Michigan State junior guard Kennedy Blair has landed on the 2027 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and WBCA Preseason Watch List for the Nancy Lieberman Award, putting her in the conversation for the nation’s top point guard before the season even starts.
The award, now in its 28th year, honors the best floor general in NCAA Division I women’s basketball. The standard is clear: candidates have to show the leadership, playmaking and ball-handling that defined Class of 1996 Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman.
Blair’s case is built on last season’s production. She earned Second-Team All-Big Ten honors after finishing fourth in the conference in assists, averaging 5.2 per game. Among returning point guards in the 2026-27 Big Ten, she sits second behind Oregon’s Katie Fiso, who was second in the league with 6.2 assists per game.
She also made her mark at the defensive end, ranking third in the Big Ten with 2.4 steals per game. Blair led Michigan State in scoring and finished inside the top 20 in the conference at 14.5 points per game. She was one of just two Spartans to start all 32 games and also picked up CSC Academic All-District and Academic All-Big Ten recognition.
Blair was one of two Michigan State players on hand for Big Ten Conference Basketball Media Days in Rosemont, Illinois, earlier this month, along with senior guard Theryn Hallock.
Michigan State also had news on the men’s side, with redshirt junior guard Jeremy Fears Jr. earning a spot among 20 players on the 2027 Bob Cousy Award watch list, which recognizes the men’s top point guard.
The Spartans are one of seven schools nationally with both a men’s and women’s player on the preseason watch lists, and one of only two Big Ten programs to do it, alongside Michigan. UConn, Louisville, LSU, Miami and Virginia also had one player on both lists.
Michigan State will get its first on-court look at the new season in an exhibition against Northern Michigan on Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the Breslin Center. The regular season begins Tuesday, Nov. 3 against Valparaiso at 6:30 p.m.
In Other News...
Michigan State Just Got A New Reason To Circle Oregon
Oregons midseason shakeup adds another layer to a matchup Michigan State already had circled. Dan Lanning moved on from his offensive coordinator after the loss to Illinois, and the Ducks have now turned to former Spartans coordinator Jay Johnson in that role on a temporary basis. For Michigan State, it is the kind of storyline that makes a late-season trip a little more personal, because the staff on the other sideline now includes a familiar face from East Lansing.
The timing matters, too, because Oregon is trying to steady itself after a rough stretch that has included three losses and the season-ending injury to quarterback Dante Moore. Johnson stepping in gives the Ducks a different look offensively at a moment when they need answers fast, and Michigan State will get a chance to see how that transition settles in before it plays out on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Is Finally Making A Serious Push To Rebuild Fast
Pat Fitzgeralds first season in East Lansing has not delivered the kind of on-field turnaround Michigan State was hoping for, but the bigger picture around the program may be starting to move in a much more ambitious direction. New athletic director Dan Bartholomae has already signaled that he wants the Spartans to spend at a level that can keep them among the Big Tens financial heavyweights, a clear acknowledgment that roster building now matters as much as any coaching change.
According to a report by Justin Spiro, that shift could show up in a major way this offseason, with Michigan State planning to spend in the high-$30 million range on its football roster. If that number holds, the Spartans would be putting themselves in the top five for Big Ten spending, a sign that the school is trying to speed up its rebuild rather than wait for it to happen gradually. The question now is whether that investment can translate into the kind of immediate competitive jump the program has been searching for. [Read more 🡒]
Jack Velling Reignites A Familiar Michigan State What-Might-Have Debate
Jack Vellings NFL path has already taken a familiar turn for Michigan State fans who remember the promise and the inconsistency from his two seasons in East Lansing. The undrafted rookie tight end landed with the Falcons after the preseason, only to be released, leaving him back in the market for another practice-squad opportunity as he tries to keep his pro career moving.
For Spartans followers, Velling is one of those players who naturally triggers the what-might-have-been conversation. His college stint offered flashes without fully settling into the kind of breakout run that changes a programs view of a player, and now his next stop will say plenty about whether there is still untapped NFL value waiting to be found. [Read more 🡒]