Michigan State basketball: Best-case scenario starting 5 for 2023-24

The offseason is here, unfortunately, and Michigan State basketball has about seven months to figure out its roster construction for the 2023-24 campaign.

The Spartans lost to Kansas State in the Sweet 16 and a win may have set up one of the more wide-open roads to the Final Four in quite some time with FAU upsetting Tennessee, San Diego State beating Alabama, and Creighton being the toughest opponent left for the Wildcats in their road to the national title game.

It’s a tough pill to swallow.

But let’s feel a little better about ourselves and project the best-case scenario lineup for next year.

Point guard: AJ Hoggard, Senior

A senior AJ Hoggard at the point would be huge for this team and he’ll be back after being one of the top assist men in the Big Ten and he will likely finish his career near the top of MSU’s all-time assist leaders.

Hoggard averaged a career-best 12.9 points per game to go along with 5.9 assists which was 12th in the country. His turnovers were up slightly, but he still showed that he could be a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover point guard which is all you can really ask for. He was an elite passer and got better offensively as the season progressed.

He even added a decent jump shot this season that could be improved with another full offseason and if he can even shoot 35 percent from three next year, he could be a problem.

This is the leader that the team needs.