Death. Taxes. Michigan State basketball players suffering foot injuries during critical offseason developmental timelines.
That's right, folks. It wouldn't be a true Michigan State hoops offseason if we didn't have some sort of foot injury affecting the team's depth and on-court chemistry.
The latest victim? Redshirt freshman big man Jesse McCulloch.
Lansing State Journal columnist Graham Couch hosted a mailbag episode of his podcast "Couch and The Rube" on Friday and one of the questions was about the health of a certain redshirt freshman big man. The answer was not very surprising as Couch said that he heard it was another stress fracture type of injury that seems to affect Michigan State hoops every offseason.
If you fast forward to around the 34:40 mark, you'll hear Couch answer a question about McCulloch being spotted in a walking boot around campus recently.
Part 2 of our Friday show, answering your questions, begins now. Watch and listen here: https://t.co/qer9EwYaJo https://t.co/UibaH5tlVe
— Couch and The Rube (@couchandtherube) June 13, 2025
In just the past few years, it's been Jaden Akins and Jaxon Kohler who have missed extended time with stress fractures which Izzo probably just has to add to his offseason itinerary at this point.
McCulloch is expected to play a major role on the 2025-26 Spartans after redshirting this past season because, well, the team was just too deep. The second-year big unselfishly redshirted and got to soak in all the coaching and practice experience for a larger role in his first active season. Now, he'll be out likely for a few months with this injury, but as Couch stated on his podcast, it's better that this is happening now than in 3-4 months when he'd be forced to miss games.
Kohler and Carson Cooper are the team's two healthy centers right now, but McCulloch is going to be called on plenty this season. Hopefully he fully heals with no setbacks before the season tips off.