Multiple Spartans Remaining on Rotation Bubble in NCAA Tourney

It's going to be interesting to see how much (or if) these guys play with Michigan State's season on the line.

MSU has a pretty solid starting five right now of Fears-Scott-Carr-Kohler-Cooper. Any non-injury related changes there at this phase would be stunning. We can also feel pretty certain that Kur Teng and Cam Ward are going to play some serious minutes off the bench.

Michigan State's Tom Izzo yells out to his team during a game against Ohio State on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, at the Breslin Center. | Starr Portice, Michigan State Spartans on SI

A few others are going to be in question, though. Tom Izzo and pretty much every other coach in the NCAA Tournament are going to distribute their minutes differently than they would during a regular-season game. This is the thing you save your players' legs for, so it's much more commonplace to see guys having minute totals in the upper-30s or even 40.

Here are a couple of guys who might see their minutes negatively affected by the do-or-die nature of March Madness:

Denham Wojcik

The probability that Denham Wojcik sees the court is still high, but the big question is just how much MSU keeps him on the court. He only played two minutes during the Big Ten Tournament game against UCLA, with the Spartans experimenting with a lineup that didn't have either him or Fears playing point guard (it didn't go very well).

Fears is still, quite easily, Michigan State's most valuable player. The Spartans will probably seek to steal some minutes to give him some rest against North Dakota State, but it really may be necessary to see him run that minute total up to 39 or 40 during a potentially close second-round game against 6-seed Louisville or in an uphill battle against 2-seed UConn in the Sweet 16. Fears has played at least 35 minutes in five of his last six games.

Trey Fort

Trey Fort is the trickiest guy to figure out on the roster bubble. On one hand, he had seemingly been getting phased out of the rotation for a good part of February and early March, collecting DNPs during the games at Purdue and Michigan.

On the other hand, he just showed how valuable he can be against UCLA. Fort was a reason the Spartans climbed back into that game from a relatively substantial deficit with how he played in the second half. We'll see if it was enough for Izzo to give him some meaningful run.

Jesse McCulloch

Jesse McCulloch is the main guy who is probably on the outside looking in. He essentially hasn't played in the last five games, only briefly appearing against UM when the Spartans' frontcourt had some guys in foul trouble.

That's the scenario McCulloch has to be ready for, though. If some mix of Kohler, Cooper, and Ward gets whistled a couple of times, McCulloch might have to give Michigan State truly meaningful minutes. It's cliché, but "be ready" is the best advice one can probably give him right now.

Michigan State's Tom Izzo looks on during a game against Rutgers on Thursday, March 5, 2026, at the Breslin Center. | Starr Portice, Michigan State Spartans on SI