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The State News sports reporters discuss all MSU sports.
(Bella) Hello, and welcome back to the sports roundtable podcast where we talk about all things Michigan State Athletics. I'm your host, Bella Johnson and today I'm once again joined by Nick Lundberg.
(Nick) How's it going? How's it going?
(Bella) Thanks for joining me. Today I got some big basketball news this week. So today we're going to be talking a little bit about next year's team and how we think they're shaping up to be. So obviously earlier in the week, Tyson Walker announced that he was coming back for a fifth year. And then yesterday, I believe Millie Cole also announced that he was coming back. Yep. Which are huge.
(Nick) Yeah, those two guys alone. I mean, basically, last year, they were two of the, you know, leaders of the team. Malik Cole suffered a foot injury, that kind of you could tell was nagging at him the whole season, so we didn't really see him at 100%. So that's gonna be very exciting, if he can stay healthy next year, to see what he can really do. And then obviously, Tyson Walker, you know, the Big Shot guy, the guy you go to at the end of the game to get you a bucket, obviously a huge addition, especially with AJ, once again, coming back. So that tandem along with Molly Cole returning is just, it's gonna make for some very, you know, very deep MSU team next year with everyone coming in, and all the people that are staying as well. And just, it gives them so many more options on offense and defense. So it's just, it's gonna be very exciting next year.
(Bella) And I know people were debating whether or not they thought Emily Cole was coming back. I didn't really think too much about it. I just felt like he had a disappointing season this year, obviously with the injury and he wasn't able to play to his full potential. I just kind of assumed that that would make him want to stay another year. So I didn't really think too much about it. Obviously, it was exciting to see him announce and I think the uke, arguably Tyson Walker is the better, more well-rounded player, but I think Malik Hall brings a certain leadership to the team that you can't really like replicate, especially with all of the young guys that are going to be on the team this year. And I think it's just so important to have them just for that leadership aspect as well.
(Nick) Yeah, I mean, he was a captain last year and he's been with the program, obviously, Tyson, it will be his third year since he transferred in but Malik, you know, been here from the start. He saw, you know, success with caches. And Tillman, when he played with them, as underclassmen and now. I mean, past couple of years have been disappointing for his Oh, standards. And I know he's the type of person is always refers to him, when whenever I see him talk about him, as you know, an Opkg and our kind of guy and you know, that's a guy who's gonna play hard, do everything is Oh, basically tells them to, when need be, and just, you know, go out there and just make the right plays and do the right thing. And obviously, with peer Brooks leaving that kind of put a little bit of a hole at the forward spot. I mean, you've got two freshmen, and Gareth Norman and Carson Cohen coming in, who can kind of play that three spot and move over to the four and then you've got the five-star Xavier Booker coming in, who's more of a four or five, but you put Malik in, he can play both of three of the four he can, you know, post you up, he can drive to the rim, you know, finish through contact, and he can also when he's open, make some shots. So I mean, he gives you obviously, with the leadership, he also gives you a lot of versatility on the wing, especially with Pierre Brooks gone. So that just and his leadership look for, like I said, with the all the, you know, high, highly talented freshmen coming in his leadership, and his voice is gonna be very big for them going forward, because, you know, they, they're gonna want to have to look up to somebody and I feel like Malik really is kind of the captain of the locker room, I would say.
(Bella) Yeah, absolutely. And I know some people are talking about a potential Joey Houser announcement coming. I don't see that coming. I realistically, I think he's, his time is done. I don't think he's going to want to come back for another year. I don't know. What do you think?
(Nick) Yeah. I mean, I think I saw earlier after the season was over a couple of weeks ago that he wasn't really or even before the season ended, that he wasn't really interested in coming back. And I don't blame him for a couple of reasons. One, because like last year, compared to the years before when he was here was or this past season compared to the years before this past season. He really like found his role and is nice and just became like one of the go-to guys as to where, you know, people were fans and were complaining about his lack of consistency the years before that, and he really kind of stepped up and found his role as a leader on the team last year. And I mean, there's just so many guys returning and, you know, the, you can only put up so many shots a game with all of these players and adding in a guy like Joey Houser, who, you know, can score like, he would obviously be a big weapon on the team, but there's only so much, you know, shots to go around for everyone. And if, if Joey was to come back, there wasn't like AJ would have fewer shots, Tyson would have less shots. Just guys on the bench wouldn't get as many, like Aikins would have less touches. So I mean, it's probably good for the development of everyone else, that he's not coming back because it allows other players to shine. Obviously, like, the team would probably become the national title favorite if he did decide to return just because of all the weapons they have. But especially since last year two was his graduate students season and I feel like he feels like that he'd be kind of, you know, staying in it for too long if he comes back for another year. So I feel like now's the right time for him to go test. You know, the NBA G League, his brother played there last year now is an NBA doing pretty well for a team that might win the championship in the Celtics. So I mean, he could, you know, join Santa, join Sam Houser and on that route, or he could go overseas and probably carve out a decent career over there. So he has a lot of options, but I feel like, you know, not returning is probably best for everyone in this scenario.
