Michigan State Basketball: The curious case of Alvin Ellis III

By Adam Zdroik | Dec 29, 2016

Mar 18, 2016; St. Louis, MO, USA; Michigan State Spartans guard Alvin Ellis III (3) dribbles the ball during the first half of the first round against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders in the 2016 NCAA Tournament at Scottrade Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports /

Alvin Ellis III made his mark the last couple games, but as seen throughout his Michigan State basketball career, playing time is still uncertain for the senior under Tom Izzo.

It’s been a rough season for any Michigan State basketball and football fans in 2016, but the Spartans turned a small corner in a 15-point comeback to top Minnesota in their Big Ten men’s basketball opener.

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Yet, it only happened because of a move that Tom Izzo had failed to make in the first two months of the season. Much has been made of Alvin Ellis III and what he did to get the Spartans an opening conference win, but what’s been surprising is how little the senior guard has played leading up to his career-high 20-point game against Minnesota.

Ellis, a former Gopher and Tubby Smith recruit, looked out of place his first two years at MSU, never doing the right thing and rarely hitting open shots. The numbers back that up as Ellis was just 12-of-38 from deep and 28-for-55 from the free-throw line in his first two seasons. But Ellis took a noticeable leap in his junior year and provided a small spark throughout MSU’s conference run. The careless turnovers disappeared, he was setting up teammates and finally making threes at a respectable rate.

Coming into his senior season, many would assume his playing time would increase after playing a vital role in Michigan State’s run in the 2016 Big Ten Tournament. While his numbers weren’t amazing, Ellis played 21 minutes and scored 11 points off the bench in their final two wins of the conference tourney. However, that logical progression has turned into on-and-off playing time over the first month-plus of the season and then culminated in a five-minute outing in a bad MSU home loss against Northeastern on Dec. 18.

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Ellis had seen more time early in the season, but Izzo decided the senior didn’t deserve more floor time when his team needed a spark with Miles Bridges out. As had been the case earlier in Ellis’ career, he was relegated to the bench for making small mistakes. Similar to Eron Harris, any mistake made by Ellis turned him into a benchwarmer.

But when Ellis didn’t make a mistake, that’s what turned into a 20-point effort against Minnesota. In Michigan State’s past two games, Ellis has played 51 minutes, well above his season average, while also scoring 28 points to go with 10 rebounds. Compared to sophomore shooting guard Matt McQuaid, it’s vastly better. McQuaid has totaled just 10 points on 3-of-18 shooting to go with five turnovers in the last three games ahead of Friday’s meeting against Northwestern.

While Ellis didn’t exactly take over McQuaid’s position in the Minnesota game (he often played power forward or even center in a small-ball lineup), he definitely showed Izzo that he deserved more time than guys like McQuaid or one of the walk-ons (Kyle Ahrens, Matt Van Dyk) with that performance.

McQuaid is supposed to be the ‘shooter’ on this year’s Michigan State team a la Bryn Forbes, but the sophomore is hitting just 32.2 percent of his shots from behind the arc, which isn’t going to cut it. He’s rushed his shot a bit more with Bridges out and it’s been the opposite of helpful. He has his moments on the defensive end often drawing charges, but is becoming somewhat of a liability offensively if he can’t hit open threes, something Ellis has done.

Izzo turned to a smaller lineup in the second half of the win over Minnesota, but what will he turn to once Bridges returns?

The freshmen (Bridges, Nick Ward, Cassius Winston, Josh Langford) will undoubtedly play valuable minutes going forward for the Spartans, but there remains a question between Ellis, Harris and McQuaid and who gets time at guard and small forward. Whether that’s off the bench or as a starter, it’s not a huge deal at this point (Ellis played a team-high 36 minutes in the Minnesota win off the bench).

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As long as Ellis can continue to get to the hoop and hit open threes, every reason suggests that he will be playing more important minutes than McQuaid going forward.

Then again, one small misstep in the Northwestern game and Ellis could be relegated to the bench as has been the case the last three years. That’s simply the life of a player in Izzo’s ‘doghouse.’

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