MSU Freshman G Mark "ROCKET" Watts Looks To the Season
Breslin Student Events Center
East Lansing, MI
The #1 team in America is right here in East Lansing and of course, we are talking about the Michigan State Spartans and their Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo.
The Spartans kick off the season on October 29, in an exhibition contest against Albion and the season officially kicks off November 5 at 9:30 PM in New York. The Spartans will be taking on the Kentucky Wildcats in the Champions Classic. No doubt that the nation’s attention is already looking at the critical first game of the year heavyweight fight.
I spent time with Rocket this offseason and I asked Izzo about his thoughts on the young star. "He's had a tough go. He's been in different programs and moved around a little bit. I think Rocket is like he does want to learn, but he doesn't know how to always listen. You're right. He's trying to learn how to do that because he's had so many different people talking to him. "
Izzo added, "I've really seen, like this last week, Cassius is starting to take him, Gabe is starting to take him, Josh and Kyle Ahrens. There's been a couple of guys that have really tried to take him under their wing, and that's the coolest part of the job. When Magic was here, he called him out in a positive way. But I think he needs to have a little success. He needs to learn how to be a little more disciplined as a player. "
Izzo finished saying, "I mean, he's -- open court he's great, passes the ball. Sometimes he's not as disciplined of a shooter. He can really shoot the ball, but sometimes he makes a good shot a bad shot. So he's working on that. He's been getting in more. He's been doing all the things that you're supposed to do. As I told him, we're trying to speed the process because we think he can help us."
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