Divine Ugochukwu's first season with Michigan State has been a bit of a roller coaster, and it may be headed back down after an apparent injury suffered on Wednesday night in Minneapolis.
Ugochukwu was replaced in the starting lineup by Jordan Scott on Wednesday, and came off the bench to spell Jeremy Fears at the point. Unfortunately, though, he left the game suddenly near the end of the first half, limping a little, and favoring one foot.
When he got to the end of the bench, it looked like he took off a shoe with a trainer, but we never saw him re-enter the game.
That whole storyline kind of got lost in the shuffle because Michigan State was getting run off the floor at The Barn, falling behind by 16 late before furiously coming back in the final two minutes, nearly pulling off an Iowa (if you know, you know).
Tom Izzo was asked about Divine's health after the game, and his answer was grim.
Izzo says Divine Ugochukwu's foot injury "doesn't look good." But he does not know the severity of it just yet.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) February 5, 2026
Seeing as the team went to the locker room shortly after Ugochukwu's injury and the training staff had a chance to evaluate his foot a little longer and consult with Izzo, the head coach saying this is not a good sign. He must know that the X-rays will likely come with bad news.
There goes Michigan State's backcourt depth.
Divine Ugochukwu just can't catch a break
When Izzo landed Ugochukwu in the transfer portal, the doubters came out in full force to oppose the move because it wasn't an elite two-guard like everyone had been begging for. Instead, Izzo got a guy who fit his system and who didn't mind coming off the bench as a backup -- he had starting experience as a freshman with Miami.
Ugochukwu's season started off slowly, but then he turned some heads with a breakout performance against Penn State. He entered the starting lineup as the team's two-guard, and then hit another rough patch. Divine then got to play hero again versus Rutgers, hitting the game-tying three to send the game to overtime.
Everyone thought that might be the turning point he needed to head back in the right direction, but this injury on Wednesday just set him back again.
Hopefully it isn't as bad as it sounds, but I wouldn't be shocked to see Ugochukwu become the latest Michigan State basketball player to sport the walking boot. I hope that's not the case.
I guess we get more Trey Fort now?