(Bella) Absolutely. And I think I he basically went through to senior days, not officially, but at some point, you just gotta be like, Okay, it's enough is enough. Enough is enough. Third, might have been a little awkward. I also like find myself making fun of players who stick around a little bit too long. So yeah, like I'd be going against my morals a little bit. Not make fun of I just think I'd find it a little odd sometimes when these like you're sticking around a little bit too long. Like come on. But like we're talking about the recruiting class coming in, in the fall is, I believe, ranked number three in the country. Yeah. Number three behind Kentucky and Duke. They. So that recruiting, hold on, I lost the names. Okay. So that classroom. What is the word I'm looking for? It consists of Jeremy Ferris, Xavier, Booker, Gehrig, Norman and Cohen Carr. I've seen, I haven't watched full games that they've played him. But obviously, I've seen clips and I think they're going to be huge assets next year. And obviously, with young players, like I don't expect young players to just come out from the get go and be making huge plays. But I think having those older players to mix in with them, and if they hit the ground running, once they get here, I think they're going to be huge. I don't particularly see them spending the same kind of like, huge minutes on the floor as some people expect them to just because they are still gonna be freshmen.
(Nick) We've seen this before, like, we you had Jaren Jackson come in MILES BRIDGES come in, and they start, like, these guys are obviously like top five talents in the country, like we're looking, at least in this case, and kind of focusing more on Xavier Booker, but people expect them to play all 40 minutes each game and they just expect him to go out there and you know, consistently drop 20 points, and, you know, like eight rebounds or something like that. But I mean, these guys are still freshmen, they still have no idea what it means to play in the big 10 yet. And I mean, it's the summer is going to be good, especially for Xavier Booker, because he is definitely on the smaller side when it comes to strength. He's very wiry, very skinny. And he definitely should, you know, look to put on some pounds this summer to be able to compete with some of the bigger bodies in the big 10. And I mean, he's, I see him more of an offense, at least as a wing player, because he can step out and shoot it. But on defense, we're going to be able to use his length inside and once he gets, you know, that kind of strength blocking shots, I hope we'll be or it seems like will be a very, you know, one of his strong suits on defense, but I don't expect a lot of people are kind of expecting him to come in and just you know, be amazing and play the whole game but there's so many other guys in this team that you know, we can give the ball to and they can go get a bucket and he's going to be I feel like more on the backburner but obviously he has the potential to you know, do some great things but you know is though is His relationship with freshmen has always been rocky, especially like we saw with Jaren Jackson in the NCAA Tournament and Syracuse. He didn't play in the second half, basically, because of foul trouble and Izzo didn't really trust him to be out there in that moment, because it was kind of a high stress moment. And honestly, that might not have been the right call at the time looking back, but it's just, you know, is does and is as a Hall of Famer. So I mean, I trust him to develop each of these guys the correct way. But I feel like some fan expectations need to maybe simmer a little bit when it comes to seeing these guys out there all the time.
(Bella) Yeah. And I think like, obviously, his relationship with freshmen, but you also have to think about the fact Tyson Walker's the only person on the roster that came from the transfer portal, like these older players are players that came to Izzo as young, obviously, young players going into college, and they stuck around. And I think that says a lot about the way that he formed relationships with his players and makes them want to play for him. And obviously, like this year, as of right now, the only player that had entered the transfer portal is Pierre Brooks, and I think looking at the roster now, I don't really think that there would have been much time for him to play any way this year. I think it was the best move for him. But I do there is something to say about just how many players stick around for as long as they do and do you think that anybody else is going to enter the transfer portal?
