Michigan State Basketball: 3 Things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving

As we approach the holiday season in a very tumultuous year, it’s a nice time to remind ourselves what we have to be thankful for when it comes to Michigan State Basketball.

When viewing Michigan State Basketball, there are quite a few things we have to be thankful for.

1 – Senior Guard Joshua Langford

Joshua Langford came in as a five-star recruit in 2016 in what was considered to be Tom Izzo’s best draft class. He came in and became a starter as a freshman, where he started 27 of 35 games.  His sophomore year, he started every single game.

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During his junior year, he was only able to start 13 games due to a leg injury.  He then missed his entire senior year and was able to redshirt.  2020-21 will be his final year as a Michigan State Spartan. Considering the fact that before this year, we haven’t seen him in a game since December 29th, 2018, it’s easy to forget how great he really was for us. In 2018 he was averaging 15 points a game and shooting 40% from three.

To have that coming back will be huge for this team as they try to replace Cassius Winston and Xavier Tillman, who were both drafted to the NBA last week. Langford is also a guy everyone wants to root for, everyone wants to see him succeed and make it through this whole year healthy.

2 – Head Coach Tom Izzo

You can’t mention Michigan State Basketball and not mention Tom Izzo shortly after that.  He has been at Michigan State since 1983 and became the head coach in 1995.

Since becoming the head coach, he was won a National Championship, been to eight Final Fours, made the tournament 22 years in a row, won the Big Ten Tournament six times, and won the Big Ten Regular Season Championship ten times. Sometimes it’s easy to take for granted what you have in a coach while he is here and winning.

Tom Izzo is clearly closer to his final game than his first game; it’s important to really soak in what he does for this team while he is still here.  It seems that he is always in the thick of things in the Big Ten, and he always puts out a competitive team on the floor.  It’s important to realize how rare that has, especially over a span of 25 years and counting.

3 – The Future Incoming Talent

Depending on how things shake out next year, we could see Tom Izzo’s best class of all time come to campus next year.  As of right now, the class is Max Christie (5 star), Jaden Akins (4 star), and Pierre Brooks (4 star). That currently ranks him at sixth in the country and second in the Big Ten behind Michigan. Things start to get interesting if Emoni Bates (5 star, number 1 player of 2022 class) and Enoch Boakye (4 star in 2022) reclassify and join the 2021 class.

Rumors are floating around that that could happen.  If that ends up being the case, it will bump Michigan State to the top class in the country.  Emoni Bates would be the best player Tom Izzo has ever recruited coming out of high school. Bates, who currently plays for Ypsi Prep Academy, won the Gatorade National Player of the Year award as a sophomore in 2020, the first-ever to do so.

Hopefully, as the year goes on, this team will get better every week and go into the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament firing on all cylinders. Let’s also hope covid does not have any impact on the season for everyone, not just Michigan State Basketball.