Spartan Basketball 2006-2007: The Bench

The Spartan’s bench was at best non-productive in 2005-2006. Tom Izzo team’s usually have balanced scoring from his starting line-up and a solid sixth man off the bench, i.e. Morris Peterson. The 2006-2007 team will have more even scoring from the starters and the potential to have a very productive bench. Here’s what Michigan State’s bench will look like.

2006-2007 Bench
PG – Travis Walton: solid defender, must improve jump shot. He will play the one and Neitzel will slide over to the two often next season.

SG – Maurice Joseph: MOJO can shoot. He needs to bulk up and then Spartan fans will be reminded of another fellow Canadian, David Thomas.

SG – Isaiah Dahlman: big time high school scorer at 30+ per game. He needs to put on a lot of weight, but at 6’6’’ will cause huge mismatches against smaller Big Ten guards.

SG – Leon Freeman: Freeman has an offer from State, but hasn’t signed due to academic issues. He is an athletic player and a great defender. Freeman would remind Spartan fans of the good ole defensive days of State basketball.

PF – Goran Suton: The next Ballinger? Perhaps. Suton will be able to draw defenders out to the perimeter, which will open up the lane for the guards. Must improve defensively.

PF – Idong Ibok: I dunk, I block. He is slowly developing a nice jump hook, but is still too raw to be a solid contributor next year.

C – Tom Herzog: A true 7’0’’ center at MSU will be nice. The bad news is he is still developing an offensive game. Defensively Herzog is solid, but has struggled in AAU games against the OSU commit, Greg Oden. Herzog may play next year, but won’t add much to an already solid front-court.

Things look pretty good for the Spartans. They will get back to a more balanced scoring attack, led by Brown and defensively State will get back to their old ways.