1. How to actually fix how MSU’s Board of Trustees is selected
For a hot minute, there seemed to be momentum toward changing how the boards of trustees at Michigan State, Michigan and Wayne State were selected — momentum set in motion by the untimely departure of MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz. He put the blame squarely on MSU’s board in explaining his decision to forgo a significant raise to leave for Clemson, a school with a lesser academic profile and in a weaker conference, but with nicer weather and perhaps a more agreeable board.
Even Gov. Gretchen Whitmer firmly and publicly backed legislation that would put on the August ballot a proposed change to the Michigan Constitution, with voters deciding if we’d rather the governor selected the trustees at those three institutions, rather than doing so via statewide election, like we do now. You know who wasn’t on board with the idea: the majority of the Michigan House.
Moving to gubernatorial appointments would have solved the current problem and wiped the slate clean at MSU, but also created new ones. The problem with the current system begins here: Almost nobody who’s being elected is actually being chosen with any understanding of who they are. These folks are at the bottom of the ballot when we’re electing presidents and governors and dealing with important local proposals. We should pay attention. By and large, we don’t.
I am pretty sure I voted for one MSU trustee candidate once because I thought he was the Grand Ledge baseball coach. Same name. Different dude. If we’re going to elect boards by statewide election, perhaps that should be the only thing on the ballot, so that those voting, while smaller in numbers, are at least informed.
Ultimately, MSU’s board should probably be elected in several ways — and larger in number, so no one person has outsized influence, and an odd number, because, well, duh. If the board had two seats elected in a statewide election, several voted on by students, faculty, staff and alums only, a couple appointed by the governor, and a student and a faculty member rotating through each year, you’d likely wind up with a good variety of smart voices, a board more representative of the actual stakeholders in the university, and, just maybe, a little less ego.
That, of course, would require a change in the state constitution, which would require legislation to get that to a vote of the people. So we’re likely stuck with what exists for a while.
MORE: Couch: Kevin Guskiewicz’s departure an unnecessary blow to MSU, which loses momentum and maybe more
All of that said, while I have no doubt that some of MSU’s trustees can be a handful and leak like Deep Throat, it’s not that they didn’t have some legitimate concerns about their ability to oversee the business of the university, which, is their job. Even so, Guskiewicz appeared to have a 5-3 majority — at least — on his initiatives. So why walk away after less than three years, with so much happening, when you’re generally well-liked? There’s got to be more to this.
2. Fears’ return allows attention to turn to MSU lineup possibilities
Now that Jeremy Fears Jr. has announced he’s coming back to MSU for this coming season, we can start to turn our attention to what MSU’s men’s basketball team might look like — including a number of intriguing lineups.
If you think it’s early for these thoughts, that it’s a long way from college basketball season, it’s not. In these parts, with the Moneyball Pro-Am summer league, college basketball season is also late June and a chunk of July, at least in terms of where the MSU fan base’s attention is.
I’ll continue to insist that the gift of the Moneyball Pro-Am, beyond Coen Carr’s dunks and a first-look at the newcomers, is this: It breaks up a tiring three- to four-month build-up to football season — like everywhere else suffers through — because it might as well be March in late June for MSU fans.
So, back to the lineup possibilities: MSU’s ability to go big or small, even big with lots of shooting, makes this one of the more intriguing rosters I can remember. There are so many different combinations.
Consider this group: Fears, Jordan Scott, Kaleb Glenn, Jesse McCulloch, Anton Bonke. That’s 6-8, 6-7, 6-11, 7-2 at the shooting guard through center positions, perhaps all of them capable 3-point shooters.
Consider this lineup: Fears, Jasiah Jervis, Coen Carr, Glenn, Cam Ward. That might be an uber-athletic, small-ball lineup. I think Ward is capable of playing center against certain matchups and still being a menace on the glass.
There are a ton of possibilities in-between, which will likely be most of MSU’s lineups. I don’t remember a year when you could potentially go so many different ways to create a different look or matchup situation.
