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Michigan State basketball: Malik Hall could come back sooner than expected

By Connor Muldowney

Michigan State's Malik Hall gives encouragement from the bench during the second half in the game against Purdue on Monday, Jan. 16, 2023, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.230116 Msu Purdue Bball 186a
Michigan State's Malik Hall gives encouragement from the bench during the second half in the game against Purdue on Monday, Jan. 16, 2023, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.230116 Msu Purdue Bball 186a /
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When Malik Hall went down with an injury against Illinois and never returned, Michigan State basketball fans immediately thought the worst.

Did he re-injure his foot that kept him out about a month earlier in the season? If that was the case, he’d likely miss most of Big Ten play moving forward and the Spartans would have to fight and claw their way to an NCAA Tournament berth.

We had to wait until Monday right before the Purdue game to get the bad news that he was in a walking boot and would likely be out a “while” and Tom Izzo even said possibly a long while.

To everyone that knows about these foot/ankle injuries, it usually means that they’re out for a very long time and potentially the rest of the year (Josh Langford flashbacks).

But we got some good news on the Hall front on Tuesday.

Michigan State basketball may get Hall back soon

Hall is reportedly already out of his walking boot as of today and that bad news that we all received yesterday seemed to completely turn around.

Izzo still “expects him to miss a couple of weeks” is an encouraging statement because we originally thought he’d be out a couple of months. And that could also mean he might be back sooner than a couple of weeks from now.

If Michigan State can just tread water while he misses 4-5 games, it can still push for that Big Ten title. The Spartans showed that they can play with anyone even without Hall, bringing Purdue down to the wire and losing in the final seconds, 64-63. And that’s the best team in the conference, on paper.

Michigan State, in my opinion, is a top-two or three team in the Big Ten this year and probably should be something like 14-4 right now. The Spartans melted down in the final 10 minutes when Hall went down at Illinois after controlling the entire game and if he doesn’t leave the contest, MSU wins. Instead, they lost and then fell by a single point against the nation’s No. 3 team without Malik.

With him, this team can beat anyone and is a serious contender for the Big Ten title.

Tuesday afternoon brought us some great news.

dark. Next. 5 bold predictions for MSU basketball in January

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