Izzo, Tucker to discuss two Michigan State football players joining basketball team
Michigan State tight end Maliq Carr and wide receiver Keon Coleman just wrapped up a successful football season with the Spartans, winning the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl over Pittsburgh.
While most football players are now enjoying their first days of the offseason, Carr and Coleman may have to return to practice -- on the basketball court.
On Monday afternoon, head basketball coach Tom Izzo said he would be talking with head football coach Mel Tucker about the two players, and they would determine the best course to take -- both for the individual players and the two programs.
“We talked to both kids when we recruited them. We talked to him during the year, and they'd come over now and then,” Izzo said after Monday's practice. “They're both great kids, and yet they both I think got real futures in football — we don't want to screw that up, either. So it really will be between me and Mel, and then it'll be between Mel and the two players, and then it'll be between all of us.
Playing at Oak Park High School, Carr was ranked the No. 18 basketball player in the state of Michigan by the Detroit Free Press as a senior. He signed a football scholarship with Purdue and redshirted for one season in West Lafayette before transferring to Michigan State ahead of the 2021 season. He did not play basketball for the Boilermakers.
Carr held offers in basketball from Oakland, Western Michigan and a few other mid-major programs. His father, Cornell Mann, is an assistant basketball coach at Missouri who also worked at Central Michigan and Western Michigan. Dwayne Stephens, Izzo's associated head coach, is Carr's cousin.
Coleman, meanwhile, had a much more illustrious high school basketball career. The true freshman averaged 33.5 points per game as a shooting guard last year as a high school senior, and earned first-team All-State in Louisiana. Coleman averaged 26 points as a junior and 23.1 as a sophomore.
The wide receivers ability on the basketball court was one of the things that caught Tucker's eye when he was being recruited as a wide receiver for Michigan State.
“You can go to his YouTube highlights and just see why he's a legitimate basketball player,” Tucker said on signing day last February. “He can really light it up out there. ... There's not a whole bunch of guys out there who can do it at the Power Five level. He's certainly a player who can do that.”
Carr and Coleman would not be the first Spartans to dual-sport in football and basketball at the university. During Izzo's tenure, athletes Lorenzo Guess, Matt Trannon, Aaron Alexander and Dion Sims played both sports for Michigan State.
While its unlikely the Carr and Coleman would come in and make an immediate impact for Spartans basketball, the depth that they could provide could come in handy, especially with the current concerns over potential COVID-19 outbreaks.
“It's not like anybody's gonna come out here and start on our program right now,” Izzo said. “But in some ways, there's always some help that's needed when you got a lot of injuries or you got a lot of guys that could get sick. It's nice to have some guys that could step in, especially in the scout team and this and that. But we'll see.”
Izzo said that he and Tucker will have a discussion about the two players "in the next day or so", and it's clear that his first priority is determining what's best for Carr and Coleman, and more specifically, their futures in football.
“We got to see what's best for them first, by far what's best for them, and then we'll look at what's best for us and the players, of course,” Izzo said. “But first, it'll be football and the players. … They needed a little time off. But it's no secret or nothing, it just what's best for the football program and what's best for the players.”
This past football season, both Carr and Coleman were called upon late in the season as injuries at the wide receiver and tight end positions allowed for more playing opportunities for the two freshman. Carr finished the season with eight catches for 135 yards in 12 games, while Coleman had seven catches for 50 yards and a touchdown in 10 appearances.
Izzo and Tucker have already formed a bond in just the 23 months that the football coach has been in East Lansing. Izzo is a self-proclaimed lover of football, and also has a close friendship with former head football coach Mark Dantonio. Those ties between the two programs will only help in situations such as these.
“The cool thing is, it'll be a family decision," Izzo said. "And I'm just glad I'm part of that family.”
