EAST LANSING — Tyson Walker rarely talks about his body. It’s neither in his nature to complain about being hurt, nor does he dial back his aggressive style of play if he isn’t feeling 100%.
The kind of feisty, scrappy player Tom Izzo loves.
Yet the equally gritty coach admits he doesn’t know what percent Michigan State basketball’s star guard has been playing at lately while continuing to push through a nagging groin injury that started bothering him in January.
In Sunday’s 60-57 home collapse against Ohio State, Walker didn’t take a shot for nearly 12 minutes at the outset and didn’t score until there were 55 seconds remaining in the first half. He finished with 12 points on 5-for-15 shooting in 33:01 of court time, going 3-for-10 and scoring seven of his points in the second half.
“Every time he goes down, he’s grabbing his groin. So I don’t know, I really don’t,” Izzo said after practice Wednesday. “There’s nothing I can do about it, so I just listen to the trainer and listen to him — can you play or not play? It’s definitely been somewhat of an issue.”
Walker has shrugged off questions about his health most of the season, whether it be about the shin splints he battled early in the season, an illness that kept him out for the first time as a Spartan in mid-November, or a hip injury he suffered in early December.
But he admitted Wednesday, with MSU (17-11, 9-8 Big Ten) off until Saturday night’s showdown at No. 3 Purdue, that “it is tough” to remain healthy through all of the wear and tear.
“Taking care of your body is definitely important,” said Walker, who leads the Spartans at 18.1 points and 32.4 minutes per game. “You gotta do everything you can to stay healthy, physically and mentally. And then still being able to work in games. … I just tell everybody pain is normal. You’re always gonna be in pain when you’re playing basketball, so you just gotta get through it.”
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Izzo revealed after MSU won at home over Michigan on Jan. 30 that Walker is battling “a little pulled groin.” Neither the coach nor the player have specified when the issue began.
But after scoring 21 points in a Jan. 18 home win over Minnesota, Walker has not played to the same level that earned him a spot on the Naismith Trophy Midseason Team.
Walker is shooting just 39% over his last 10 games, making just 31.8% from 3-point range. He is posting just 14.9 points a game in that stretch, compared to the 20 a game he was scoring in the Spartans’ 17 games before that in which the 6-foot-1, 185-pound fifth-year guard made 48.5% of his shots and 39.6% from outside the arc. He also saw his 35-game streak of scoring in double figures snapped during a Feb. 14 road win at Penn State when Walker scored just six points, his lowest total since the 2022-23 season-opener against Northern Arizona.
MSU is 6-4 in its last 10 and lost consecutive home games for the first time since January 2016. That includes losing a 12-point second-half lead against the Buckeyes after falling five days earlier at Breslin Center against Iowa, 78-71.
“We’re definitely frustrated we lose,” Walker said. “We know every game we’ve lost, we’ve been up or we’ve been right there. So it’s just trying to close out games. But giving up a layup in the beginning of the game is just as important as giving up a layup to lose the game. So we just gotta limit our mistakes.”
Still, Izzo said he’s not as worried about that offensive downturn so much as he is “disappointed with his defense” in recent weeks. Even though the quick-handed, fleet-footed Walker has averaged 2.1 steals per game over the last 10 games.
“He’ll make shots,” Izzo said. “I mean, you can’t get mad at a guy who’s a shooter for missing shots. … I’m not worried about that. I think it’s affected his defense, and that’s been concerning for me. We’re trying to talk to him about more, ‘You’ve gotta play both ends of the court. That’s what you do, that’s who you were.’ And I think he’s lost a little bit on that. And I think that triggers his offense.”
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Even with the ailment, Walker continues to be hounded and bodied up by opposing defenders as the Spartans’ primary scoring threat.
“He gets beat up, too,” Izzo said. “I’m sick of how he gets beat up if I was to tell you the truth and not getting some calls. But he’s gonna have to learn to deal with it, it’s just the way it is.”
It’s not like there haven’t been big games for Walker since Izzo revealed the ongoing groin problem. After Izzo brought up the issue, Walker scored 19 in a home win over Maryland and 20 in a loss at Minnesota, even though he left that game for a few minutes after reaggravating the injury. Walker also scored 19 in a win at U-M and 16 against the Hawkeyes before the OSU loss, but in those three games made just 17 of 46 shots (37%) and went 6-for-19 from 3-point range (31.6%).
“He’s had a couple of bad games in a row for him, but he had a lot of good games in a row, too. And there’s no reason he can’t get back to that,” Izzo said. “Contrary to what people think, I didn’t forget how to coach and he didn’t forget how to shoot. We just gotta do it on a better level.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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