Now entering his second season in the Michigan State men's basketball program, sophomore forward/center Jaxon Kohler has transformed his body and is looking to take the next step up in his college career.
As a freshman during the 2022-2023 campaign, Kohler played in all 34 games for the Spartans. On a per-game basis, Kohler averaged 10.7 minutes, 3.0 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. He shot 50.5% from the field, making 50 of his 99 shot attempts.
He's hoping to find a larger role in 2023-2024, and is willing to do whatever it takes to help the Spartans win games.
Kohler's freshman season didn't go exactly the way he had planned. However, that has motivated him to make sure his sophomore season does meet his personal expectations.
Speaking on Tuesday during Michigan State's men's basketball 2023 media day, Kohler discussed his freshman year struggles and his plan to improve moving forward.
"Going through the regular season and then Big Ten teams and going to the Big Ten Tournament and then the NCAA Tournament, there's a lot of growing experiences, a lot of learning opportunities (as a freshman)," Kohler said on Tuesday. "I think the most important phase through all that is, what are you going to do when things don't go your way?
"There was a lot of opportunities last year where I was kind of down on myself, and just the typical freshman phase, right? But, I remember the most important thing was, how am I going to bounce back? How am I going to let it not affect my mind, the way I play. Going through this offseason, it really gave me a chance to really list down all the things I needed to get better at. I remember that this summer, I have never had more motivation to change my body, change the way I play, work harder than I've ever worked hard before. And, I have never gotten stronger results than I've ever had in my life."
So, how exactly did Kohler get to where he is at today? He focused on the areas of the game in which he was lacking, or at least the aspects that others mentioned he needed to improve in, and he then put in the necessary work to do so throughout the offseason.
"I would say that the moment that the (NCAA) Tournament ended, I knew that our season, was over and I didn't want to waste one second, one minute thinking about take a break, apply rest," Kohler said. "No, I wanted to be right back there, go further. I listed down all the things I was hearing, all over, from my coaches, from social media, and I wanted to change my narrative. People said that I couldn't guard certain people, I wasn't strong enough, I wasn't big enough, I wanted to change that narrative.
"And from the minute we got back to East Lansing, got back to my notebook, (wrote) down everything that I wanted to accomplish when I came back, and I can confidently say that I am checking off some of those things I want to accomplish."
Kohler also noted that getting out in the community and being able to give back have really helped hi develop off the court as much as he developed on it.
"Those opportunities have really put a lot of things in perspective," Kohler said about his off-the-court experiences. "More specifically, it puts how special it is to be a Spartan, to be in this spotlight, not just on the court, but off the court. When you go to places off the court, people look at you as a Spartan, and Spartan fans take a lot of pride of you being on their team. And every day I go to bed thankful that I'm in the spot that I am right now."
