Well, it’s official! After running SpartanHoops for over three years, I have officially joined the Spartans Illustrated team to provide in-depth basketball coverage for what should be a thrilling 2023-2024 season. While we did some cross-publishing of material this summer and some of you likely got a glimpse into my work, for the vast majority, my writing will be new.

Between Kyle Austin, Graham Couch, and others, Michigan State men's basketball is blessed with some very good beat coverage. They provide insight into players’ thoughts/reactions, game recaps, and storylines throughout the year. It’s a crucial part of the coverage, but it’s not what I, for the most part, will be providing here on this site.

Unrestricted by hard deadlines and word count, what I provided over at SpartanHoops and will do so again for Spartans Illustrated is detailed advanced statistical analysis (using Kenpom, Bart Torvik, and other advanced metric websites), film breakdown of individual players on both sides of the ball, rotational decisions/concerns, and overall bigger picture thoughts on the trajectory of the season utilizing all the tools available to me.

Together with my co-coverage writer Carter Elliott, I think that what you will see from us is a unique, unfiltered perspective, which you will have a hard time finding elsewhere. And while at our core, Carter and I are both die-hard Michigan State men's basketball fans, who openly celebrate the wins and agonize the losses, our strengths lie in the fact that we do not intend to sugarcoat anything. The good, the great, the bad, the ugly, whatever the outcome is we promise to give it to you straight, no chaser.

We hope you enjoy the coverage this season. We’re excited to provide it! To start, Cater and I have an in-depth 2023-2024 season preview below.

It’s already been a fun start to the season! MSU’s two exhibition games against Hillsdale and Tennessee were both televised, and -- although vastly different matchups -- we are beginning to get a glimpse into how the early rotations are shaking out, the development of the players, the injection of talent the freshmen class is able to provide, and a vague outline of the overall strengths and potential weaknesses of the team this season.

Carter and I have decided to tag-team this first article, and wanted to provide a comprehensive overview of all the above. Although we talk hoops daily over text, and many of our opinions are aligned on certain subject matters, we also have numerous varying takes. As such, we thought the best format would be a more conversational tone for our preview. While it will be atypical of how we write individually, we hope you enjoy how we have structured our initial joint article. All feedback is wellcome in the Spartans Illustrated Message Board (Premium).

If you are joining from Spartan Hoops, please use promo code SPARTANHOOPS at this link to join today and get 60 days for free as our way of saying thank you for your support.

So without further ado, let’s dive in!

DK: MSU’s backcourt has widely been touted as one of the most talented in the country. Although the Spartans collectively had a poor start against the Volunteers, a strong bounce back late in the first half and throughout the second, backed up the position that an extremely high floor for this MSU team will be firmly set by the talented veteran trio of A.J. Hoggard, Tyson Walker, and Jaden Akins. Walker finished with a team high 22 points, four assists, three rebounds, and five steals, going eight-for-19 from the field and four-for-8 from deep. He had a personal 7-0 run late in the second half to erase MSU’s double-digit deficit, showing his scoring prowess from all three levels.

Carter, what do you think are the reasonable expectations for Tyson Walker this season in terms of production and overall impact? And what did you like in the two exhibition games from him and/or want to see more of as we kick off the season?

Carter: Tyson Walker should have All-American aspirations this season. Coming off a season where he averaged 14.8 points per game (ppg), I think there is another leap for Tyson to possibly score in the 17-18 ppg range. Having Walker is such a luxury for this MSU team for many reasons. One being that down the stretch when it is winning time, there is no doubt who the guy is for this team, and Walker relishes in that moment. If the end of the Tennessee exhibition was a precursor for what is to come this season, the Spartans will have one of the best closers in the country.

One thing I would like to see more from Tyson is off-ball screens to get him looks and make plays. Last season, it seemed that any time Michigan State needed a bucket, it would go to Joey Hauser coming off a pin-down screen to get a shot off. All those pin-downs run for Hauser last year should be run for Walker this season, and it will look even better because Walker is dynamic off the dribble. He can either shoot or attack off that pin-down, and it puts the defenders he will face in a spot many don’t want to find themselves. I loved Tyson’s aggressiveness (after watching his first season, I will never ever get mad at him for shooting), but I will say if I had to critique him in one area, his shot selection at times was a bit erratic. The nature of the game somewhat called for that, so I don’t think it will be an issue moving forward.