SPARTAN SPEAK PODCAST: Couch and Solari on Jeremy Fears Jr.’s return and how the administration shakeup impacts MSU Athletics
3. Liking the long-term possibilities for Ethan Taylor
If you’re an MSU basketball enthusiast or just have a 7-week-old baby at home, like I do, you might have found yourself watching the FIBA U18 AmeriCup on YouTube, with Team USA featuring incoming Spartans Jasiah Jervis and Ethan Taylor. Jervis hasn’t played a ton. There are reports he suffered a minor injury before the first game. He’s looked fine when he’s been on the court and he leads the team in steals. I’ve seen enough of him to think he’ll have an impact right away at MSU.
The more intriguing player from an MSU perspective at the AmeriCup is Taylor, the 7-foot-1 center who committed to the Spartans with considerable fanfare, with some of that dissipating since. Three things have happened: One, he’s shown he has more room to grow than perhaps was realized at the time of his pledge; two, MSU fans and media folk have gotten wiser to overhyping big men post-Xavier Booker; three, Tom Izzo has publicly said that Taylor is probably a year away.
He might be a year away, but I think he’s got a chance to be a year away from being a difference-maker for the Spartans. And if he can pick up MSU’s defense and handle the physicality and intensity of the Big Ten, he’ll carve out a role this season. Because one thing that’s evident in the AmeriCup — even sometimes against overmatched competition and in games where he can roam and play help defense — is that Taylor has great potential as a rim-runner and rim-roller offensively, and a rim-protector on the other end. If he becomes the player I think he can in those areas in a year’s time, he’ll be everything MSU needs from its center.
MORE: Couch: Robyn Fralick eyes the next step for Michigan State women’s basketball
4. What to make of MSU football June recruiting
There’s been a little bit of buzz about who the Spartans have had on campus — or might soon have on campus — including some higher-profile recruits.
A couple thoughts: June “commitments” matter less than ever. But it’s still better to get them now than to have to flip them later. And in an age when kids are just as likely to transfer down the road as they are to flip before signing originally, getting them in your facility and building a relationship is not nothing, no matter how their original recruitment turns out. And for a lot of the more heralded kids, NIL or rev-share money closer to signing day will dictate more about where they wind up than vibes (and NIL packages) in June.
The most important thing MSU can do on the recruiting front is have a season that creates a little hope or momentum. That wouldn’t take a ton these days, but it might help the Spartans hang on to kids they land this summer and make them more attractive to players who commit to other programs now that fall apart this fall.
There’s nothing wrong with celebrating or ignoring recruiting. To each their own. If you’re looking for joy and hope in what’s been a bleak few years for MSU football, grab it and enjoy it, even if it’s just a small thread. Just try not to get too hung up on any one individual recruit.
5. Predicting MSU football’s record this season is a ridiculous exercise
Most years, trying to predict how the Michigan State football team will fare is a fun, but silly exercise, full of biases, assumptions and ignorance. Because while we often know less than we think we do about the Spartans, we know even less about their opponents.
Quickly: How many defensive linemen did Illinois lose to the transfer portal? Not sure? Would you be surprised to know it’s five? And that they lost two of them to Texas A&M and South Carolina, respectively? And that one of them is at MSU? We think of Illinois as a more seasoned program than where MSU is right now. But do we really know whether the Illini’s visit to Spartan Stadium on Oct. 10 is a winnable game for the Spartans? We don’t know diddly about an Illinois team that lost 26 players in the transfer portal, a dozen of them to high-major schools.
Outside of Notre Dame, Michigan, Oregon and, perhaps, Washington this season, we have no idea what the floor is for most of these programs on MSU’s schedule. If you’re counting, that’s eight games of uncertainty, six of them in the Big Ten.
MSU could be decent this season and go 5-7, or be not very good and go 7-5. The opponents will have just as much as MSU to say about that. We’ll have to trust our eyes as much as the record.
As for predictions, the data says I’m the wrong person to ask (which you probably knew). I’ve been off by at least two games each of the past five years, picking MSU to go 7-5 each of the last two seasons, when they went 4-8 and 5-7, respectively. The year before that, I had them going 6-6 and they went 4-8. Before that, I picked 9-3 and they finished 5-7. And, in 2021, I predicted the Spartans to go 7-5 and they went 10-2.
The only certainty when it comes to predicting MSU’s football season is that I’ll be wrong.
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Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch@gmail.com or BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Couch: 5 quick takes on MSU basketball, football and Board of Trustees
Reporting by Graham Couch, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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By Graham Couch, Lansing State Journal | USA TODAY Network
