Bench Bigs' Roles Looming Large for MSU
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EAST LANSING, Mich. --- The bench is one of the biggest question marks for Michigan State as it enters the postseason.
That would have been an unusual sentence to think about at this point last year. The 2024-25 Spartans were seventh in the nation in bench points per game (33.6). This season, MSU is down at 178th in the country (21.3 per game). Michigan State just doesn't have as much depth as last year.
This means that those who are coming off the bench become even more important, ironically enough. With more and more minutes going to the Spartans' five starters, those moments where the bench players come in and try to maintain momentum become even more critical.
Young guys Cam Ward and Jesse McCulloch are two guys who are going to have to be ready for those moments in the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments.
Both of them are freshmen (with McCulloch being of the redshirt variety), but those don't really exist this time of year with so many games under their belts now. They've also both had some interesting seasons, and Michigan State is going to need each of them to grow up a bit in postseason play.
Importance of McCulloch
McCulloch is in an interesting spot right now. He had collected three straight DNPs before appearing briefly against Michigan on Sunday, seemingly indicating that he's on the outside of the rotation bubble, looking in. He's someone who can do the job in the right situations, though, as a big man who is a decent rim protector and somebody who can stretch the floor a bit.
"We've got to get a little more play out of our bench," Tom Izzo said on Tuesday. "We're going to try to work on that this week. We've had meetings with [McCulloch], so I do make them [him and Ward] realize how valuable and important they are in the near future."
The potential for McCulloch is there. He's another player who can become a pretty good player in East Lansing if he decides to stick it out, as Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper did. Minutes in March aren't distributed by potential, though.
Izzo has wanted to get him more minutes for a while now, but it's tough when Kohler and Cooper are playing so well, and with Ward having cemented himself as a guy MSU needs on the court. Foul trouble for those guys means McCulloch would be called upon, though. If that moment comes, he has to be ready.
Importance of Ward
Ward has gained more and more trust as this year has gone on. Izzo has put him at the very end of close games when he's been trying to close victories out. Not many freshmen get that status at Michigan State.
The Spartans need him on the court. The only problem is that Ward has picked up a bit of a fouling problem lately. He was limited to just nine minutes during the UM game because of foul trouble when he had been consistently getting high-teens minutes over the past month.
Ward has gotten called for 5.2 fouls per 40 minutes this season, which is the highest rate among those who play at least 10 minutes a contest. His defense and aggression are what get him on the court, but Michigan State just needs to contain that aggressiveness a little bit.
Izzo also sees him as a key component of MSU's upcoming quarterfinal game, no matter who the Spartans play, citing that UCLA, Minnesota, and Rutgers all play small ball on Tuesday. Ward is a more athletic big man than Kohler or Cooper, meaning it'll be on him to help defend the perimeter on Friday.
A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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