Michigan State basketball should pursue Dain Dainja in the portal

The search for a new post player from the transfer portal for Michigan State basketball continues, and yet another name has surfaced that Tom Izzo would be wise to reach out to. The Spartans desperately need help down low, and many options from the portal could immediately improve the team.

But Dain Dainja from Illinois is one of the top players I would pursue.

Dainja is a junior big man from Illinois. He is 6-foot-9 and 270 pounds and already has an extremely polished offensive game. This past season, he averaged 6.1 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. These numbers probably don’t jump out at you as being that impressive, but he did this on only 10.7 minutes played per game. So imagine how well he could do if he was seeing 20-25 minutes per game.

The Illinois transfer is someone who Izzo should reach out to for a few reasons.

The first and most obvious is that he is likely better than any big the Spartans have on their roster. I think he would immediately become the starter over Mady Sissoko, Carson Cooper, and Jaxon Kohler, so why not go after someone who's an upgrade?

Dainja is also an attractive portal target because he has already gone through the gauntlet of a Big Ten season. The Big Ten is one of the most physical conferences in the country, so he has already proven that be can go up against the tough post players featured in the conference and excel against them.

Even though I think Izzo would be wise to go after Dainja, I don’t think he’s an absolute must have. There are already better post players in the portal and likely more still to enter the portal. But when someone is out there that you know will immediately make Michigan State a lot better, then he should at least be receiving an initial call from MSU.