(Nick) The only player I see there's a lot I've heard a lot of talk about Aikens on Twitter but you know that's just their talk Twitter talk exactly. And I mean, I highly doubt Aikens leaves, but I've heard like I've seen stuff on Twitter about him maybe fooling around with the idea and I mean, you've got Malik Cole kind of you don't really know what the starting lineup is going to be but you assume Jane Aikens is going to be a part of it. And obviously Malika and Xavier Booker kind of I feel like they're going to be fighting for that for spot because obviously last year the whole guard Walker Aikens trio three guards pretty much worked for the most part with Walker and Aikens is shooting and AJ is ability to to deal but the one guy I'm looking at is Trey Holloman only because there's going to be basically four point guards in the backcourt like for all four guys can play the point guard position. And you're coming in, you're bringing in a five star point guard and Jeremy fears and you've just I assume at this point that fears is probably the better two point guard compared to Holloman just because of you know what everything is done in high school. And Trey doesn't have doesn't seem to have the best, you know, he still needs to work a lot on his scoring. Obviously, he's probably the best defensive player we have in the backcourt. I mean, we have a lot of good defensive players, but I feel like he's the most valuable on that end compared to the other guards, but like, he can still run an offense, he's still a valuable player, but it's just not going to be his role is going to be a lot different than it was from last year. And I'm just I doubt he enters the transfer portal. But I could see a case where, like, he's just frustrated with his role. He wants to be you know, like a point guard. And obviously, it's going to take a while to develop, you know, a consistent jump shot and, you know, develop finishing at the rim better. But we did see like little glimpses of it like he obviously will be able to do it down the road if he works on it enough. But that's just that's the only other guy I see. Maybe thinking about leaving, but he's only a sophomore. Like, he'll, he'll have a lot of minutes next year when Walker is going to be gone. Most likely Aj is leaving. So I mean, he's gonna have a lot of minutes with fears next year, but it's gonna be interesting to see where his development or what his role looks like this season. Yeah, next season.
(Bella) And I was thinking the same thing. But also, I feel like with that, like if he is getting that frustration with not getting the minutes he wants, I feel like that might come towards the end of next season rather than at this moment. Yeah. Because obviously, like, I don't assume that is those going into the season being like, Okay, this is what it's going to be like, yeah. And I think that it's obviously going to be something that they work on over the summer figuring out who is more well-rounded to be in that position. And I don't think Trey Holman is counted out just yet. So, in that way, I don't really see him transferring quite yet. I think if those are the reasons surrounding a transfer, it'll come next year rather than this year.
(Nick) Yeah. No, I, I completely get that. And I mean, you know, is a loves to fool with lineups basically the entire season until he kind of finds his niche with one or two rotations he likes. But yeah, I feel like definitely next season, I'm getting ahead of ourselves. But that is more like the more likely scenario than what I was saying. But this team is just like, absolutely loaded with guards. And it's going to be everywhere you look like Tyson can run the point he did that two years ago. AJ obviously is a great point guard, Jeremy fears five star coming in. And then Trey, you know, did some solid things as a garden, and is oh loves this point guard. So I mean, this team is just going to be just it's so deep, and just so fun. And it's going to be a great year next year.
(Bella) Yeah, it was a big contrast to this past year, because they didn't have the depth. Yeah, that they quite needed. Um, kind of going back to Tyson Walker, Emily Cole coming back, I didn't think that the team was set up to be bad next year, I just didn't think they would have the capacity, I think it would be probably a little bit worse than this past year. Because that, again, would be them struggling with depth, they, they wouldn't have had the depth. And they would have started with the younger players rather than the older ones. So I think if they hadn't come back, the depth still would have been great, but I don't think it would be like, as outstanding as it's looking at the moment.
(Nick) Yeah, I mean, if Malik doesn't come back, um, I feel like Pierre definitely stays. And obviously like he made some decent strides from his freshman year to last year. But you know, just with the lack of minutes and the kind of player Pierre is, I understand it was I feel like it was kind of a mutual agreement on his transfer because you know, he had some moments where it feels like he wanted to be a bigger part of the offense than he deserved to be at times and he was a great spot up shooter like we could have really used the team could really use that next year. But they still have you know, Aikens for that kind of thing and Norman coming in can shoot the ball and obviously, Malik has got a decent shot and Tyson Ken is very good shooter but you know, a wing guy that can really knock down three consistently is very important in the big 10 and he will be missed but I especially with Malik coming back now and Tyson and you can move kind of you know Aikens the three and peers kind of spot. There just wasn't enough minutes for him. But I mean without Yeah, without those two guys coming back. This team obviously isn't as deep. I still feel like as talented as the freshmen are. And with the development of guys like Kohler and Cooper, and Trey, and Sissoko, and even Aikens, like this would still be a lot better from next year. But I feel like with Tyson and Malik coming back that they can just bump that team bump the team from you know, they're gonna be good, like, maybe Elite Eight bound we'll see. Maybe Final Four, but now it's like okay, you're expecting a Final Four year yeah, you're like people are like hoping for a national championship now. So it's like, the expectations with those two coming back, as they really should be are a lot higher. And just makes for a lot more exciting excitement around the program.
