I know, I know, I'm saturating everyone with transfer portal center options left and right, but I'm only looking at guys who I think could immediately make Michigan State a national title favorite.
Earlier, I spoke about a Colorado transfer and over the weekend, I revealed that my ideal Michigan State transfer portal addition would be Alabama's Aiden Sherrell. The Crimson Tide big man didn't exactly give the most convincing answer to "are you staying at Alabama?" after his squad lost in the Sweet 16 to Michigan. He's a Detroit native and grew up rooting for Michigan State.
The fit makes sense.
Another potential fit emerged on Monday afternoon with the announcement of his eventual portal entry, and it's a familiar face. Michigan State actually just saw this big man in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, beating him in the second round to advance to the Sweet 16.
NEWS: Louisville's Sananda Fru will enter the transfer portal, agent Milan Nikolic tells DraftExpress.
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) March 30, 2026
The 6'11 German center was the ACC's most efficient scorer, ranking among the conference's top offensive rebounders and shot-blockers.
No. 2 player in the portal, per DXV. pic.twitter.com/ajlVl1J2SN
Sananda Fru was a solid big man for the Cardinals this season, but he put up kind of a dud against the Spartans in the Round of 32, scoring just two points with six rebounds and a block.
Michigan State needs a big-bodied center who has experience and who can take Ethan Taylor under his wing, and Fru could be just that. The second half of his lone season with Louisville was pretty disappointing, however. In his first 23 games with Louisville in 2025-26, Fru scored 10-plus points 15 times. In his final 12 games, he reached 10 points just twice. Also in those first 23 games, he had five-plus boards 19 times. In the final 12, that happened just six times.
That's pretty concerning for a guy with one year of eligibility left.
Could Tom Izzo push for Sananda Fru?
While I do think Fru would be a positive addition to the post, I feel like the asking price is going to be way too high considering he's a former European star who came in as one of the top 2025 prospects out of Germany. He was an elite international prospect, but he put up pretty modest offensive numbers despite having an incredible field goal percentage.
In 22 minutes per game, Louisville's starting big man averaged 9.0 points, took just eight threes all year, turned the ball over 1.4 times per game, and shot just 61.1% from the line. The asking price goes up when he see he shot 75.3% from the field, grabbed 2.8 offensive rebounds per game, and was a heck of a rim protector.
I just don't think that Tom Izzo is going to spend millions of dollars on a potential starting center when it feels like he's looking to go to the highest bidder -- he played a ton of minutes on a tourney team.
Izzo doesn't really go after guys who transfer for reasons other than going from a small program to an elite one or who saw coaching changes at previous programs. You don't see him going after guys who played 22 minutes per game and started 29 times for a team that earned a 6-seed in the NCAA Tournament and battled Michigan State for 40 minutes.
To me, that sounds like he might be chasing a bag. That's not Izzo's game.