Improved depth, new faces make timing right for Michigan State basketball to play games in Europe
Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo expects to learn a lot about his team when they travel to Spain next week to play at least three games against European club teams. He also expects the experience to be a good chemistry-building experience for a ballclub with five new scholarship players.
“I chose it because there are going to be a lot of guys in new positions,” Izzo said after practice on Tuesday. “We’ve got to rely on Jaden (Akins) more, so when I say position, I don’t mean the position. He is going to have to do more. And I think we are going to get the ball inside. We are a lot stronger inside than we were a year ago.”
With the addition of Szymon Zapala, the Spartans gained a big body inside with the ability to score in a variety of ways adding diversity to the five, where Jaxon Kohler is a skilled post scorer and Carson Cooper is a solid defensive player with good length and lateral movement. With the addition of Zapala and significant off-season growth from Xavier Booker, the Spartans feel much better than their front line than they did at the same a year ago.
“Zapala has been really interesting, probably better than I thought,” Izzo said. “Bigger than we thought, and better. He’s got the European touch. He knows how to play. He can shoot a three. He’s got strength. He’s totally unentitled, and that is the deal right now that is important to me, the program, and returning players.”
Michigan State heads to Europe after lengthy absence
Michigan State has not made a Europe trip since traveling to Italy prior to the 2015 season with a team led by a pair of future NBA players in Denzel Valentine and Bryn Forbes. On its last trip to Europe, Michigan State went 1-3, losing to national teams from Georgia, Russia, and Italy, before finishing up with a win over a club team.
“I want to see who plays well with who, and I want to get something out of this trip,” Izzo said. “It’s not just to go, just for the enjoyment. It’s not for the wins and losses. It’s to see who plays well together, who plays well under stressful situations.”
The Spartans will not play the same level of competition this time around. Even so, Michigan State expects to play a competitive schedule against top club teams.
“I don’t know a lot about the competition, you never do,” Izzo said. “We went over that one year and played Olympic teams. With the Olympics going on, it will be more club and all-star teams so it is hard to say. We’ve made a big point of trying to get some good teams, and they’ll do that.
“The better the teams, the better for me.”
Michigan State benefiting from additional practices
The practices prior to the Spain trip may be as a valuable as the trip itself for a Michigan State team tasked with defining roles during a year with so many new faces, including a pair of transfers in Frankie Fidler and Zapala as well as a trio of freshmen in Kur Teng, Jase Richardson and Jesse McCulloch.
“Today is our second (practice) in a row,” Izzo said. “We’ve been going every other day. We are going to go again tomorrow so we get used to going three days in a row. We will give them Thursday off, practice Friday and Saturday, take Sunday off, and Monday hit the road.”
With five newcomers on the Michigan State roster, and better overall program depth, timing was right for a European trip.
“All of a sudden, Jaden has to be our leading scorer,” Izzo said. “All of a sudden, we’ve got to do a better job of getting the ball inside. We have some new guys, five of them when you look at the freshmen and two transfers. All in all, I think it was the right time to go. I almost went last year. With a veteran team, I didn’t feel the same as I did this year.”
Evaluating lineups
The games Michigan State plays against international competition will provide an important evaluation tool for Izzo and his coaching staff. The Spartans will also tinker with different lineups as they seek to get the most of their roster for the upcoming season.
“We are probably going to play different lineups every half,” Izzo said. “It’s not a true starting lineup. Don’t read into things because we are going to start different guys in different situations, maybe based on the teams that we play, if we have a chance to go big at times or if we have a chance to go small. We may be playing Coen (Carr) at the four at times, and we’d be real athletic. We are going to look at different things.”
Point guard has long been one of the most important positions in the Michigan State program. The Spain trip will provide Izzo and his staff with an opportunity monitor the progress of second-year point guard Jeremy Fears, who was sidelined for most of his freshman season with injury resulting from a gunshot wound suffered during a trip home during the holidays.
“He is 98 percent,” Izzo said. “His shooting is still a little question mark right now.”
Fears, junior Tre Holloman, and Richardson will share time at the point guard position for Michigan State. Holloman can play both point guard and shooting guard for Michigan State. As a sophomore last season, Holloman led the Spartans in 3-point field-goal percentage (42.5) and ranked third among Michigan State players in made threes behind Akins and Tyson Walker, who tied for the team lead with 64 triples apiece.
“It comes down to Jeremy and Tre,” Izzo said, “and Jase Richardson has really been impressive so far. He is shooting the ball well. He plays defense. He does a lot of things. I told his dad, he does a lot of things his dad didn’t do as a freshman.”
Getting to the line a priority for Michigan State
In Fidler, the Spartans have a wing with good size that can shoot the ball, use ball screens effectively, and get to the free-throw line.
“In Frankie we were looking for a bigger wing that could shoot,” Izzo said, “but he drew fouls, and we thought we were poor at that. He also came from a program, like (Tyson) Walker, where he was moving up, so he is not entitled. That’s important to me. He has been everything I thought would be and more.”
The Spain trip will also provide Michigan State with an opportunity to effectively evaluate the progress of second-year players Coen Carr and Xavier Booker from last year until this.
“Book is starting to come on, Coen has made big strides,” Izzo said. “Jaxon has made some big strides. He has really played well.”
In Spain, don’t be surprised if Izzo takes a look at playing Kohler and Booker together in the frontcourt to maximize interior scoring. And if the Spartans need tighten up their interior defense, Izzo is comfortable playing Cooper and Zapala together in some instances.
Beyond scoring and defense, Michigan State is determined to be better rebounding the ball than it was last season.
“A big emphasis this summer has been (being) more physical and rebounding the ball better,” Izzo said. “As you know, we didn’t do a very good job of that. One of them is shooting more free throws, and another one is getting fouled.”
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