Tom Izzo: A.J. Hoggard will not be at Michigan State if he returns to college

Michigan State men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo made one thing very clear during a Wednesday morning interview on local radio: If point guard A.J. Hoggard returns to college and passes up the NBA, he won’t be doing so at Michigan State. It’s a point Izzo intimated toward right after the season.

But in a wide ranging interview with mid-Michigan sports staple Tim Staudt on “Staudt on Sports,” his radio show/podcast, Izzo addressed Hoggard’s status more bluntly. There did not appear to be any ill-will between Izzo and Hoggard, just an understanding that his time at Michigan State has run its course.

“Well AJ’s down at the camp right now, him and Tyson [Walker] are both down in Portsmouth,” Izzo said. “And AJ’s looking to make a pro career. But he could go back to college, it wouldn’t be here. I think it’s — we have some younger guys and he has exhausted his and he’ll graduate.”

After Michigan State’s season ended in late March in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Hoggard has taken a path that’s become common for veteran college basketball players: Entering the NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility. If Hoggard isn’t pleased with his pro projections, he’ll have the possibility to come back to college.

But given what Izzo has said, any return to the collegiate level will require a trip to the transfer portal.

And ultimately, Izzo thinks Hoggard has his sights set on a pro career after a four-year career with the Spartans.

“But I think he’d like to get into the pro ball,” Izzo said. “Whether it be Europe, whether it be the G League. But nowadays, everybody will look at college, too, depending on offers from different places. It’s the — there’s guys that I know that played in the Final Four and got $20,000 and there’s guys you’re hearing rumors getting $1 million and that’s, it’s so crazy that every kid is going to look differently at things and see what happens.” 

Izzo and Co. are in the market for a new assistant coach

Early in April, Detroit Mercy found a new head coach and didn’t have to go far to find him, hiring Michigan State assistant Mark Montgomery to run the men’s basketball program. Montgomery had previously been the head coach at Northern Illinois prior to rejoining Tom Izzo’s staff.

The Titans had been in the market for a new head coach since early March, when the program let go of head coach Mike Davis after six seasons. The Titans went 1-31 this past season.

Montgomery is a Michigander through and through. Coming out of Inkster, Michigan, as a preps player, he spent four years playing for Jud Heathcote at Michigan State before playing professionally overseas.

He began his coaching career as an assistant on the Central Michigan staff in 1997 and joined Izzo’s staff for a first stint in 2002. He would serve on staff in East Lansing until 2011, when he took over the head job at Northern Illinois.

In more than nine seasons leading the Huskies, Montgomery could never get them over the hump and into the NCAA Tournament. The best teams he had were a 21-win outfit in 2015-16 and an 18-13 team that finished near the top of the conference in 2019-20. But after a 1-7 start in 2020, Montgomery was fired. He went 124-170 during his tenure as head coach.

He spent 2021 as an assistant at Detroit Mercy before eventually rejoining the Michigan State staff.

And now Montgomery is back in Detroit, this time as the man in charge of a program with a lot of work to be done.