Hey Spartan fans, Michigan State basketball is back. That was probably the best sentence you’ve ready in months. Football hasn’t been going well without a win in 1.5 months so everyone has already turned their attention to basketball.
On Tuesday, the Spartans hosted No. 4 UConn and fell short 78-70 in a huge exhibition showdown. The Huskies controlled the game and caused a brief instance of panic but everyone has since realized that it’s just the preseason and you can’t put any stock into these games that mean nothing.
Michigan State’s flaws were exposed and now Tom Izzo gets to fix them before it’s too late. Honestly, that was the best-case scenario.
It wasn’t all bad against UConn, though. Michigan State needed some role players to step up and exceed expectations this year, and three looked poised to do that against UConn.
Which Spartans are going to exceed expectations this season?
Jesse McCulloch
Jesse McCulloch has probably the most popular pick among fans since the Incarnate Word exhibition game a couple of weeks ago. He led the team is scoring and did it in all sorts of ways from the paint, to touch shots from mid-range, to shooting threes. Not only did he look better on the offensive end, but he held his own defensively, too.
Against UConn, McCulloch played well again — outside of giving up a few too many offensive boards — and finished with eight points, five rebounds, and a block in just 17 minutes. He’s was always productive when given the shot, but it looks like his game is coming together nicely this year.
It’s a night-and-day difference between the type of player he was last year vs. this year through a couple of exhibition games. He’s going to be fun to watch.
Jordan Scott
A lot of people have high expectations for Jordan Scott already, but on a national level, he’s extremely overlooked. There have been murmurs about Scott being an NBA prospect as soon as 2027 but they aren’t full-blown conversations yet.
They should be.
Scott looked like a pro against UConn and didn’t even play his best game. He had seven points, six rebounds, and a block while shooting 3-for-8 from the floor. A box score watcher would have said he played horribly — don’t be one of those. He was much more comfortable on offense, he clearly added muscle to his frame, and he defended at an elite level.
Coming into his freshman year, he wasn’t expected to be much more than a role player through his first couple of seasons but he’s emerged as arguably the second-best player on the team. He’s Michigan State’s best-kept secret, but that secret is about to get out.
Ethan Taylor
It’s hard to say a former five-star center is going to “exceed expectations” but there were some doubts about him creeping in after an underwhelming senior season at Link Academy and a slight drop in recruiting rankings.
It felt like Izzo may have been getting another project much like Xavier Booker was and Marcus Bingham Jr. before him. One of those guys grew into a good player at Michigan State and the other transferred before his junior year. So far, it looks like Taylor is going to avoid that “project” season and become a legit Day 1 contributor.
He kind of has to with just two centers on the roster.
Taylor looked really good in the first exhibition against Incarnate Word, he earned a ton of offseason praise from Izzo, and then he looked like the better of the team’s two centers against UConn. He wasn’t expected to start this year, but I’d be shocked if he wasn’t in the starting lineup by the end of the season.
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