Michigan State Basketball: 3 reasons to be optimistic about 2020-21 season

Michigan State basketball is entering a question mark-filled 2020-21 season but there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

Are you as tired of the “will there or won’t there be a season” debate as much as I am? Now that we know the fate of the Big Ten’s football season, Michigan State fans can look forward to and focus on the 2020-21 basketball season.

While there’s still a possibility that basketball may not happen as well, it’s a much easier sport to police because of the limited number of players on each team. Football teams are hard to police because you have about 100 guys to keep track of and make sure they’re all following protocols and not going out and contracting the novel coronavirus.

If basketball happens, which many are optimistic that it will, Michigan State will be one of the teams to beat.

Gone are Cassius Winston and Xavier Tillman who are both receiving some first-round NBA draft grades and returning are Aaron Henry, Rocket Watts, Josh Langford and a host of other key role players. Joey Hauser is also eligible which is huge for the 2020-21 outlook.

Many are assuming that just because Cassius and Tillman are gone that Michigan State will fade into the middle of the pack in the Big Ten standings, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. This team is going to be incredibly tough to beat.

Here’s why we should all be optimistic about the Spartans in 2020-21 despite key losses.