Jordan Scott already looked like a useful piece for Michigan State last season. This year, he has the feel of a player who could matter a lot more.
Scott’s rise late in the year was one of the quieter wins for the Spartans. He worked his way into the starting lineup down the stretch, and while his numbers - 5.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per game - were modest, they didn’t capture everything he brought. The shot was real, the effort never dipped, and he gave MSU a defender who could handle multiple spots on the floor.
The offensive upside is what makes him so interesting now. Scott shot 37.0% from three as a freshman, which is solid, though that number gets dragged down by an 0-for-9 start and a 1-for-13 start to his career.
Strip away those first 13 attempts, and he was at 41.4% the rest of the way. In Big Ten regular-season play, he hit 43.5% from deep.
That kind of number is enough to make defenses pay attention, and Scott may be pushing that even further. At the Moneyball Pro-Am, he has been taking deep threes, sometimes a step or two behind the line.
Those NBA-range shots are still clearly a work in progress, but that’s part of what the summer setting is for. The more comfortable he gets from way out there, the more the standard college line should open up for him.
And if defenders have to honor him that far out, Michigan State’s spacing gets better in a hurry. That can ripple through the offense.
Jeremy Fears Jr. may have a little more room to attack the lane, which can lead to alley-oops or kickouts to other shooters. Small advantage, big effect.
Scott’s value, though, goes well beyond shooting. His defensive versatility might be his most important trait.
He can check point guards, shooting guards, small forwards and even some smaller power forwards. If he switches onto a guard after a ball screen, Michigan State doesn’t have to panic or scramble to clean up the mismatch.
That showed up in a big way against Illinois last season. Scott was the main defender on Keaton Wagler and held him to 2-for-16 shooting, or 12.5%, from the field. It was the worst shooting night Wagler had in his lone college season, one that ended with a Final Four run and the fifth-overall pick by the Los Angeles Clippers.
Scott also helped take pressure off Fears late in the season. That mattered because Fears’ value was enormous, and Michigan State could not afford to put him in foul trouble by making him chase the other team’s point guard or primary ball-handler all night.
If Scott locks down a more permanent starting job, more people outside East Lansing will notice what he can do. A 6'8" wing who can defend opposing point guards is a rare thing, and it is one of the reasons Scott’s NBA ceiling is probably second only to Coen Carr’s on the Spartans’ roster.
The motor is part of the package too. Scott is the kind of player who dives for loose balls and keeps plays alive. He kept making things happen as he got more comfortable, and the production followed.
He and Cam Ward share a lot of the same traits. They’re from the DMV, they’re in the same recruiting class, and they play with the kind of effort coaches love.
They’re also close off the court. More than anything, both fit the mold of a Tom Izzo player.
If Scott keeps building on what he already does well, he could end up being a major piece for a team that has a chance to be very good.
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Michigan States Rebuild Has One Surprising Edge For Pat Fitzgerald
Michigan States rebuild is taking a route that looks a little different from the usual long-term college football project. Instead of leaning mostly on youth and waiting for classes to mature, the Spartans have built one of the oldest rosters in the FBS, with an average age of 20.64 years, and theyve done it by adding 32 players through the transfer portal. A lot of those newcomers already have plenty of college football behind them, which gives the program a chance to compress the timeline and look more seasoned right away.
The most obvious example is up front, where Michigan State is replacing four starting offensive linemen and appears set to roll out a group made entirely of fifth- or sixth-year seniors. That kind of experience can matter in a league where the difference between a promising rebuild and an immediate step forward often comes down to how quickly a roster can handle the details. The Spartans have clearly chosen the faster path, and the bigger question now is how well all that age and experience translates once the games start for real. [Read more 🡒]
Draymond Green Took Another Shot At A Michigan Rookie
Draymond Green has never been shy about weighing in on younger players, and the latest name to draw his attention is Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg. The tension has been building around a strange little side plot involving Lendeborgs role in a pitch to LeBron James, with Green publicly taking a skeptical stance and making it clear he was not impressed by the whole episode.
What makes it linger is the back-and-forth around whether the two had even connected after Lendeborg reached out, since Green pushed back on that version of events. For a veteran with Greens profile, it is the kind of exchange that can turn into a distraction fast, and it puts even more pressure on him to keep the noise from becoming the story. [Read more 🡒]
Tom Izzo May Have A New Moneyball Dilemma After Latest Scare
The Moneyball pro-am has long been one of those summer hoops stops that gives Michigan State fans a chance to see Spartans players in a loose setting, but this week it turned into something more serious. After Coen Carr had already gone down on the floor last Thursday, another slip by Carlos Medlock Jr. put the events conditions back under the microscope and made the gym feel a lot less like a harmless showcase.
Poor floor conditions have become the real story, with heat and humidity only adding to the concern about player safety. Moneyball suspended play for the rest of the day to sort through scheduling and the court situation, and it is fair to wonder whether Tom Izzo will look at future participation a little differently after this latest scare. [Read more 🡒]