Couch: Analyzing Michigan State basketball's 2022-23 roster, player by player
Michigan State opens its men's basketball season Monday night at home against Northern Arizona. Lansing State Journal columnist Graham Couch breaks down the Spartans’ roster.
PROJECTED STARTERS
PG AJ Hoggard, 6-4, junior
This MSU team is Hoggard’s show now. There’s no debate that he’s the Spartans’ primary point guard. They need him to both take care them and to be a force and to do it all the time. Hoggard showed in the latter half of last season that he has that in him. Statistically, he had a good year, leading the Big Ten in assists and doing so with a 2.5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Most promising was how he controlled games and big moments late in the season, memorably against Purdue in the Big Ten tournament. Hoggard is a player who can cause havoc in the paint, creating for himself and others, even when teams don’t respect his outside shot. We’ll see if he can get them to respect his shot this season. He’s worked hard on it and hit two 3s in MSU’s exhibition game. He said recently that if he can make 35% of his long-range looks, it’ll force teams to play him honestly and that’ll change a lot for him.
SG Jaden Akins, 6-4, sophomore
There is no player MSU’s coaches are higher on than Akins. They think he can be a difference-maker on both ends of the court. We’ll see how quickly he can show that potential, coming back from a stress reaction in his foot that forced him to miss nearly this entire fall. Akins and Hoggard are MSU’s best chances at truly having a next-level player on the roster. He also gives the Spartans versatility in the backcourt. He’ll play both shooting guard and on the wing and play a big role in trying to make up for MSU’s rebounding deficiencies elsewhere. MSU’s coaches believe he has a higher ceiling than Max Christie, the player they just lost after one season to the pros. Whether Akins begins to show that this season will determine a lot about MSU’s ceiling as a team.
F Malik Hall, 6-8, senior
Hall and Hauser want to play together in tandem this season, especially at the two forward spots, rather than platooning at power forward as they did a year ago. That means, for the time being at least, Hall begins on the wing. I think he’ll play at least as much power forward, where he'll more regularly have athletic advantages. More importantly than his position, the Spartans need Hall to be an impact player every night. He’s shown the ability to take over in spurts. He’s a smart player and has a wide array of offensive skills. But he’s sometimes disappeared for halves or games. This is his fourth season now. The COVID interruption is no longer an excuse for stunted development. Same for inconsistent playing time. He'll be on the court. MSU needs the best of Hall every night. It also needs his leadership and voice. He’s the captain. He wants to lead. Teammates listen to him. Will he be that guy, though, in tense and key moments? That’s still in question.
PF Joey Hauser, 6-9, graduate
Hauser’s return for another season was a gift to MSU’s program. Especially since he looks in a better place mentally and physically than he’s ever been during his time at MSU. The Spartans need this confident and high-on-life Hauser to last. They need his outside shooting, his ball-movement, his cerebral sense of the game. Hauser is the key to the Spartans’ small-ball lineup, which might be their go-to group. Hauser’s finish to last season was promising. This season, he’ll play a mix of power forward and center again. If he’s hitting shots and pulling opposing big men away from the basket, he’ll be a massive attribute for this MSU team.
C Mady Sissoko, 6-9, junior
A lot is riding on Sissoko this season. Enough to make MSU fans nervous. MSU needs him to be a presence on the glass and defensively and to set good screens and roll hard to the basket. If he’s adequate at those things, that’ll change what the Spartans can become as a team. They don’t have anyone else in his mold, unless freshman Carson Cooper winds up progressing rapidly in season. Another area to keep an eye on is Sissko’s foul trouble. He played sparingly each of the last two seasons, but he averaged 9.9 fouls per 40 minutes last season. In other words, if Sissoko were to regularly play half the game this year, at last year’s foul rate, he’d foul out of almost every game.
MORE: Couch: For MSU basketball, a whole lot is riding on unproven centers Mady Sissoko and Jaxon Kohler
IN THE ROTATION
G Tyson Walker, 6-1, senior
Walker is an incredibly important piece to this MSU basketball team — perhaps the Spartans best scoring guard and also its backup point guard. He’ll split minutes between the two guard positions. He’s critical to MSU versatility and late-game efficiency. A 47% 3-point shooter last year, Walker is MSU’s top long-range threat. He’s also MSU’s best guard at creating good shots for himself. Late in games and late in the shot clock, the Spartans can put the ball in his hands and get a quality look. With Akins out with a foot injury, Walker’s been primarily playing shooting guard. That’s likely to lean closer to a 50-50 split, point guard/shooting guard, as Akins returns.
