2025-26 Big Ten basketball season preview: Michigan State Spartans

With the start of college basketball season in early November, Inside the Hall is taking a team-by-team look at the Big Ten and a player-by-player look at IU basketball’s roster over the next two months.

Today, our team previews continue with Michigan State.

Previously: Penn State, Rutgers, Minnesota, Northwestern, Washington, Nebraska, Maryland, Iowa, Wisconsin, Oregon, USC

Purdue was the preseason favorite to win the Big Ten last season. Michigan State, however, won the league by a wide margin. The Spartans were three games clear of second-place finishers Maryland and Michigan and earned a No. 2 seed in the 2025 NCAA tournament.

Like most Tom Izzo-led teams, the Spartans were built on defense and toughness. Michigan State had the nation’s fourth-best defense, according to KenPom.com, and easily had the league’s best defense in conference play.

With two starters returning, Izzo is hoping to make another run at a Big Ten title in his 31st season in East Lansing.

Redshirt sophomore point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. is back to captain the offense. Fears had the second-best assist rate in the Big Ten last season – 39.1 percent – and averaged 7.2 points, 5.4 assists, 2.1 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 23.7 minutes per game.

The other returning starter in East Lansing is 6-foot-9 senior forward Jaxon Kohler, the Big Ten’s best offensive rebounder last season. Kohler’s offensive rebounding percentage of 16.6 led the league and his defensive rebounding percentage of 24.8 percent was fifth. Kohler averaged 7.8 points and 7.5 rebounds in 20.8 minutes per game. He shot an efficient 56.4 percent on 2s and 37.3 percent on 3s (51 attempts).

Michigan State dipped into the transfer portal for Samford transfer guard Trey Fort, a likely backcourt starter alongside Fears. Fort earned All-Southern Conference second-team honors last season, averaging 14.6 points and shooting 37.9 percent from 3-point range for the Bulldogs. The 6-foot-4 Fort attempted 6.4 3s per game last season and should help improve Michigan State’s perimeter shooting, which was an issue last season.

Elite athlete Coen Carr, a 6-foot-5 junior, should step into the starting lineup at the three. Coer isn’t a perimeter shooter, but he’s an elite finisher at the rim and thrives in transition. Carr shot 61.1 percent last season and averaged 8.1 points and 3.6 rebounds in 20.7 minutes per game. Look for his playing time to increase dramatically.

Carson Cooper, a 6-foot-11 senior center, returns in the frontcourt. Cooper shot close to 60 percent last season and averaged five points and 5.2 rebounds in 17.2 minutes per game. Another excellent rebounder, Cooper has steadily improved throughout his career and the Spartans need him to take another step forward in his final season.

Much of Michigan State’s depth is unproven, which creates plenty of question marks on how the rest of the rotation will be filled out. A player who was expected to be in the rotation, Florida Atlantic transfer Kaleb Glenn, was lost for the season in June when he suffered a knee injury.

Sophomore guard Kur Teng was a coveted recruit out of high school, but barely played last season with Jase Richardson, Tre Holloman, Frankie Fidler and Jaden Akins ahead of him in the rotation. The 6-foot-4 Teng was a top 75 player in the 2024 class. The Spartans are hopeful that Teng’s shooting ability will earn him regular rotation minutes.

Michigan State also added Miami (FL) transfer guard Divine Ugochukwu, who started 16 games last season in the ACC. The 6-foot-3 guard from Texas averaged 5.3 points, 2.3 assists and 1.9 rebounds per game as a freshman.

The Spartan coaching staff landed a pair of top 60 recruits in 6-foot-8 forward Cam Ward and 6-foot-7 wing Jordan Scott.

Ward, a native of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was the No. 58 player in the final 247Sports Composite rankings and Scott, a native of Reston, Virginia, was the No. 56 player. Ward scored 2,714 points in high school and was the Washington Post All-Met player of the year last season.

Scott was the Virginia Class 6 All-State player of the year for the second straight year.

Redshirt freshman big man Jesse McCulloch is a versatile big man at 6-foot-10 who will back up Kohler and Cooper. A top 100 recruit out of Cleveland in the 2024 class, he was the runner-up for Ohio Mr. Basketball in his senior season.

Harvard transfer Denham Wojcik, the son of Michigan State associate head coach Doug Wojcik, sat out last season but was the captain for the Crimson in the 2023-24 season and started four games. The 6-foot-2 guard will provide backcourt depth.

Bottom line: Michigan State has a strong returning nucleus, but there isn’t a proven go-to scorer at the Big Ten level on the roster. Fears should be one of the Big Ten’s best point guards, Kohler is one of the best rebounders in the country and Carr is a breakout candidate as a junior. Michigan State’s ceiling will be determined by how well Fort adjusts to the Big Ten level and the upside of young players like Ward, Tur, Scott and Ugochukwu. The Spartans might not be a threat to win the Big Ten, but a return to the NCAA tournament and a top-half finish is the minimum expectation.

Quotable: “The big keys for us is what our two guys that really didn’t play much or were sitting out last year are going to be like. Kur is a big one because we need some shooting and shooting is something that we did not shoot the ball real well last year. … Jesse McCulloch I think is going to help us because he can shoot the ball and he’s got size.” – Izzo to reporters on September 22 ahead of the start of Michigan State practice.

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