Spartans Welcome Media for On-Campus Media Day

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State's men's basketball team met with the media on Thursday afternoon during its annual on-campus media day.

Head Coach Tom Izzo welcomed the media during his opening statements and took questions for 40 minutes before player availability.

"This is a little different from some years but it's the same because I get to tell you a little about my team and you get to ask some questions," Izzo said as he took the podium. "I am excited about the year, as we always are, and it's hard to believe it's starting next week with Bowling Green here in an exhibition game.

"As far as our team, we started practice officially (last month) and have had some really good workouts. The guys needed to improve and I think we got some improvement out of some key guys. Our four seniors, actually our four guys who have started at one time or another, in Coen (Carr), Carson (Cooper, Jaxon (Kohler) and Jeremy (Fears). But we've had really good workouts and they've all made some progress and improvements.

"Then we've got some new guys who have come in and they're going to help us tremendously. The freshmen have done a really good job so far and I've really kind of been impressed with our roster. Tre, Divine, Denham, Cam and Jordan are our new guys, along with Kaleb (Glenn), who has been injured and won't be playing this year. But both of our freshmen, these two guys have been better than I thought as we got them.

"It's 31 years for me and coming off a great year last year, it's pretty exciting. What last year taught me is chemistry and relationships and things like that still matter in sports, as they should in any walk of life."

Michigan State's players met with the media in the Tom Izzo Hall of History during a 35-minute session before practice at 3 p.m.

Michigan State's 2025-26 home schedule is arguably the best in program history. With home non-conference games against Arkansas (Nov. 8) and Duke (Dec. 6) in addition to 10 Big Ten contests, Michigan State will host 12 power conference opponents for the first time in the Izzo Era.

The Spartans will play a pair of exhibition games to start the 2025-26 season, hosting Bowling Green on Thursday, Oct. 23 and a visit to play at Connecticut on Tuesday, Oct. 28.

The regular season starts on Monday, Nov. 3 when the Spartans host Colgate, the first of three-straight games at the Breslin Center.

Michigan State finished the 2024-25 season with a 30-7 overall record, including a 17-3 mark in the Big Ten Conference, as the team won the regular season title for the 11th time under Head Coach Tom Izzo and was selected to the NCAA Tournament for the 27th-straight season. The Spartans advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time and finished the year ranked No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25.

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