Michigan State Basketball: Mady Sissoko deserves shot to prove himself

With the departures of Julius Marble and Marcus Bingham Jr., Michigan State basketball fans have hit the panic button but Mady Sissoko deserves a chance.

This was expected to be a busy offseason for Tom Izzo in the transfer portal with so many bigs departing and such little experience in the post returning.

Michigan State basketball watched as Marcus Bingham Jr. entered the NBA draft and Julius Marble hit the transfer portal, but Izzo didn’t plan to do much of anything about that. He didn’t reach out to any big men publicly and only really attempted to address the wing, but both Jalen Bridges and Micah Parrish committed elsewhere.

Everyone just assumed that Jaxon Kohler was going to be the starter and play 25-30 minutes per game at center for Michigan State with these departures in the post, and that may very well happen, but the immediate disregard for Mady Sissoko has been puzzling.

I get it, he hasn’t played much in the post and saw his minutes decrease in 2021-22 from his true freshman season so the common assumption is that he’s “unplayable” for more than a few minutes per game, but he is moving forward this offseason with the plan to be a legit starter or No. 2 option at the position. He quite literally has to improve.

And he deserves a chance to prove himself before everyone plays the “unplayable” card.

As we have come to know over the years, not many Michigan State bigs have been all that dominant over their first two seasons. Guys like Deyonta Davis, Nick Ward, and Jaren Jackson Jr. have been the exceptions.

Just take a look at some freshman numbers from past centers:

• Derrick Nix: 2.3 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 50% FG in 7.8 minutes
• Adreian Payne: 2.5 points, 2.4 rebounds, 47% FG in 9.0 minutes
• Matt Costello: 1.5 points, 1.3 rebounds, 47% FG in 6.1 minutes
• Xavier Tillman: 2.8 points, 2.6 rebounds, 65% FG in 8.7 minutes
• Marcus Bingham Jr.: 1.0 points, 1.1 rebounds, 29% FG in 3.6 minutes
• Julius Marble: 1.7 points, 1.5 rebounds, 56% FG in 5.5 minutes

Some of these guys’ sophomore numbers jumped drastically while others barely saw an increase. In Mady’s case, I’m going to just call his freshman 2020-21 season a wash because of COVID-19 really having an effect on potential development.

Let’s just go ahead and say 2021-22 was his real “freshman” year. These are his numbers which are all very similar to his predecessors at the center position:

• Sissoko: 1.1 points, 1.0 rebounds, 63% FG in 4.5 minutes

As you can see, he wasn’t exactly an extreme outlier to guys like Nix, Payne, Costello, Tillman, Bingham Jr., and Marble in their freshman seasons.

Once these guys saw an increase in their minutes, they were much more productive and proved to be more than just end of bench players which many fans assume Sissoko to be. Here are their numbers in their first years of extended (15+ minutes) playing time:

• Nix (Junior): 8.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 56% FG in 18.9 minutes
• Payne (Sophomore): 7.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, 57% FG in 17.9 minutes
• Costello (Junior): 7.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 58% FG in 20.4 minutes
• Tillman (Sophomore): 10.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, 61% FG in 24.0 minutes
• Bingham Jr. (Senior): 9.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 53% FG in 18.7 minutes
• Marble (Junior – not quite 15 mpg): 6.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 59% FG in 14.4 minutes

As you can see, most of these guys don’t even break out or play more than 15 minutes per game until their junior or senior years. Heck, Bingham Jr. didn’t even average more than 11 minutes per game until he was a senior and he never averaged more than 20 and yet he was a top-tier defensive stopper in his final season.

It’s time to give Sissoko a break because nearly all Michigan State centers are raw in their first couple of years and then when they’re tasked with playing more minutes, they are more than capable bigs and usually break out as juniors or seniors.

Pump the breaks on the panic regarding Sissoko and realize that even though he’s looked pretty rough at times, he is on track with some of the other MSU bigs who have excelled in the green and white.