In the eyes of Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, there’s only one team in the Big Ten he considers a cut above his Spartans right now.
Izzo was a guest on Jon Rothstein’s podcast Inside College Basketball Now this week, where he answered a number critical questions. One of those was assessing his team and where it stacks up with the rest of the league — which Izzo apparently feels pretty good about.
Advertisement
Izzo said he feels his team has as good of a returning nucleus as anyone else in the Big Ten, except for the Purdue Boilermakers — who he believes are a cut above the rest of the league.
“We got our main stays,” Izzo said during the interview. “Coen Carr has gotten a lot better, Jeremy Fears, Carson Cooper has really made some progress, and Jaxon Kohler, and that’s four really good main stays that have played a lot of minutes here. Now it’s about adding in the guys. Does a Kur Teng — a shooter that we have — really improve, does it have to be one of our new guys. I think we more than anybody but Purdue, maybe, we have a base of, I wouldn’t say starters back, but top six or seven guys and now two of those guys are seniors.”
Michigan State won the Big Ten last season by three games and was clearly the best team in the league by the time March rolled around. But the Spartans have lost a number of key contributors from that squad, including top scorers Jase Richardson and Jaden Akins. But regardless of that, Izzo appears to be pretty excited about the team he has in front of him for this next season — which is great news for us Spartans. Izzo has never been the type to sugarcoat anything and will call it as it is, so to hear him speak this highly of his team for next year is a great sign.
Click on the post below to watch the full response from Izzo on the team he has returning for next year:
Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on X @RobertBondy5.
Advertisement
This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Izzo compares Spartans to rest of league, considers MSU in mix at top
