Tom Izzo continues to use No. 9 Michigan State basketball's December slate to iron out his playing group and explore different lineup combinations.
In the 12 games before Christmas, Tom Izzo gave Michigan State basketball fans hope a 12th Big Ten regular-season title could be their big gift for 2026.
Even though he realizes much work remains to break his tie with Bob Knight and Ward “Piggy” Lambert for the most in conference history. That has meant spending the past two weeks tinkering with his playing rotation in preparation to chase another.
“Half my decisions are [about] what’s gonna help us,” Izzo said after his ninth-ranked Spartans beat Oakland, 79-70, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Saturday, Dec. 20. “I benched two guys during that game because I said I’d lose a game because I don’t want to lose the season.”
It was a statement that sums up exactly why Izzo’s lineups have, at times, looked disjointed and seemed haphazardly assembled recently. Why? Because he is working toward the future.
Those early moves against the Golden Grizzlies included pulling Coen Carr after a sloppy and sluggish start in which the junior starting forward missed two open 3-point attempts and turned the ball over on an out-of-control drive to the basket. Carr responded to his 2½ minutes on the bench by turning in a career-high 22 points and making eight of his final 11 attempts, adding seven rebounds to help MSU (11-1) outrebound Oakland by 16.
“I feel like we’re really close,” Carr said. “I feel like everybody is kind of getting into their role and knowing their role, and everybody is embracing it. I feel like when we have that, I feel like we’ll be good.”
Before that, Izzo subbed out Divine Ugochukwu not even three minutes into the sophomore’s third consecutive start and replaced him with Kur Teng. It was an Izzo move less about motivation and more about continuing to try get more from his shooting guards.
Ugochukwu went scoreless with four fouls in his 12 minutes against Oakland and has just two points since his career-high 23 at Penn State on Dec. 13, the game in which Izzo first shifted the Miami (Florida) transfer from backup point guard to starting 2-guard. Teng, a sophomore who split starts with senior transfer Trey Fort early in the year, responded with his second straight double-digit scoring performance with 12 points on 4-for-11 shooting along with five assists in 20 minutes.
Fort’s minutes continued to dwindle (three points in 10 minutes) while freshman Jordan Scott (six points, four rebounds in 18 minutes) keeps making a case to become a factor at shooting guard as well as at the wing.
“I’m still not happy. We’re still inconsistent at one position. And sometimes it affects others,” Izzo said. “Hey, you know what? I’ll musical-chair it until I have to. And if it’s not great, that’s the way it works.”
That decision to give Ugochukwu more time at shooting guard continues to alter the point guard role behind starter Jeremy Fears Jr., who played 30 minutes and scored just two points on 1-for-6 shooting with five assists and two turnovers. Senior transfer Denham Wojcik got six minutes against OU in his third straight game with increased time in the rotation; he produced two assists, no turnovers and a rebound in his scoreless stints.
The addition of Wojcik this month swelled Izzo’s playing group to 11. It is unlikely it remains at that number. However, in Izzo’s world, these opportunities are valuable in case of injury, illness or foul trouble later in the season.
“We have to make sure that people are put in positions that they’re gonna be in going into the tournament or Big Ten play,” senior forward Jaxon Kohler said. “And we have to make sure we do that now so that when it comes, they’re comfortable.”
Izzo also has been able to mix a variety of looks over the past month. At one point, midway through Saturday’s second half, he had a lineup with the 6-7 Scott at shooting guard, 6-6 Carr on the wing, 6-9 freshman Cam Ward at forward and 6-11 redshirt freshman Jesse McCulloch at center, with 6-3 Wojcik running the point. That might be MSU’s tallest lineup to date, and Izzo was experimenting with it while his team led Oakland by merely eight points, rather than in a blowout situation.
“With different lineups, we have so many different weapons,” said Kohler, who had his third straight double-double (13 points, 13 rebounds) and seventh of the season. “Sometimes we put in a smaller team and we can run it, sometimes we have a bigger team, sometimes we have a defensive team. I feel like each lineup that coach has brings certain strengths. And we just have to make sure that everybody on the team is ready to play their role and sometimes step into a new role.”
The Spartans scattered for Christmas after Saturday’s win and will return Friday to begin preparation for the final nonconference game of the season against Cornell on Monday (7 p.m., FS1). Izzo has explained what comes next for his rotation, especially with Big Ten play resuming Jan. 2 on the road at Nebraska.
“It happened last year. Once Christmas comes, maybe that playing group is gonna shrink a little bit,” he said after MSU beat Toledo on Dec. 16. “And that’s not going to be determined by me, that’s going to be determined by them.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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Next up: Big Red
Matchup: No. 9 Michigan State (11-1) vs. Cornell (6-5).
Tipoff: 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 29; Breslin Center, East Lansing.
TV/radio: FS1; WJR-AM (760).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball giving the gift of lineup tinkering
Category: General Sports
