Michigan State senior Malik Hall re-injures ankle in loss at Illinois; Tom Izzo: 'It's a problem'

Michigan State thought its injury and fatigue problems were over, for now. But during the Spartans’ 75-66 loss at Illinois on Friday night, both re-emerged with Malik Hall missing the last 7:33 of the game due to re-injuring his ankle.

Hall originally injured the ankle late in the first half of last weekend’s victory over Michigan. He played through soreness during Tuesday night’s victory at Wisconsin.

But with a little less than 8:00 minutes left in Michigan State’s game at Illinois, and the game tied at 54-54, Hall stepped on the foot of Illini forward Coleman Hawkins while pivoting in the lane. Hall limped to the bench and Michigan State never considered playing him again.

“He hurt that ankle again,” said Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo.

Izzo had no further update on Hall after the game. 

“Hopefully this doesn’t keep him out,” Izzo said. “It’s a problem. I don’t know how he is going to be. I have no idea.

“He’s one of my best players.”

Hall missed eight games earlier in the season due to a stress reaction in the same foot. When Hall injured his ankle against Michigan, Izzo said it wasn’t a case of aggravating or re-injuring the stress reaction. These are apparently two different ailments, but they had the same negative impact on the team.

“It hurt a lot,” Izzo said of Hall being unavailable late in the game. “We had done a hell of a job on (6-foot-9 Illinois forward Matthew) Mayer and then I think Joey (Hauser) got so tired because we couldn’t play Malik any. I had to play Joey to death. So that hurts Joey offensively and he’s not as good defensively. It hurt a lot, but injuries have been part of the whole year.”

Izzo would liked to have put Hall’s 6-foot-9 frame on Mayer when Illinois went with a big front line of 6-foot-9 Dain Dainja at center, 6-foot-10 Coleman Hawkins at the four and Mayer at the three. 

With Hall unavailable, Michigan State went with 6-foot-4 sophomore Jaden Akins on Mayer. Mayer capitalized with a pair of 3-pointers over Akins which stretched the lead to 59-54 with 7:28 to play.

Later, Hawkins hit a 3-pointer over Hauser from the right wing which made it 63-60 with 4:35 to play. 

Michigan State out-rebounded Illinois, 42-30, but a third-chance bucket by Hawkins, when Hauser and Akins failed to secure a range rebound, delivered a crushing blow in giving Illinois a 71-64 lead with 1:29 to go.

“Being tired, and size sometimes, (are the things that) beat us,” Izzo said. “But at the same time, I just couldn’t sub enough guys. I probably should have played Pierre (Brooks) a little bit, but they were so athletic at that spot. I just didn’t think he could cover guys right now.”

Michigan State will return home to play first-place Purdue at 2:30 p.m. on Monday in a special Martin Luther King Day game (FOX). 

“I know one thing: We’re going to show up and we need all of our fans showing up,” Izzo said. “This team proved tonight that we can play with anybody. That’s the most talented team in our league if you ask me and yet we don’t have a big margin for error. A couple of mistakes and all the sudden they go on an 18-4 run, and that’s not good.”

Michigan will be playing its fourth game in nine days on Monday. Purdue will be playing its fourth game in 11 days. Purdue beat Nebraska, 73-55, on Friday.

“The problem is all these short turn-arounds are short-term preps,” Izzo said. “This is the first time we’ve played these teams so there is no carryover. It puts a lot on my staff. Those guys worked diligently all night. We’re going to do it again tonight until Monday. An extra day in there would make a big difference but we don’t have one. 

“We’ll get back late; nice 9 o’clock game, we’ll get back at 2 in the morning and figure it out.”

In the meantime, Hall told reporters, including Matt Charboneau of The Detroit News (follow him @mattchrarboneau), that he was okay. Hall was not wearing a protective boot when he left the arena.

Not an official update, but Malik Hall didn't have a boot on after the game. Said he's OK, but I'm sure there will be plenty of treatment coming before Purdue game on Monday

— Matt Charboneau (@mattcharboneau) January 14, 2023