Michigan State Basketball: What to expect from Josh Langford in 2019-20

After missing the second half of the 2018-19 season, Josh Langford has a lot of work to do in order to get back into shape for Michigan State basketball.

Joshua Langford last played in a basketball game in December of last year. Since then, he has been in a walking boot trying to overcome a foot injury. He had a stress injury in his ankle which he had season-ending surgery to fix.

When Langford went down, the team lost a co-captain and a huge leader. The Spartans also lost a ton of points because he was the second-leading scorer and many did not know where those points would come from. Fans and outsiders thought this was not only the end of Langford’s season, but also the end of the team’s run as well — little did they know the Spartans would make a deep run, led by Cassius Winston, making it to the Final Four.

After the Final Four loss to Texas Tech, Tom Izzo had a press conference where he recapped the season with some highlights to draw upon.

One of the questions which came up was about the future of Langford. What was his time table to be back on the court and would he get to redshirt this past season? Izzo’s response was that Langford would be due for more X-rays and tests two weeks later and barring the results he would probably have 3-4 more weeks of healing and then by June, we would be seeing him back on the court.

Langford would still be limited but he would be able to practice and get back into the swing of things.

As for his ability to get a medical redshirt for the season, Izzo said that they were going to apply and put in the paperwork for the redshirt.

However, he did say he hopes that Langford won’t need to use it. He thinks and is hopefully that Langford will come back where he left off, have a great season and be on his way to bigger and better things in the NBA. That is if Langford is even able to receive the redshirt. He missed the cutoff point by one game so they will have to put in a request for him so we’ll just have to wait and see.

We will have to wait until next month to see Langford step back onto the floor (Moneyball would be a stretch this summer) but he will be back and ready to go.

In his freshman season, he averaged 6.9 points in 21 minutes per game and he was able to play in all 35 games. As a sophomore, he jumped up in minutes to 27 per game. And in those 27 minutes, he averaged 11.7 points.

This past season, in the 13 games he was able to play, he averaged 28 minutes but was putting up 15 points per game. He could have continued that throughout this season if he didn’t get injured. He wants to prove to himself but also his team and scouts that even after this injury he is still to ball and not let anything get him down.

Langford will be a senior along with teammate Cassius Winston, combining to form up one of the nastiest backcourts in college basketball — some could argue they will make up the best. Langford will continue his path of better himself and average 18.4 points per game next season and will shoot 90 percent from the free throw line. He also will average an impressive 51 percent from the floor as he tries to lead his Spartan team back to the Final Four.