What to Expect from MSU's Season Opener
The Michigan State Spartans basketball season begins tonight.
The Spartans take on the Monmouth Hawks at 7 p.m. EST as Tom Izzo enters his 30th season as the head coach in East Lansing.
Izzo is seeking his second national championship and a 27th straight NCAA Tournament appearance. Michigan State loses lots of experience from last year’s team but brings intrigue with youth and a few transfers.
Monmouth finished last season at 18-15, ranking sixth in the Coastal Athletic Association. They lost in the quarterfinal of the CAA Tournament and did not make the NCAA Tournament.
The Hawks are coached by King Rice, who has been with the team since 2011. His son, Xander, was the team’s leading scorer last season, but he has since left.
With Rice’s departure, the Hawks’ returning leading scorer is Jack Collins, a 6-foot-5 junior. Collins averaged nearly 11 points per game last season.
Monmouth is aggressive on both sides of the ball. They take – and make – tough shots on offense and swarm passing lanes on defense. For a Michigan State team breaking in a new point guard in Jeremy Fears Jr., protecting the basketball will be crucial to a victory.
One of the Hawks’ best returning players is forward Jaret Valencia. The sophomore averaged close to nine points and four rebounds per game last season. He is a high-flying wing who can knock down shots from the outside.
Michigan State will rely on Frankie Fidler to carry most of the scoring load this season. The Omaha transfer wing is expected to try to make up for the loss of Tyson Walker, who averaged over 18 points per game in 2023.
When the Spartans could not figure things out on offense, they relied on Walker to bail them out and create points himself. What will the Spartans’ offense look like without Walker’s elite self-creation ability? That is where Fidler will be crucial.
Izzo will likely use this game to determine which lineups work best together, as he does at the beginning of most seasons. Expect to see a fair amount of freshmen, such as Kur Teng and Jase Richardson. Richardson played well during the Spartans’ exhibition games.
Michigan State should win this game, but Monmouth’s scrappy nature will likely make it too close for comfort. As long as the Spartans emerge victorious, they can figure things out as the season progresses.
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