Michigan State basketball needs help from bench in NCAA Tournament

BUFFALO, NY – Michigan State basketball’s battle cry of “strength in numbers” a year ago led to a Big Ten title and an Elite Eight run.

That depth has somewhat disappeared for Tom Izzo as he prepares to open his 28th straight NCAA tournament. But beyond the Spartans’ core-four captains and freshman starter, Jordan Scott, the key reserves know what they mean to this team as the games wind down and the intensity amplifies.

“It’s very important,” sophomore guard Kur Teng said Wednesday, March 18. “Kind of our motto here is strength in numbers. So coming off the bench, I want to be able to produce in any way I can.”

The urgency arrives Thursday, when 3-seed MSU (25-7) opens the first round of the East region against 14-seed North Dakota State (27-7). Tipoff at KeyBank Center is 4:05 p.m. (TNT).

While the attention and heavy workload will be on the shoulders of Jeremy Fears Jr., Coen Carr, Jaxon Kohler, Carson Cooper and Scott, the backups behind them with the potential for two win-or-go-home games in three days becomes essential to giving them breaks while also providing production.

“It’s not really about the minutes,” redshirt freshman Jesse McCulloch said Wednesday, March 18. “It’s really about having our role and going out there and playing as hard as we can for the amount of that we got and knowing that we can contribute to the game by playing as hard as possible.”

Teng and freshman forward Cam Ward have been the two most used subs this season for Izzo, particularly as his rotation has shrunk over the past month. But backup point guard Denham Wojcik still gets key, albeit brief, minutes replacing Fears. And both McCulloch and sixth-year senior guard Trey Fort have been called into duty at pivotal moments, be it with foul trouble or inefficiency from the starters.

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Izzo said the NCAA Tournament, with longer and more frequent TV timeouts, allows coaches to further shrink their playing groups and give starters more minutes.

“But there’s always foul trouble, and there’s always things like that,” he said Wednesday. “I think your subs are always important. I think it’s hurt us a little bit not having Divine (Ugochukwu), for sure. Last year, our whole battle cry was strength in numbers, and we had numbers and we kept rotating people in there. It’s not been quite the same this year, even though we are utilizing our subs.”

Ugochukwu, who is out after foot surgery from an early-February injury, went through the public practice Wednesday but is not expected to be able to return during the NCAAs. That has left MSU’s guard situation thin at times behind Fears and Scott.

However, the 6-foot-5, 200-pound Teng has come on over his last nine games, averaging 10.2 points and making 43.1% from 3-point range. Teng also has picked up his scrappiness beyond scoring, adding 2.3 rebounds in that span that includes nine offensive boards.

“I think Kur Teng is really playing better,” Izzo said. “And if he’s making shots, that helps us.”

Ward also has gradually shown improvement after a wrist injury suffered in a Thanksgiving Day win over North Carolina hampered the midportion of his first season. The 6-9, 230-pound forward is averaging 4.9 points and 4.2 rebounds in the past nine games while shooting 58.1% from the field. He also has six blocks and four steals while playing at key times.

“We’re gonna be playing games with one day in between and playing great teams, high-level minutes,” Ward said Wednesday. “So it’s up to us coming off the bench to have an immediate impact, not really wait until the end of the game like UCLA to have an impact, and have an impact early. We play longer to give these guys a longer time to rest.”

For Ward and McCulloch, giving the Spartans’ big men a break and trying to keep them fresh and not playing 30-plus minutes is their primary mission.

“For me and Jaxon, it’s a lot different between us playing 35 minutes a game and 28 to 30 minutes a game,” Cooper said Wednesday. “I don’t want to have to play 35 minutes a game if I can help it, especially in this tournament where you’re playing a lot of games in a short amount of days.”

Both Kohler and Cooper also know what it is like to be in the position that Ward, Teng and the others are in – coming off the bench in the NCAAs, with Izzo’s intensity soaring and the magnitude of the minutes mounting. They’re also seniors in their final tournament. They want to leave their legacy with both on the court and by helping their understudies toward future postseasons when they’ll be the ones likely logging long minutes.

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“I think it’s really important for me and Coop, especially with Jesse and Cam, to make sure that we kind of explain how this works,” Kohler said Wednesday. “How to manage the emotions that are going on and the way coach can react sometimes. Because when we went through this our first year, it was really nerve-wracking. I mean, it was terrifying at times – we didn’t want to make any mistakes.

“I think what we have to do is make sure that we guide them through that, especially on the court. And the more that we do that – on how to play freely but at the same time with a sense of urgency that if we lose, it can be one-and-done – that’s the thing I feel we can help them with the most. That’s something that we had to learn ourselves growing up in the system.”

Michigan State basketball vs North Dakota State prediction

The Spartans haven’t taken a step back from high-level competition in weeks, so they will welcome having the clear-cut physical advantages to bang with the Bison. The key at KeyBank Center will be MSU defending NDSU’s sharp-shooting lineup to prevent a classic 3/14 upset. The pick: MSU 84, North Dakota State 72.

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

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