EAST LANSING – Over his 32 years as Michigan State basketball’s head coach, and 12 years before it as an assistant, Tom Izzo has watched the first day of practice morph into something completely different than it once was.
Gone are the days of the first practice being a reunion for a new season.
Gone are the times of Midnight Madness events, reviving fan interest and revving up the intensity with fireworks and pageantry. Instead, it is simply a technical term in a continuation of the offseason work blending together with the previous year.
“I think I’m not sick of looking at them,” Izzo said Tuesday, Sept. 22. “But I bet you they’re sick of looking at me.”
What now exists in the college basketball realm, with NCAA changes giving coaches more access
to players, is a year-round model that begins in the days and weeks after the previous season ends. That acceleration begins in 10 days, when the Spartans open a season with lofty expectations against Incarnate Word on Oct. 2 at Breslin Center (7 p.m.). It will be their first of three exhibition games, with Connecticut visiting Oct. 20 and MSU heading to Marquette on Oct. 25.
Even for a self-professed basketball junkie like Izzo, there comes a tipping point where more becomes too much.
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“The summers, with the eight weeks we can do things, I still think they’re good for the guys,“ Izzo said. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job of handling it – not ultra-competitively and not grinding the whole time. But trying to make some fun and enjoyment and yet get better. Is it too early to start? Boy, I tell you, it IS early. It makes for a long season.
“It’s different. It just means that we have to do a better job of being aware of fatigue, being aware of trying to do too much too early and yet getting things done. And I think we balanced that out pretty good this summer.”
It helps, Izzo said, to have an All-American point guard back in Jeremy Fears Jr. and fellow returning captain Coen Carr for their fourth years in the program. Fears on Monday was named national preseason player of the year according to the Blue Ribbon College Basketball annual publication.
MSU's core also returns juniors Kur Teng and Kaleb Glenn and sophomores Cam Ward, Jordan Scott and Jesse McCulloch. Izzo also added big man transfer Anton Bonke, as well as a top-10 ranked freshmen class with Jasiah Jervis, Carlos Medlock, Ethan Taylor and Julius Avent.
Juggling those 12 players and creating lineups to maximize their varied skillsets will be the primary focus of the next month for Izzo before the regular season begins with the Nov. 2 opener against Quinnipiac at home. The Spartans’ depth and talent was on full display during a spirited first official workout, as both the veteran units and the newcomers went at each other with the ferocity of a February practice preparing for March Madness – particularly important knowing they will be facing an unknown opponent in less than two weeks.
“This was the first full day of practice, getting back into the groove of things,” Fears said after Tuesday’s practice. “But this was top notch. A lot of guys competing.”
Izzo said Teng (offseason foot surgery) is back to full strength, as is Glenn after suffering a knee injury in June 2025 that forced him to miss all last season. Ward currently is slowed with an ankle sprain but worked out in noncontact drills and is a week or so away from getting back into full action.
Both Fears and Carr pointed to the depth MSU had two years ago as a blueprint for how many players will be needed.
Carr said starting before the calendar flips into October “is definitely weird.” But he also pointed to how much success he and his teammates experienced during that 2024-25 Elite Eight run as a reminder that they all want to have a long season that won’t end until April.
“At the end of the day, man, it’s hoops,“ Carr said. “I love to hoop, so I ain’t gonna complain. I’m ready to play. I feel like for us, we’ve been going at it hard all summer, too. We’re just continuing at it and taking it up another level as well. Every little thing matters now.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tom Izzo juggles new challenge with MSU basketball practice underway
