Michigan State basketball's Malik Hall to miss Oakland game, Rocket Watts' return

EAST LANSING — A long November blended into a long wait in December.

Tom Izzo and Michigan State basketball will break an 11-day layoff when they welcome Oakland to Breslin Center, done with finals and well-rested.

Yet still without Malik Hall.

The senior forward worked his way back into the Spartans’ practices in recent days, but Izzo ruled out Hall for Wednesday’s return to action.

“He actually did a few defensive sliding drills today. And I know that sounds crazy, but that was a big step in the right direction,” Izzo said Monday afternoon. “The biggest step is now (Tuesday). Is there any soreness from that? He's been shooting, doing layups, a little bit of working out, and he hasn't had any (soreness), and that's all positive.”

Wednesday’s game is the second of five straight at Breslin. And facing Oakland, along with former guard Rocket Watts, marks MSU’s penultimate in both the calendar year and non-conference play.

The Spartans (7-4, 1-1 Big Ten) will have nine days between facing the Golden Grizzlies (2-10) and hosting Buffalo on Dec. 30 before embarking on the bulk of Big Ten play, starting with a Jan. 3 game against Nebraska and the first of two rivalry games with Michigan on Jan. 7.

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Izzo said the goal remains to get Hall back for the Buffalo game. The 6-foot-7, 220-pound starter averaged 12.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in 32 minutes over the first four games, getting 20 points in a double-overtime win over Kentucky on Nov. 11 while playing 42 minutes. He suffered a stress reaction in his left foot and has not played since scoring 12 against Villanova on Nov. 18.

“The plan is to hopefully start playing in the Buffalo game, depending on how everything goes,” Izzo said, “and then what happens when he goes home and whether we can get him to keep on rehabbing and keep on getting in better and better shape. … What I'm hoping he does is gradually get back, as far as starting on the defensive and rebounding the ball, and then his shooting will be the last to come.”

Izzo said the players will get to go home for a few days for Christmas after Wednesday night’s game, then return to campus next Monday. The Spartans’ practices that night and the following two days will be self-focused before turning their attention to Buffalo.

“Because we still have some making up to do,” Izzo said. “I mean, we still missed out on a ton of practices about Michigan State.”

First up, though, is MSU’s annual matchup against Greg Kampe and Oakland — this year with the added twist of the return to Breslin of Watts. The 6-2 shooting guard from Detroit played his first two seasons with the Spartans before transferring to Mississippi State last year.

“It's gonna be a fun opportunity for us and also definitely a big opportunity for him to get back here and play,” said junior point guard A.J. Hoggard, who was a teammate of Watts in 2020-21. “But I just think we're going to approach the game as a regular game and just go out there and handle business how we should.”

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Watts averaged 7.7 points, 2.7 assists and 1.7 rebounds during the pandemic-disrupted 2020-21 season as a sophomore after earning All-Big Ten Freshman honors in 2019-20 playing along Cassius Winston on the Spartans’ last Big Ten title team. He played in 19 games for the Bulldogs last season, posting 4.4 points in 13.4 minutes while shooting 26.7% from 3-point range.

This year for Kampe, Watts has started all 12 games and averages 8.3 points, 1.8 assists and 2.3 rebounds in 25.3 minutes. He is shooting 25% from 3-point range and 52.6% at the free-throw line.

More:Former Michigan State basketball guard Rocket Watts commits to Oakland U. Golden Grizzlies

Izzo said he has kept in touch with Watts since he left MSU, particularly last season when he was at Mississippi State battling injuries and then enduring a coaching change during the offseason. He added, “I love the kid.”

“I felt like if we didn't have the COVID summer where we couldn't practice, Rocket would have been fine here. I really believe that in my heart,” Izzo said. “And so I think it's been unfair to him. Then he transfers, and everybody thinks that's the golden ticket — and that's not the golden ticket, because you gotta learn a new system, you got to live in a new environment. And then the coach gets fired. So that hasn't been fun for him or fair to him. And now he gets (to Oakland) and it's another new system.

“I know it works out for 1 out of 55,000 (players), if somebody would write the right things and get down to what (transferring) really is. But I feel bad for a guy like Rocket because his freshman year, we don't win the Big Ten without Rocket Watts.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.

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Next up: Golden Grizzlies

Matchup: Michigan State (7-4) vs. Oakland (2-10).

Tipoff: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday; Breslin Center, East Lansing.

TV/radio: Big Ten Network; WJR-AM (760).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball: Malik Hall to miss Oakland game