DotComp: Adjusting to life after Jase Richardson (and Holloman) and what's next for Michigan State

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Tom Izzo has never been against the use of transfers. His teams have benefitted from them. But he certainly never wanted to have to rely on them. However, that’s the situation he and Michigan State finds themselves in, early this off-season.  As hard as he worked to recruit long-term relationship players, develop their talents, mold them into a strong collective system, and nurture a storybook culture along the way - and as well as he has continued to do it, right through the end of a championship, Elite Eight season in 2025 - Izzo is confronted today with the need to hit the transfer portal. Not for a role player here or there to fill in some cracks, but for required components if the Spartans are going to remain a Big Ten title contender in 2025-26. Izzo and his staff weren’t blind-sided by Tuesday’s news that freshman Jase Richardson will enter his name in the NBA Draft, and that he isn’t coming back. They weren’t blindsided by Tre Holloman’s decision a week ago to enter the transfer portal. But that doesn’t make it any easier to fill their roster spots - something they couldn’t have anticipated when the season started.  At this time last year, Izzo - and probably every other coach in America - growled about roster uncertainty. Michigan State ended up losing two players to the portal (AJ Hoggard and Mady Sissoko) and adding two players (Frankie Fidler and Szymon Zapala). That was a manageable amount of turnover, by today’s standards. But it was a task for Izzo to get the two new players to understand and adhere to the program’s team-first standards. He and they accomplished that. But good luck getting that kind of team-first, buy-in from single-year transfers every season.  Michigan State had good talent in 2024-25, and very good depth. But they didn’t flood you with NBA prospects. They won largely due to collective commitment.  Opposing coaches - especially veterans ones - marveled at the buy-in that Izzo achieved with such a deep playing group. Izzo spent a lot of time nurturing the culture. Now he has to start again. And this time the players he needs to get from the portal won’t be role players. He needs scoring, he needs shooting, he needs someone who can provide back-up point guard minutes.  Filling those needs with guys who also have a team-first attitude, who play defense, and who can make guard decisions up to Izzo’s standards is going to be an extreme challenge. Izzo puts great emphasis on recruiting OKGs - our kind of guys. Every coach prefers OKGs. But Izzo really, really requires it. It takes an SKG, a special kind of guy, to adapt to Izzo’s high-decibel demands.  If he has recruited you for 18 months in high school, and been in your living room, and had dinner with your parents, and watched you play 90 AAU games, and many high school games, and you’ve been to Michigan State games on recruiting visits, the relationship grows strong. And then when he challenges you as a freshman, a sophomore, and through the years of practices, workouts, film sessions, office sessions, and when you really, really have a relationship, then you might be ready to provide a winning role of Izzo ball for the Spartans. That takes years. That’s how Izzo has done it for 30 seasons, with multiple players each year, each at a different stage of the process.  In another era, Holloman would be cycling up with a full shoulder of stripes to be the Travis Walton of the team next year. But in this era, some other program will benefit from a heart-and-soul transplanted Spartan, recruited and developed by Izzo. (MORE INSIDE)