In the past few seasons, Michigan State men's basketball has had its fair share of foot injuries in recent years from Josh Langford to Jaden Akins to Malik Hall and now to Jaxon Kohler.
It was announced on Wednesday that Kohler suffered a left foot injury that required surgery. Kohler’s injury is not season-ending and Michigan State is expecting him to be back “before Christmas.”
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo followed the announcement up on Thursday by stating that the injury was a “stress reaction” and that Kohler will likely be out “six-to-eight weeks.”
Heading into the season, it appears that Michigan State has the depth to absorb injuries and not have them impact the team too much.
“We do have more depth right now, and that helps, but Jaxon was playing really well,” Izzo said about Kohler. “It bothers me because he’s in great shape and he was playing real well. But I’m excited that it’s now, not later. He’ll miss a couple games … more like Malik (Hall) did maybe …. But by Christmas he should be ready to go full go. You never want injuries, but if they have to happen, I’d rather it now than the regular season.”
Despite Kohler not being able to be a full participant in practice, the rest of the team is preparing for the season.
“I’m liking practice,” Izzo said. “I thought we made a couple of mistakes at the end, sustaining things. But we have 10 guys that are going at each other pretty good now and I think guys are wearing down a little bit. I think we’re totally, totally sick of playing against each other.”
That preparation for the season will continue on Saturday. Not only will Michigan State football be in action on Saturday night versus Michigan, but Michigan State basketball will have its Green and White Scrimmage inside the Breslin Center during the afternoon.
Izzo said that the scrimmage will give his team a chance to “get up and down,” get used to having referees and “figure some things out.”
It will also give Izzo’s team an opportunity to play in front of fans. Admission is free for spectators and doors open to the Breslin at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. The scrimmage will tip off at 2:30 p.m.
“I just believe that any time you can play in front of people, it helps," Izzo said. "Number two, to see who gets nervous in front of people. And number three, and maybe as important as anything, see what our conditioning is like. See how long we can go.”
Michigan State will then have two exhibition games before the regular season tips off on Monday, Nov. 6 versus James Madison. The Spartans' exhibition opponents are Hillsdale on Wednesday, Oct. 25 and Tennessee on Sunday, Oct. 29.
Izzo was asked if he will let Michigan fans into the Green and White Scrimmage on Saturday afternoon.
“Yeah, I’ll let Michigan fans in,” Izzo said. “They want to come in? They can come in. They can observe.”
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