The ball is officially in Tom Izzo’s court

The window for players to enter the transfer portal has officially closed. May 1 was the deadline for college basketball players to enter the portal, so now that this day has finally come Michigan State basketball fans don’t have to worry about more Spartans entering the portal.

Another thing that we, and more importantly Tom Izzo, know is the entire pool of players eligible to transfer to a new program.

As you all know, Michigan State has already earned a transfer commitment this offseason from forward Frankie Fidler. But many, myself included, think that Izzo can’t stop there. Most fans think that Izzo now needs to turn his attention to grabbing a center from the portal.

This is something that Izzo hasn’t seemed interested in doing quite yet because he has not been publicly linked with any center in the portal so far. But now that May 1 has passed, the ball is officially in Izzo’s court and it’s time for him to make his move.

It’s clear that Izzo won’t ever be someone that moves extremely fast in the portal. And to be honest, I’m not bothered by that. So even though Izzo hasn’t contacted a center in the portal yet, I’ve still held out hope that he will as we move later into the spring portal cycle.

We now find ourselves at the end of that cycle, and as I mentioned we now know every player available in the portal. Part of me thinks that maybe Izzo is waiting for the portal to close so he knows every center that he could potentially target. If that was his strategy, the time for him to act is now.

I think it will be a huge mistake for Izzo to not get a center out of the portal. Betting on his guys last season didn’t work out like we all hoped, so it’d be a shame for him to do the same thing again. The other centers on the roster are capable players, but I don’t think they’re at the level where they can be legit starters at the Big Ten level.

So pairing them with a center from the portal who can start is the option I, and most of Spartan Nation, hope to see Izzo run with. We’ll eventually find out what Izzo decides to do, I just hope he makes the decision that seems so obvious to us all and grab a center from the portal.