HOLT – Cam Ward feels the buzz building around Breslin Center.
Tom Izzo might have one of his most complete and deepest Michigan State basketball teams since winning the 2000 national championship. And the anticipation to begin the quest to win his second – and to do it in Detroit – is growing daily.
“They’re serious. Because I think the point is clear,” the sophomore forward said Thursday, June 25 at the Moneyball Pro-Am. “The guys down the street [Michigan] won last year. It’s pretty much clear, like, yo, we ain’t wasting our time. We gotta make it. And it’s in Detroit this year. …
“I think with the guys we have now, we can definitely make a run and actually kind of make this something interesting this year. We have the perfect team to do it.”
Ward and his teammates and coaches watched the Wolverines first supplant the Spartans as Big Ten champions, then saw them win the Big Ten’s first national title since Izzo and Mateen Cleaves did it 26 years prior. However, Ward also believes U-M having won it all “is anybody’s focus,” even though he said “it hurts a little bit.”
That’s in large part because the attention has turned to the group Izzo has assembled and the task ahead.
“The guys we have,” redshirt junior Jeremy Fears Jr. said Thursday, “we’ve got a good chance to do something special.”
It appears like the Spartans are a lock to begin the season at least as a top-five team. The optimism is growing daily during MSU’s summer workouts that they believe they also have the versatility and depth for a long stay in March and to reach the Final Four at Ford Field. This summer is about building the chemistry and finding the right lineup formulas to make it a reality.
“We’re matchup-proof the whole way,” Ward said. “If some guys don’t match up well here, we can move down the line, we can move up the line. We can do things that most teams can’t do.”
Plenty of possibilities
First, here is a look at the position potential for the Spartans:
Point guard: Jeremy Fears Jr., Carlos Medlock Jr., Jasiah Jervis
Shooting guard: Jordan Scott, Jasiah Jervis, Kur Teng, Carlos Medlock Jr., Matthew Watkins (walk-on)
Small forward: Kaleb Glenn, Coen Carr, Jordan Scott, Julius Avent, Jasiah Jervis
Power forward: Coen Carr, Cam Ward, Jesse McCulloch, Kaleb Glenn, Julius Avent, Ethan Taylor, Colin Walton (walk-on), Brennan Walton (walk-on)
Center: Anton Bonke, Cam Ward, Jesse McCulloch, Ethan Taylor, Coen Carr
There is plenty of mix-and-match potential based on what the opposition presents or the emphasis Izzo and his staff want to take to make the Spartans the aggressors.
Want an undersized, quick and explosive group in transition? How about a Fears-Medlock-Jervis-Carr-Ward lineup?
Need 1-through-5 outside shooting? Try Fears-Scott or Teng-Jervis-Glenn-McCulloch.
A big lineup, maybe Izzo’s biggest ever? If Jervis shows he can handle the point – he said Thursday he is practicing at the position – a Jervis-Scott-Glenn-Taylor-Bonke pairing would be massive across the floor with an average height of just over 6-9. The 6-11 McCulloch and 6-9 Ward also are options to go with a big five.
And so on.
Arranging the pieces
The possibilities are extensive and already being formulated, Ward said, pointing to Izzo’s assistant Doug Wojcik as the “mastermind” behind unlocking the best fits.
“He is scheming right now,” Ward said of Wojcik’s work. “From what he’s telling me, he’s trying to switch five at some point – he might try and switch six if he can. Yeah, he has all the schemes down with his end-of-game lineups and who he wants out there if we need a stop. He has a five [player group] that he’s ready to go throw out there right now as far as defensive-wise. I think the schemes we can throw out to people will be definitely contagious. I think it’ll kind of mess people up a little bit.
“Like especially with the two 7-footers (Bonke and Taylor), I wouldn’t be surprised if those two play together at some point in the year. Especially if we play Illinois or teams that have two 7-footers or two big men. I wouldn’t be surprised if they play a lot together, and I think they can. One can space the floor and one is a decent size. Same with Jesse.”
Like Jervis said about working at point guard some during summer workouts, fellow freshman Medlock said he is getting run at shooting guard alongside Fears. It would look similar to when Fears paired with Tre Holloman during the 2025 Big Ten championship and Elite Eight season, with Jervis a wild card who could emerge as a third option to run the offense.
“I can do both,” Medlock said. “I can be a facilitator, I can be a be a guard for my team, be the leader. But I’m also a good scorer. I can shoot the ball, I can create my own shots. So it’s learning how to balance it out being at Michigan State and also playing with Fears.”
Of course, as much as those groupings look good on paper from an offensive standpoint, everything in Izzo’s program revolves around defense first. If someone can’t defend at an expected level or beyond, they won’t get the minutes. See Trey Fort last season.
The freshmen know that, and both Jervis and Avent said learning Izzo’s gap defense system right now is the highest priority of the summer. And quite possibly the determining factor on how deep this team can be and how far it can go.
“We have goals that we want to make it to, and I think everybody is on the same page,” senior-to-be Carr said Tuesday. “We want to get to Detroit, and we want to play to win a national championship.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Can Michigan State basketball’s ‘matchup-proof’ group get to the top?
Reporting by Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
