Eight. Tre Holloman and Gehrig Normand entered the portal, both seeking new opportunities. Xavier Booker followed them later Tuesday, landing within the Big Ten as he committed to UCLA on Friday night.
Couch: Analyzing next season's Michigan State basketball roster, player by player
Izzo? He’s been busy. That phone he wielded behind home plate during the Tigers’ home opener was glued to the same ear Thursday as he walked from the Breslin Center to talk with Jonathan Smith’s football team.
It’s a reminder that, no matter how successful a coach or his season, the work now extends far beyond the first tipoff and final whistle. The requirement is to constantly recruit both inside your own program and to prepare for potential (seemingly inevitable) losses through a transfer system that is both broken and as robust as ever before.
“When you're involved in all these changes – and you're really involved, because you're on committees – it was nice to see a bunch of guys that played for each other and played for the university and played for the name on the front along with the name on the back. That's my new motto,” Izzo said in the locker room last Sunday after MSU’s 30-7 season came to a close. “I heard coaches say, ‘You should always play for the name on the front, not the name on the back.’ I say to hell with that, you should play for the name on the front and the name on the back. Because you're playing for your family, you're playing for yourself. And I'm coaching for my family, so I'll put Michigan State on the front and I'll put my dad on the back. That's cool with me. …
“I don't know if as many guys will play for the name. I think my guys will. But we'll see, we'll see.”
Barring further attrition – rumors constantly churn, with parameters for NIL deals as fluid as the overflowing waterways around the state – MSU has a strong nucleus returning. Jeremy Fears Jr. can be a big-time leader and showed marked improvement at point guard over the final few weeks, as did Coen Carr on the wing. Add in the development in the post of Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper, and that is 4/5ths of a strong starting lineup. Especially if Kohler continues his ascent as an inside-outside scoring threat.
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It's a five-man game, though. Jase Richardson’s impending decision on whether to enter the NBA draft or return to MSU is clearly the most critical to what the Spartans will look like and what Izzo needs to pursue. With the graduation loss of Jaden Akins, Richardson’s team-leading 3-point shooting would be even tougher to replace. Same with Holloman’s outside game, though he also could still reverse course and return.
Jesse McCulloch, who redshirted this season, will be counted on to replace the minutes departing with Booker’s transfer and the graduation of Szymon Zapala, an unheralded diamond-in-the-rough portal find from Izzo and his staff. Still, the loss to Johni Broome and Auburn showed MSU needs to add another staple Izzo post player who can play bully ball down low on offense and deliver a shot-blocking presence to counter opposing big men. As highly regarded as incoming freshman forward Cam Ward is, experience and age still matter on the low block.
Izzo also needs a lengthy wing in the Max Christie-Denzel Valentine-Maurice Ager mold. Jordan Scott, another incoming freshman, could use a veteran with a two-way skillset to foster his transition into the college game. MSU’s three-guard combo of Fears, Richardson and Holloman struggled at times against opponents who put rangy, long-armed and physically sturdier defenders on them. Kur Teng, who played just 59 minutes as a freshman mostly in mop-up time, should provide 3-point shooting, but he can’t replace the versatile defensive dynamo Akins turned into over the final few months in checking some of the nation’s best perimeter players.
Transfer Frankie Fidler eventually settled into a better-suited small forward role, but his dearth of outside shooting and lack of ball-handling skills showed in moving up from the mid-major level and forced Izzo to play smaller lineups more frequently. Carr is more a tweener, and his developing but scant perimeter shooting still allowed defenses to sag in the paint and limit Kohler’s interior presence.
All of which makes Izzo’s workload in the coming weeks every bit as hectic as it was in preparing for the NCAA tournament. Busy days with quick turnarounds – phone calls and sales pitches replacing X and O diagrams and film breakdowns. Trying to make up ground recruiting against programs whose season ended sooner or who prioritized the portal in different ways and means. All while learning to navigate the burgeoning monetary component that, for more than 25 years, did not exist legally in college baskeball.
On paper that Sunday night in Atlanta, it looked like MSU had plenty of pieces to replicate its run this season and perhaps take it farther. Izzo in the immediate aftermath of missing out on a ninth Final Four flashed back to the journey to his first in 1999. He tried to draw a thread line through his 30-year career to the current time with new challenges and new rules that have markedly changed his profession and the sport.
Couch: A Michigan State basketball season worth cherishing ends with hope that there's even more ahead
“It was (Mateen) Cleaves after we got beat in the Sweet 16 (in 1998) that said, ‘We're coming back here.’ And then we got beat in the Final Four, and he said, 'We're coming back again,’” Izzo said. “It was a little different. Everybody knew everybody was coming back everywhere. I do think that helps. It'll be interesting to see how they handle that with each other. But there was enough disappointment and people taking blame and all the things in that locker room.
“You know what? They could all leave tomorrow, and I'll feel proud of what they've accomplished and proud of who they are, because I watched it. It wasn't phony. Tears aren't phony.”
Neither is the dramatic change in the landscape of college basketball that has Izzo feverishly working the phones looking ahead to the next run rather than reflecting on the one that just ended.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
Subscribe to the "Spartan Speak" podcast for new episodes weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tom Izzo feverishly works phones to rebuild Michigan State basketball
Continue reading...
