Michigan State return ‘possible’ for Jaxon Kohler despite interest from blue bloods

A couple of days ago, I wrote about how a judge’s ruling regarding the NCAA’s five-in-five rule pertaining to the 2022 class was going to directly affect Michigan State.

Well, it’s already happening.

The Spartans weren’t expecting to get anyone back, but the floodgates were about to open for the rest of college basketball. Fifth-year players were going to come back in droves.

Apparently the Spartans could get someone back because of this Colorado judge’s ruling. According to Jon Rothstein, Jaxon Kohler is “exploring” a college return for a fifth season and he’s received interest from a few programs already. He has reportedly heard from a couple of blue bloods but a return to East Lansing for one more season is reportedly “possible”.

Kansas and Kentucky would probably bother a lot of Michigan State fans because they will be directly competing against the Spartans for a national title. I would say the same for BYU, which will also be a program to be reckoned with come March, but the Spartans don’t have a history with the Cougars and that was the school that many believed he would look at with a fifth-year return because it’s where he grew up.

As for Kansas and Kentucky, it would feel really weird and almost wrong to see him wearing those uniforms.

At least at BYU, he would be playing close to his family and he’d probably be living out somewhat of a childhood dream by playing for his home-state program. He just spent some time with the Utah Jazz on their Summer League team so he wouldn’t have to do a lot of packing.

Anywhere but Kansas or Kentucky.

Michigan State would be fortunate to get Jaxon Kohler back

Kohler wasn’t even on the radar of fifth-year options for Michigan State because he wasn’t publicly exploring that option like Carson Cooper or Tre Holloman.

But here we are.

Michigan State has somewhat of a need at power forward just because Cam Ward has zero starting experience and Kaleb Glenn hasn’t played in two years and is coming off a major injury. Coen Carr and Jesse McCulloch are also options there, but that’s not their natural position. That means that Glenn and Ward would be holding it down there, but what would happen in the case of an injury?

It’s always nice to have extra insurance, but it would likely limit the role of Ward more than a lot of us would like. Glenn could always play a hybrid 3/4 role.

Kohler would still make Michigan State a top 3/4 national title favorite, in my opinion. If Kohler were to return to this team already in place, Michigan State would probably be right behind Duke and Florida in the preseason rankings. That would make the Spartans the Big Ten favorite as well.

I don’t know about you, but I’m cool with Kohler assuming a starting role again, giving Michigan State around 15/10 a night with Ward and Glenn backing him up.

I also don’t want to see Kohler in another jersey.

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