Carlos Medlock Jr. proving at Moneyball that he’s going to be a serious weapon for MSU

The story of Carlos Medlock Jr. as a Michigan State Spartan is an interesting one.

When Michigan State offered the four-star point guard, he was a mere three-star, ranked 178th in the country according to 247Sports. Medlock’s name was on the radar and his stock was rising, but no one could have guessed that he would have launched up the rankings the way he did.

Two days after Michigan State offered, he jumped 75 spots in the 247Sports rankings and then he hovers around the No. 100 spot for a couple of months. Two months after he committed to Michigan State, he made a 30-spot leap and then became a top-50 player in January.

Now, he’s set to back up the best point guard in the country and he’s proving at Moneyball that he’s going to be a weapon off the bench for Michigan State.

In just one calendar year, Medlock went from the 178th-ranked recruit in the nation to a top-50 freshman who figures to have a large role on a top national title contender.

His Moneyball performances have done nothing but make Michigan State fans believe that he’s going to be really good… this year.

Medlock has been confident, he’s been aggressive, and he’s been making defenders look silly for the past month at Moneyball. He’s had some elite highlights — like the ones below — and he has the eighth-most points at Moneyball despite missing two games. Medlock is leading all scorers with 32.8 points per game.

The No. 1 scorer, owner of the most points in a game so far (48), and the top 3-point shooter in the league based on threes made per game (4.0) happens to be Michigan State’s backup point guard.

This backcourt is going to be really good and Medlock’s going to be a demon.

Michigan State could see addition by subtraction

When Divine Ugochukwu appeared that he’d be coming back for the 2026-27 season, I figured that Medlock would see a tertiary role. He was going to be the third point guard just based on the fact that Izzo likes to prioritize — and stay loyal to — his vets.

Even though Ugochukwu is gone, I think Izzo would have realized pretty quickly who the more talented backup point guard option was. Medlock would have been impossible to limit to a third-string role.

Maybe he was never going to be, but Ugochukwu’s departure made the situation open up that much more for Medlock to ease into that backup point guard spot.

Instead of limiting a backup point guard who could be a Day 1 starter on a lot of power conference teams, Medlock is going to carve out a role and provide an offensive boost off the bench. He could even be in a small-ball lineup with Jeremy Fears where he plays more of a scoring role instead of a facilitator. I’ve really enjoyed watching his Moneyball highlights so far, and I think it’s a good sign of what we can expect from the true freshman.

He’s not going to be a 15 points per game scorer immediately, but I could see him becoming a Jase Richardson-esque crafty offensive weapon.

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