(Bella) You know, even Magic Johnson was talking about magic Johnson's Twitter remains undefeated magic Johnson's Twitter so good. He's like, this team is not only running for a big 10 championship, but also for a national championship. He always points out the obvious you can't say anything about it, because it's Magic Johnson and that's why he's great. He did call both Malik Hall and Tyson Walker. Were the right name though. And that's huge for him. That's a good that's a big step. That's a big step. Yeah, but I'm super excited to see what the team does next year. I think there's gonna be some tough decisions in lineup and minutes and I think those are gonna be some kinks that are gonna have to be worked out definitely towards the beginning or at the beginning of the season. Yeah, it's it's clear enough to be a good team. It's gonna be exciting to watch.
(Nick) Yeah, I'm very excited to for the development of the big men. Sissoko, Kohler and Cooper, just because Obviously, like, Kohler was a freshman coming in, doesn't didn't have the best, you know, the, the right build, I would say for the big 10 had to learn, you know, kind of the hard way by playing guys like Dickinson and Edie who, at least Dickinson, they both might be gone next year, which will be big, but the Dickinson get picked up somewhere not yet, yet, but um, I mean, you they were he was battling as a freshman those, you know, top players in the league in the country. Carson Cooper was supposed to be redshirted last year, came in played big minutes in the tournament, did some good things, obviously, as most young players are kind of lost at times, but he'll I feel like he'll definitely make a big step forward next year along with Kohler. And then MADI finally getting his feet wet with minutes last year, and now he kind of knows what it's like. And he obviously he hasn't been playing basketball for that long, like he started in high school. And I mean, every year he just like the jump he made from two years ago to last year, or to last, you know, last season was very, a very big one, even though like, obviously MSU basketball standards are a lot, a lot higher than what, you know, he was able to put out but just for his his personal growth. And the game was, you know, pretty outstanding last season compared to two years ago. So, yeah, just the development of those three guys, I feel like are going to be huge for this team going forward.
(Bella) And you could even see it from the beginning of the season to the end, specifically with those three players, the more that they got on the court, and they started playing better and better. I'm thinking specifically Carson Cooper during the tournament, I think he had some really good looks. And he was not afraid to get pushed around a little bit. And I think that's super important, especially for obviously, centers and like what we're looking for. Right under the net. And I think that the three of them. This next year, I think what we were missing a lot of the season were that heavy presence underneath the net. And I think this upcoming season, it's going to be something that is a strength more than a weakness, just as they continue to develop. I mean, they're great players. They were playing great all year. But definitely, arguably extremely better towards the end of the tournament.
(Nick) Yeah, and I mean, the big 10 basically was run by bigs this year. Obviously, we're still waiting for Zack Ed, if he's staying or leaving, and that kind of, I feel like that's the difference between us sweeping Purdue and us eating them at home, combating them beating us at home. Because I feel like even with Ed returning and making Purdue like, just like just as good of a team as last year, if not better, that you know, we're still basically one of the top teams in the big 10 With this roster. And you've got Tres Jackson Davis leaving. And he was the guy who absolutely killed us every single season for the past couple of years. And it's very, very, I'm very glad to see him. Him moving on finally, but um, Boo Boo is moving on as well. Yeah, he I saw that he might come back because he thinks he did he remained his elder kept his eligibility but still entered his name in the draft. And obviously, he's a Spartan killer too, but we'll see what he decides to do. And then Dickinson most likely is gone. People are maybe talking about him returning, but I just doubt I doubt that. And that's obviously another big, big, big 10 Big man leaving. And those are just three guys. I mean, you've got like Rutgers is big will be returning, but he's not one of those elite guys like Clifford. And then there's just other, you know, solid, big 10 big men, but that's the one thing we really struggled with against this year, this past season was, you know, containing, you know, good big men, and I mean, we didn't really play that many solid big men in the tournament, and we had a lot of success because yeah, and it allowed MADI to do things that, you know, maybe like if he was playing against better competition and wouldn't have but next year, I mean, I feel like all of those guys are going to be taking, you know, bigger steps in their development and especially with like I said, the lack of, you know, extreme talent at the big at the, you know, five spot next year coming back in the big time that's going to be allow our guys to, you know, really shine and have bigger impacts on games this next season.
(Bella) Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. This has been the sports roundtable podcast. You can find it wherever you find your podcasts.