The offseason has been a busy one for Tom Izzo and Michigan State hoops. The Spartans had to rebuild a roster after losing the core of Jase Richardson, Jaden Akins, Tre Holloman, Frankie Fidler, Szymon Zapala, and Xavier Booker.
Gehrig Normand, too, left, which hurt the team’s depth, but some intriguing young pieces like Kur Teng and Jesse McCulloch return along with a solid two-man freshman class of Cam Ward and Jordan Scott.
Izzo has done a great job reconstructing the reigning Big Ten champion’s roster, adding the two freshmen above as well as Kaleb Glenn (though he suffered a long-term injury), Trey Fort, and Divine Ugochukwu. He engineered the portal window effectively, and now he has a roster that’s good enough to repeat in 2025-26.
The Spartans aren’t getting quite enough love on a national level, but some outlets are high on key players who could aid the repeat efforts.
In fact, Teng was named one of 10 players who will see the biggest scoring improvement this season by Sleepers Media.
Every year we see a group of players make a jump when it comes to points per game. These are 10 players we are most likely to see an increase in the scoring column this season. pic.twitter.com/mdXUgm5Otg
— Sleepers Media 💤🏀 (@SleepersMedia) September 30, 2025
This is a solid list, and a couple of Big Ten players were named, but Teng at the top feels right. It’s not in any specific order, but I’d be willing to bet that Teng has one of the biggest jumps of any scorer in college basketball this season.
And while 0.5 points per game means that there’s nowhere to really go but up, I’m going to guess he averages somewhere in the 10-12 points per game range. He could be one of the team’s best offensive weapons, and Izzo has already said he’s the best shooter on the roster.
Buy stock in Teng now if you want to look like a genius come March.