Michigan State Basketball: Will 2019-20 be Tom Izzo’s deepest team ever?

Many argued that the 2017-18 version of Michigan State basketball was Tom Izzo’s most talented ever, but is 2019-20 his deepest team yet?

Miles Bridges, Jaren Jackson Jr., Josh Langford, Nick Ward and Cassius Winston led arguably the most talent-ridden team in the Tom Izzo era just two short years ago.

Michigan State had its best regular season in school history, winning the Big Ten title but fell short in the conference tournament. That didn’t seem to matter because the Spartans were built to last in the tournament, especially after toughing out a tumultuous season in terms of off-the-court attention, right?

Wrong. Michigan State was bounced in the second round of the NCAA tournament by an average Syracuse team and sent home with nothing to show for a 30-plus win year.

With Bridges and Jackson Jr. gone, no one could have expected the type of success Michigan State experienced in 2018-19 — especially with Langford out for the second half of the year and Ward missing a month near the end of the season.

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Xavier Tillman stepped up, Cassius Winston was the Big Ten Player of the Year, Kenny Goins hit big shot after big shot, Matt McQuaid became one heck of a leader and guys like Gabe Brown and Aaron Henry continued to grow. Heck, even Foster Loyer had a career game against Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament on the Spartans’ way to a championship.

Michigan State won the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles, beat Michigan three times in a month and made a Final Four run, topping a Duke team that had three NBA lottery picks.

Goins and McQuaid are now gone, though, and those are two potential captain figures missing ahead of the 2019-20 season. But will that matter?

It shouldn’t as Izzo is likely to have the deepest team he’s ever coached in East Lansing suit up in the fall.

Winston will be that captain and leader along with Tillman and Langford. Kyle Ahrens will bring a veteran presence off the bench and the Spartans will likely go with rising sophomore Henry on the wing. At the four, though, there’ll be plenty of debate as to who should get the nod. Will it be Thomas Kithier or potential-through-the-roof big man Marcus Bingham Jr.? Heck, could it be incoming freshman Malik Hall?

The options are endless, but whoever gets the nod will have to watch their backs as the job won’t be safe due to talented depth pieces.

At the one, you have Winston followed by Loyer and even Rocket Watts can play point along with two-guard. At that two-guard, Langford will get the start and Watts should be right behind, but Brown could also spend time there.

Now on to the forwards. Brown is a wing so he can be either a small forward or shooting guard for the Spartans. Henry will start and potentially Kithier as well, but don’t sleep on Hall, Ahrens, Bingham Jr. or even incoming freshman Julius Marble who was a surprise star at Moneyball.

Tillman will be the starting center and Bingham Jr. will likely be right behind and Marble could even slide over into that spot and be a Ward-type (with more athleticism).

This team is easily 12-13 guys deep and each one of them can play quality minutes. Is it the most talented team in Izzo’s tenure? It’s hard to argue that over the team from two years ago, but Izzo has never quite had depth like this where he can plug and play 2-3 guys at each spot with no major drop-off (outside of point guard).

Michigan State is already earning plenty of respect nationally as the preseason No. 1 team and depth is what could win this team some titles.