Moneyball is a Michigan State basketball fan favorite event in the middle of the summer and it gets a ton of attention because every single healthy Spartan participates in the pro-am.
So when the rosters were announced and we saw Matthew Watkins named to one of the teams but sharpshooting junior Kur Teng was nowhere to be found, it was clear that something was a-miss.
Although it wasn’t widely reported on earlier this offseason, Teng apparently had foot surgery to repair something and he’s still on the mend. His absence from the Moneyball rosters wasn’t a mistake but rather a precaution from Tom Izzo who needs his backup shooting guard healthy for the start of the season.
The last thing any of us needs is another stress fracture that affects an entire season.
Fortunately, it sounds like Teng is going to be back sooner rather than later, telling Chris Solari of the Detroit Free Press that he’s “kind of tricking in day by day” to workouts with the team and he expects to be a full-go next month.
Will we see him at Moneyball with a surprise appearance? It’s possible, seeing as the event runs until late July, but I doubt that Izzo will want him to even take that risk.
Either way, this is great news for the 2026-27 outlook.
Death, taxes, Michigan State foot injuries
I don’t know what it is or why it only seemingly happens to Michigan State, but the foot injuries that the Spartans suffer every year need to be studied.
Michigan State needs to change its nickname from “PGU” to “Stress Fracture U”.
I’m not sure what Teng’s actual injury was, but considering it was his foot and it needed surgery to repair, I’m going to assume a stress fracture what it was. It could have been a multitude of things, but the stress fractures have plagued Michigan State so of course that’s what it probably was.
Teng does feel confident that he’ll be returning next month, though. He’ll be back in time for fall conditioning and the start of real practice and as long as this injury didn’t affect his confidence, I think he’s going to have a huge season off the bench.
The soon-to-be junior guard might just be the best shooter on Michigan States’s roster and he’s going to need that confidence if he’s going to make somewhere around 40 percent of his threes.
Let’s hope this is the only offseason foot injury for the Spartans.
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