Michigan State now has its second transfer portal commitment of the offseason, as former Samford guard Trey Fort announced that he will be heading to East Lansing on Friday.
The decision to commit to the Spartans comes in the wake of his official visit to MSU on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Fort will be a sixth-year senior, and it is not yet certain whether he will have one or two years of eligibility. In theory, Fort could argue for two more years since his true freshman season was when the COVID redshirt was in effect and then the following two seasons were spent in junior college.
This past season at Samford, Fort averaged 14.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 0.8 steals per game while making 44.8% of his shots from the field and 73.0% of his free throws.
He also made 37.9% of his 3-point shots while taking 6.4 of those shots per game during the 2024-2025 campaign, a very high volume. Fort ended up making 76 threes during the season. Notably, forward Jaxon Kohler had the most made 3-pointers in 2024-2025 upon returning MSU players for the 2025-2026 season with just 19. Forward Kaleb Glenn, Michigan State’s other transfer portal addition, made 45 such shots.
Fort has had a long, transfer-filled journey to his final collegiate stop. MSU will end up being his sixth different school in six years.
The Florence, Mississippi native began his career at Tennessee-Martin, where he only played in 11 games during the 2020-2021 season and averaged 2.6 points per game as a true freshman. Fort went the JUCO route from there, playing for Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Wesson, Mississippi during the 2021-2022 season and then going to Howard College located in Big Spring, Texas for the 2022-2023 campaign.
Fort made the jump back to Division I basketball after that, joining Mississippi State during the 2023-2024. He appeared in 20 games, made seven starts, and averaged 5.0 points per game. In fact, the Bulldogs’ season ended with a loss to Michigan State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament that year — Fort only played one minute in that contest, however.
The now-24-year-old then transferred to Samford for the 2024-2025 campaign, where he also faced the Spartans again on Nov. 19, 2024. Fort struggled, scoring just four points on 1-for-8 shooting, while grabbing four rebounds and recording two assists.
Even though he had a far-from-gaudy statline against Michigan State, Fort showed the ability to score in bunches for Samford last season. He scored 36 points on Feb. 15 against Wofford, 29 points versus UNC Greensboro on March 1, and 27 points against Alabama A&M earlier in the season. In total, Fort had seven outings where he scored at least 20 points last year.
While the situation is fluid regarding Michigan State’s transfer portal activity, the expectation is that head coach Tom Izzo is likely to search for another point guard to add to the 2025-2026 roster.
If current roster rules are maintained, the Spartans would still have three open scholarship spots with the addition of Fort. There is also a strong possibility that a hard roster limit of 15 gets set due to the House settlement — whether a player is on scholarship or not. If that becomes the case, Fort being added would mean there are two open slots.
There is also still time for the makeup of the portal to change. Players can still opt to enter until April 22. Once the deadline has passed, those in the transfer portal are allowed to remain in it until they make a decision on where to go.
Spartans Illustrated contributor David Klein breaks down what this commitment means for Michigan State here.
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