Michigan State opens its men’s basketball season Monday night at home against Colgate. Lansing State Journal columnist Graham Couch breaks down the Spartans‘ roster.
Fears took a massive jump last season, becoming a bona fide star point guard and lead guard who could sometimes carry a team. Last year’s squad had a clearly defined identity and a core four players, whose strengths and weaknesses were understood. This will be a different sort of challenge for Fears, who now has more weapons around him but less certainty. He’s got to elevate his teammates and pick his spots to take control and sometimes take over offensively. Last year was about him. This year, being a star means leading a group that needs to be led. Fears has shown already this season that his athleticism appears to be close to all the way back, if not entirely, from when he was shot in the leg as a freshman. If he can be explosive on the drive and hit 35% of his 3s at a decent volume, that would also do wonders for his future and for this team.
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Scott has a chance to be MSU’s best all-around player this season, playing both shooting guard and on the wing. You can see signs of it already. He is an instinctual defender and rebounder, who gravitates to the ball. That makes him essential. But if he’s going to be a star at MSU and a priority NBA draft pick, he’ll have to pick up the aggression offensively (which we saw in the exhibition at Marquette). Scott has the game to average 15 points this season. He can get to the basket and is a better shooter than it sometimes appears, because he didn’t shoot a ton as a freshman. But he was nearly 38% on 3-point tries a year ago — and that was with a bad start to the season from beyond the arc. I think he can be a 40% guy from 3 at a decent volume. And he should take at least 12 shots per game.
I think Carr will be a starter all season, maybe all season on the wing. But he’s going to also play a lot of minutes (and closing minutes) at power forward, because freshman Jasiah Jervis is going to be on the floor, as are Jordan Scott and Jeremy Fears. The key to Carr’s season is not as much his 3-point shot — though if he started making enough of them that teams guarded him out there, that would be helpful. The key is how he attacks the glass and the physicality and aggressiveness he plays with on each possession. The best version of Carr is, yes, someone whose offensive game has developed more than he’s given credit for, but also someone who sees every rebound as his and every opportunity to get to the rim as a good one. That’s where he sometimes lets up.
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Carr doesn’t need to worry about an NBA career (he can play another year in college if he wants to, as well). If it happens, great. But with his out-of-this-world dunking ability, he will be in demand overseas and make as much as fringe NBA players, while living a pretty dang good life in some place like Barcelona or Prague.
Ward playing within himself and with confidence is essential to this MSU basketball team reaching its potential. Because he can be an elite rebounder and defender. That’s not in question. That’s been known since he first showed up at practice and Jaxon Kohler stopped getting every rebound. Even as Ward struggled in the exhibition at Marquette offensively, defensively, he switched onto a point guard and caused a shot-clock violation. His defensive versatility makes him someone MSU badly wants on the court. He should also be the team’s best rebounder. But, offensively, he’s a walking missed shot or turnover with the ball in the post right now.
Tom Izzo said it well this past week, that Ward has to remember who he is as a player. The skill stuff offensively will come in time, but only if he’s on the court. And right now, he can be an elite garbage player — in the best possible terms — cleaning up around the rim and making the Spartans’ a bear defensively. I think he can also play some center, which is important, because for MSU to have its best five players on the court, if Ward is one of them, he might have to play the 5 spot.
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McCulloch was a bit of a forgotten man coming out of last season. That was a mistake. He is without question MSU’s best offensive option at center right now. If his defense and rebounding hold up, he’ll play 25 minutes a game. At worst, he’s a valuable role player, who’s comfortable with the ball in his hands and shooting from distance. On this roster, his outside shot is incredibly important. It not only stretches defenses and gives the Spartans a pick-and-pop threat to play with Jeremy Fears Jr., but it allows them to play lineups that won’t work otherwise. Like if MSU wants to play Cam Ward at power forward and Coen Carr at small forward, then McCulloch has to be on the floor, or the spacing gets clunky.
