They may all be coming back
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EAST LANSING — Malik Hall and Tyson Walker don’t yet know whether they will return for Michigan State basketball next season for their extra year of eligibility.
Joey Hauser could also come back, but it would require a waiver.
The only thing Tom Izzo knows right now as the Spartans prepare to host Ohio State on Saturday for senior day and the final game of the regular season is three of his key players have decisions to make.
That and his son, Steven Izzo, plans to come back for a fifth season as a walk-on guard.
Such is the nature of college basketball in 2023, with those who played during the pandemic-disrupted 2020-21 season eligible to receive waivers for an extra year and others tacking on another potential year due to injuries.
“It is a little different,” Tom Izzo said after practice Thursday. “We got a couple of guys that could go another year. Nobody knows that now. What I’m gonna do with those guys is get them through the year and worry about that, and then see what’s best for them. You can imagine how screwed up this is for us and roster management, but nobody in the NCAA or some of the media thinks that has nothing to do with anything. And it’s sad, because it’s hard on them, it’s hard on us, it’s hard on everybody. I’m not drinking the Kool-Aid on why it’s such a good thing.
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“But I think for the most part, our guys are in a good spot, and that’s all I want them in now. We’ll finish the season and then we’ll worry about the next one.”
Hall, Walker and former walk-on Jason Whitens will be honored during MSU’s senior ceremony at Breslin Center after facing the Buckeyes (noon/ESPN). Hauser, who took part in last year’s senior day before deciding to return for a fifth season and third with the Spartans, will not participate again this year. Steven Izzo will wait until next year to go through his senior day festivities.
“It definitely goes by really fast,” said Hall, a native of Aurora, Illinois, who along with Steven Izzo are the last remaining players from MSU’s 2020 Big Ten regular-season championship team that had the NCAA tournament canceled that year. “It doesn’t feel like quite yesterday that it was like my freshman year, but I can still remember mostly everything. So definitely it’s crazy.”
Of those veterans, only Hall and Izzo have spent their entire college careers at MSU.
Hauser transferred to MSU before the 2019-20 season but was required to sit out due to NCAA regulations at the time and not getting a waiver to play immediately — that rule changed the following year. The 6-foot-9 forward opted to come back last April, would need to once again petition the NCAA for a sixth season after taking a half-year medical redshirt in 2017-18. Hauser enrolled at Marquette in January of his high school senior year after a season-ending injury.
It proved to be a sound decision to return to MSU, with Hauser playing his best…
Read More: They may all be coming back 2023-03-03 11:09:09