30 years later, Tom Izzo ‘excited as hell’ for another Michigan State basketball season

EAST LANSING — Somewhere inside Breslin Center, Tom Izzo delivered his assessment of Michigan State basketball’s second and final exhibition game. And it had nothing to do with his team’s play.

“I learned a little about their character,” he said. “They’re starting to make some progress.”

That was Nov. 14, 1995. Before the Final Fours. Before the national championship. Before the Basketball Hall of Fame induction and all of the plaudits that have come Izzo’s way since.

Before he coached a single game that counted with the Spartans, Izzo laid the groundwork for what he wanted most in the program he was about to build.

Physical toughness. Mental fortitude. Elite talent.

Most of all, a passion and will to succeed. And win.

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Just like MSU did that night almost 30 years ago. A hard-fought 77-72 grind of a victory. Over Marathon Oil, a team made up of former college stars.

Anyone, anywhere, anytime isn’t just about getting your car serviced.

Izzo went in for some routine maintenance himself in the offseason, undergoing a hip replacement surgery and emerging feeling refreshed and ready for his 30th season as the Spartans’ head coach. Finally, after a late summer trip to Spain for three international games and two exhibition games against Division II opponents, it is time for the games to matter again.

A revamped MSU roster opens its season Monday night with a visit from Monmouth. Tipoff is 7 p.m. at Breslin, with no television broadcast but available online via BTN+.

“Year 1, I was nervous as hell. Year 30, I’m as excited as hell, and I just feel like I’m in a good place,” Izzo said Friday. “For me, my team’s getting better. I think we got some things solidified in some of those exhibition games. I’m looking forward to whether we can put them to good use.”

The Spartans are coming off a 12th straight season of 20 or more wins and a 26th straight NCAA tournament appearance — an NCAA record by a coach at a single school — but it came by way of a disappointing-by-Izzo-standards 20-15 record with a veteran roster that had gone to overtime in the Sweet 16 a year earlier.

Since then? Tyson Walker and Malik Hall graduated. A.J. Hoggard transferred to Vanderbilt and Mady Sissoko to California for their fifth and final years of eligibility. Four key pieces from the past three years are gone.

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So Izzo went into the transfer portal and addressed two areas of need, getting a high-scoring, physical veteran in Frankie Fidler (from Nebraska-Omaha) to fill Hall’s hole on the wing. He replaced Sissoko with sturdy 7-footer Szymon Zapala (from Longwood). He added a pair of freshmen guards in Kur Teng and Jase Richardson, the son of former MSU star Jason, to round out the backcourt.

Izzo also returns key pieces around whom this team will revolve. The Spartans’ nucleus of senior shooting guard Jaden Akins, redshirt freshman point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. and sophomore forward Xavier Booker will be counted on to push the pace and bring along the newcomers to Izzo’s demands of defense, rebounding and running the floor.

“We can push the ball really good. We just have to have the effort to do it,” Fidler said Friday. “We’re a tough team, and we gotta use that night in and night out, every game.”

The 6-foot-4 Akins is the leading returning scorer (10.4 points) and by far the most experienced player on the roster. Fears is coming off a gunshot wound to his left leg that cut short his freshman season after 12 impressive games, showing the leadership Izzo demands from his lead guard. And 6-11 Booker showed late development over the course of last season in averaging 3.7 points and 1.7 rebounds per game.

Those three will be expected to share the scoring spotlight with the 6-7 Fidler, who averaged 20.1 points and 6.3 rebounds in 36 minutes a game a year ago. Zapala posted 9.8 points and 5.6 boards over 16.8 minutes for Longwood last year after three seasons at Utah State.

“We got a lot of depth on the team,” Akins said Friday. “So just getting our minutes right and our rotation right for what it’s gonna be in the season, we’re gonna see that in the first couple weeks of the season.”

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The Spartans also return key juniors in combo guard Tre Holloman (5.7 points, 2.4 assists) and big men Jaxon Kohler (2.0 points, 2.0 rebounds) and Carson Cooper (3.4 points, 4.4 rebounds). All three have the ability and experience to join the starting group, while Richardson and Teng look to be up-and-coming options off the bench behind the veteran guards.

“We tried so many different lineups in the summer. … But at the end of the day, whatever lineup you put out in the game, you want to do your job,” Kohler said after MSU’s exhibition win over Ferris State on Tuesday. “And if you do your job and then you get other people to do their job and if they organically just work together really well, it helps a team win.”

Last year started with a historic first-game overtime loss to James Madison, the first time MSU ever lost its opener at Breslin, dating back to 1989, and the program’s first home-opening defeat at all in 48 years.

Which makes this opener every bit as important as Izzo’s first one, which was a three-point escape over Division II Chaminade in the 1995 Maui Invitational. Monmouth finished 18-15 last season.

“It’s a big week, because last year, we laid an egg in the opener,” Izzo said. “Give (James Madison) credit, they beat us and went on to have a hell of a year. But it’s a big week to see if we learned anything, to see what our approach is.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball has Tom Izzo ‘excited as hell’ for Year 30