Former NBA player thinks Xavier Booker is “ready now”

There’s no denying that the biggest X-factor heading into Michigan State basketball’s season is Xavier Booker. He struggled to see the court last season for a variety of reasons, but the team needs him to be the best version of himself now more than ever.

Going into last season, many knew Booker would be more of a project than other five-stars. But I think most were surprised at just how much of a project he was.

Fast forward to this offseason, when Booker has nothing to do but work on his game, and it sounds like he is vastly improving and becoming the player we all thought he would be.

Stephen Bardo is a former NBA player from the mid-1990s and he posted the above clip recently about discussing Booker.

Bardo agrees with a lot of the discussion surrounding Booker last season, saying, “He just needed more experience… Xavier Booker just wasn’t ready.”

However, Bardo is hearing different things about Booker now. He is hearing that what we all hoped would occur is in fact happening this offseason.

“But I think he’s (Booker) ready now.” Bardo continued, “The word I’m getting out of Michigan State, he’s made a lot of progress in the spring.”

That last quote is the most encouraging because it only speaks about the spring. Knowing Booker made a ton of progress in the spring, imagine how much further he’s come since then now that we’re in July. And better yet, the season is still four months away, so he likely is going to keep improving even more.

A vastly improved Booker could be the difference between a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten season and competing for a championship. And by all accounts, it appears the latter is what is most likely to occur.