Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State basketball as practice begins

1. This MSU roster is a rarity in modern college basketball

It’s almost as if Michigan State’s men’s basketball program is existing in a time warp — having avoided the pitfalls of the transfer portal, its roster loaded with veterans and blue-chippers as if this was 20 years ago or at least pre-pandemic.

You won’t find rosters very often like this anymore in college basketball — with eight scholarship returners, including your top four guards, having lost only one rotation player (and not even to the transfer portal), and with an incoming class that rivals the best the program has ever seen.

Izzo will tell you it’s a combination of being loyal to his guys and not recruiting over them, coupled with recruiting kids who are highly touted but more importantly fit the program. That's what's allowed this to occur.

“In this BS transactional world we’re in, we still have a relationship-based program,” Izzo said.

He’s threaded a needle in building this roster.

You can sense the anticipation for this season — for not only wondering how good this team can be and also how it’ll all come together, with freshmen Jeremy Fears Jr., Coen Carr, Xavier Booker and Gehrig Normand joining the fray in what’s going to be a fight for minutes.

You could feel the competitive energy at MSU’s first in-season practice Monday.

Izzo said there’s a sweat equity to this group in that he’s got players who have been through it, who have failed and been allowed to fail. They’ve been close to a Final Four run (last year) and lost in overtime in an NCAA tournament play-in game (two years ago), only to see the team that beat them make a Final Four themselves.

Those older guys have been good about showing the freshmen the way, Izzo said, and the freshmen “have shown some respect for the upperclassmen.”

It’s going to be an interesting mix. It could be ideal, even if not everyone is always happy. Minutes, Izzo said, will have to be earned.

The competition the next six weeks in practice might be as fierce as any opponent they face most of this season.

“The biggest concern is how we put everybody together,” Izzo said.

2. Freshman thoughts — the beginning of practice edition

If this freshman class had arrived in 2016, like Izzo’s last great freshman class of this ilk, all four of this year’s newcomers might have been starters or at least easily in the rotation. Instead, Fears, Booker, Carr and Normand are going to have claw for every minute.

It’ll benefit them in the long run, I think — the competition with 22-year-olds, the accountability that creates. If you want to build a program and not just a team, as Izzo said Monday, this is a good way to do it, provided they stick around when things don’t come easy.

“Let's face it, their girlfriends, their buddies, their parents ... they haven't played three minutes in a game yet, so they have something to complain about,” Izzo said. “That's right around the corner. And I'm kind of looking forward to it.”

You can see how much Izzo is excited for this, how he reacts when he sees Booker making a play that shows off his elite athleticism or when Carr goes and gets a rebound that maybe only he can get.

These guys are going to push for time. But the guys in front of them are seasoned players, whose understanding of the college game is something the freshmen are not going to have for a while.

It’s going to be fascinating to watch them try to break into the rotation and lineup and to see what they’re able to add to this team right away.

3. Plenty of intrigue, still unanswered questions at center

If college basketball teams played four centers at once, MSU would have one of the deeper and more intriguing foursomes in college basketball in senior Mady Sissoko, sophomores Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper and freshman Xavier Booker. But if you’re only playing one at a time and never more than two, it’s still unclear whether MSU has a guy who can hold his own against the best big men in the sport and in the Big Ten.

“All those bigs have gotten better,” Izzo said Monday. “Whether they’ll be good enough, only time will tell.”

Sissoko, Izzo said, is 25 pounds heavier than a year ago. He certainly looks more barrel-chested. Kohler, as we saw this summer, has changed his body, too, getting lean. Cooper looks like he’s put on some muscle.

MORE: Couch: MSU's Jaxon Kohler changed his body to change his game after a humbling freshman season

If a stronger version of last year’s Sissoko is this team’s floor at center, that’s an improvement. The ceiling at center this season is probably elsewhere — possibly with Cooper, whose combination of size, athleticism and good hands make him likely the most complete center on the roster, for this season at least.

Booker, who Izzo acknowledged Monday is “definitely the most talented” of his big guys, is also built like an incoming freshman. He can do some things athletically and skill-wise that’ll earn him minutes — perhaps also at power forward — and make him intriguing as heck, but certain matchups won’t be for him.

MSU has four relatively compelling choices in the paint. It’ll be interesting which of them emerges over the next six weeks of practice and whether any combination of them shows the coaching staff that they’re capable of playing together in tandem.

“We do have some depth inside and it is going to be tricky who you play," Izzo said. "And that, too, will be earned, not given.”

It’s a better situation than a year ago, for sure. But not one that’s certain to give the Spartans an advantage night in and night out at the position.

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State basketball: 3 quick takes as MSU begins practice