At some point this season, I think Jasiah Jervis will move into the starting lineup, similar to what happened with Jase Richardson. He’ll be in the crunch-time lineups immediately. But being a freshman allows the coaching staff to bring him off the bench and tread delicately on the feelings of some veterans who would be impacted by him starting — Coen Carr and Cam Ward included. Jervis looks like every bit the player he’s billed to be — a multilevel scoring guard, who will give the Spartans consistency beyond the arc, and paired with Jeremy Fears Jr. and Jordan Scott, gives MSU its best point guard-shooting guard-wing trio since at least 2013-14, probably longer. If he defends as the coaches think he’s capable of, that trio could be truly special.
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Medlock’s transition to being a Big Ten point guard has been a little bumpy early, as he figures out what he can get away with and what he can’t at this new level as an undersized guard. He’ll figure it out. He’s important to this season in several ways. One, if Jeremy Fears Jr. turns an ankle (or worse) or winds up in foul trouble, MSU needs him to be ready to run the show. And, to get the most out of Fears over 40 games, with how the coaches want Fears to play, the Spartans need Medlock to give them 8-10 good minutes a night, at minimum. He’ll have to learn to be solid, before he worries about being spectacular. But there is a lot of talent there and, at some point this season, he should be able to provide something beyond just helping MSU survive a few minutes without Fears. But his early assignment should be to do no harm.
Taylor comes across as driven and focused when you speak to him. He’s impressive for a freshman — motivated and humbled by a senior year in high school that didn’t go well. The talent and size is obvious. The strength is better than I thought it would be. If he can get down the defensive coverages, he could wind up as MSU’s best overall option at center this season. As is, the Spartans would be wise to lean into his development and make sure he’s getting real minutes each night, even if that comes with some growing pains.
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Teng missed a lot of the offseason after having foot surgery, so he should be given some grace early on. But he’s got to make shots. That’s why he’s at MSU. That’s his Big Ten-level skill. I think he will. He did last year, making 39% of 143 3-pointers. That’s real production — and production this team can use. With Jervis and Scott in the mix at shooting guard, Teng will certainly be a sub. But if hits 3s and defends well enough, he’ll be a 12-to-17-minute-a-game player for the Spartans, maybe more on certain nights.
Bonke was brought in to be the starting center, though I think the coaches knew McCulloch had a chance to compete for that role. They didn’t expect Taylor to be this intriguing this early. Nor did they think Bonke would struggle this much. That’s always the risk when you bring in a transfer late in their career from outside your culture, when your program is built on expectations and culture. That Bonke played just nine total minutes in the last two exhibition games and none in the second half is concerning. Izzo said this past week that Bonke either needed to get better at what they do defensively covering ball screens, or they were going to have to adjust how they cover them for him. My advice to Bonke, for whatever it’s worth: Rebound like your life depends on it. Jaxon Kohler figured that out a few years ago. That became his ticket until they couldn’t take him off the court. If Bonke can’t hedge high and get back on ball screens, then be such a force on the glass that it’s worth adjusting the defense. Otherwise, while he’ll be needed certain nights, I don’t know how regular his role will be.
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Had Glenn been healthy last year, he would have played a ton. He was the sort of player last year’s team needed. This year, less so, though, if he gets back to being the player he was, he’ll have a consistent role in the rotation. It’s been a challenge for him to mentally overcome a serious knee injury, he said. He just doesn’t look that confident out there. At his best, Glenn is a downhill scorer, who can knock down an open 3. We haven’t seen that guy yet.
It does’t look like Avent will have a spot in the rotation. But he does some things well enough already that, if he has a good next couple months, who knows? He is a force getting downhill and getting to his spots. If he were 6-9, he’d be playing. He does have a 7-5 wingspan, which will come in handy defensively. I like the possibilities for Avent long-term, and if some other guys struggle this season, he might not be that far down the bench.
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Watkins has made the tough turn from team manager to player. It’s a great story. This isn’t end-of-career charity. The coaches at MSU who’d seen him play pushed for this. He’ll be a scout-team guy and end-of-game fan favorite.
One half of the Walton twins, Brennan will likely be a scout-team guy and mop-up duty player as long as he’s at MSU. But, like his brother, he can shoot and, if he wanted to play somewhere else, he could.
See above.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Couch: Analyzing Michigan State basketball’s 2026-27 roster, player by player, as the season begins