G/F Pierre Brooks, 6-6, sophomore
MSU could use a big jump from Brooks in his second season. Brooks has great range as a shooter. He just hasn’t shown it yet in games at MSU. His sizable frame could come in handy, too, if he winds up being part of MSU’s small-ball equation, perhaps playing everywhere from power forward to shooting guard. He’s part of MSU’s lineup flexibility. And, in a smaller rotation this season, the Spartans need him to not only defend consistently to the point that Tom Izzo wants him on the floor, but to also provide some scoring and shooting pop off the bench.
C Jaxon Kohler, 6-9, freshman
Kohler is going to become a fan favorite because of his array of offensive moves and his touch around the basketball. The Spartans really haven’t had a big man like this before. There’s some Nick Ward in him offensively around the rim. Some Goran Suton, too. A little Derrick Nix in how he sees the court. Maybe the closest comparison is Erazem Lorbek. But he’s got to hold up defensively and on the glass for those offensive skills to be effective. In the seasons to come, I think MSU will play a lot of offense through Kohler. This year, he’ll be a guy that gives them a different look and an offensive threat in the post off the bench.
PG Tre Holloman, 6-2, freshman
Holloman is going to play because he has an understanding of who he is to this MSU team right now. His role when he’s in the game at point guard is to be a pest defensively and push the ball. He’ll do that. Similar to Akins a year ago, he won’t try to do too much. He looks like he belongs and he gives the Spartans a point guard capable of getting MSU through a few minutes when Hoggard or Walker isn’t running the show.
IN RESERVE
C Carson Cooper, 6-11, freshman
Cooper is going to wind up being a really good player at MSU. He was a heckuva find late in the recruiting process. He’s a terrific athlete, fairly skilled, a player who will learn quickly. The question is the extent of his role this season. He won’t redshirt and Sissoko’s foul trouble will create some opportunities. But will Cooper develop quickly enough to push for regular meaningful minutes this season? I don’t know. There are, however, going to be points in time when the Spartans need him.
F Jason Whitens, 6-6, graduate
Whitens is a seasoned college basketball player, a 25-year-old graduate transfer preferred walk-on from Western Michigan, where he was a scholarship player. He tore up his knee in MSU’s exhibition game last season and opted to come back for another. He’s on scholarship this season because MSU had one available. With a smaller-than-usual roster and his experience, he’ll contribute here and there as a fringe rotation player. If there’s an injury or someone else falls out of favor, you could see Whitens with a regular role. He’s a dirty-work type of player. Izzo likes those guys.
DEEP IN RESERVE
PG Davis Smith, 6-0, junior
Izzo continues to say he isn’t afraid to use Smith in a pinch. The challenge for Smith (the son of Spartan legend Steve Smith) is finding a situation where that pinch exists. There are three point guards ahead of him on the roster. But he’s veteran player, well-liked, a guy who could start at the Division-II level, but after flirting with the transfer portal opted to stay. A good guy to have in the program.
G Nick Sanders, 6-0, freshman
Sanders is Barry Sanders' son and that’s pretty cool for those of us who grew up in the 1990s in Michigan. He’ll be a fan favorite off the bench who, given the smaller numbers on this roster, plays an important role in practice and on the scout team.
G Steven Izzo, 5-8, senior
No one has ever drawn louder cheers in garbage time than Izzo, Tom’s son. The student section wants him to shoot every time he’s in the game. He’s yet to score in his MSU career. That’ll change at some point this season.
JOINING LATER?
G Keon Coleman, 6-4, sophomore
I would be stunned if Coleman didn’t play basketball again, once the MSU football season is done. The Spartans’ win at Illinois on Saturday increased their chances of reaching a bowl game, which would delay Coleman joining the basketball team by a month. That’ll hurt his chances of having an on-court role. But, given that he now knows MSU’s system and what college basketball is about and that the Spartans don’t have the greatest depth, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Coleman become a spot player this season. He's certainly athletic enough to help.
F Maliq Carr, 6-5, sophomore
Had Carr’s redshirt sophomore football season gone as he hoped, he’d be on his way to the NFL draft after MSU's football season. Instead, his father said recently, that he’d be surprised if Carr didn’t play hoops again this year. Carr enjoyed the experience last winter. It’s hard to imagine that he'll carve out a role on the court, but, like Coleman, he’ll be more comfortable with everything and he's talented enough to push his teammates in practice.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsjc.om. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State basketball: Analyzing MSU's 2022-23 roster, player by player
