Izzo hopeful MSU can play Thursday against Rutgers
Michigan State basketball is back to practice finally. And Tom Izzo is ready for the games to resume.
The coach said on his weekly radio show Monday night he believes the Spartans will play Thursday at Rutgers, which would be their first game in 20 days.
“We’re playing Thursday as far as I know,” Izzo said. “That’s all I’m focused on. … On Wednesday, we’re taking off. Whoever can play is gonna play, and whoever can coach is gonna coach.”
The Spartans (8-4, 2-4 Big Ten) are scheduled to face the Scarlet Knights (8-6, 4-6) at 7 p.m. Thursday in Piscataway, New Jersey.
An MSU team spokesman confirmed team activities resumed Monday with the Spartans’ first team practice since Jan. 13. That day, Joshua Langford became the program’s third player to test positive for COVID-19, forcing postponement of a trip to Iowa for a game the next day. MSU had been working out in small groups and individually since Jan. 16.
Mady Sissoko tested positive Jan. 10, two days after the Spartans’ 55-54 home loss to Purdue, and Izzo’s son Steven on Jan. 12. A fourth player — walk-on Davis Smith, son of MSU and NBA great Steve Smith — tested positive Jan. 17 and remains in isolation.
Izzo said Sissokko isolated for 10 days and since has returned to practice. But it is unclear if his son or Langford are back or if they have undergone the Big Ten’s mandatory heart screening upon exiting isolation. The Hall of Fame coach said Monday night that 10 of the 15 players on MSU’s roster participated in the Spartans’ practice, which, he added, included some scrimmaging. Izzo did not identify the five missing players — Smith was one — or say if anyone else within the program had tested positive.
Sissoko dropped from 235 pounds to 213 due to the coronavirus, but the freshman forward said he is back up to 225 pounds.
“I was feeling good the whole time,” Sissoko said on Izzo’s show.
“He was one of the lucky ones. He did not have many symptoms,” added Izzo, who battled COVID-19 in November. “He’s come back and he’s able to workout some.”
Sissoko is eligible to return to competition Thursday after going through the Big Ten-required 17-day stoppage and passing mandatory cardiac testing. Steven Izzo’s 17-day clock expires Saturday and Langford’s is over Sunday, the day the Spartans visit Ohio State for a 1 p.m. tipoff. Smith’s 17 days are scheduled to be up in time for the Feb. 3 home game vs. Nebraska.
With the Feb. 6 game at Michigan postponed due to the Wolverines’ two-week stoppage, MSU will have at least four conference games to make up. Games at Iowa and at home against Indiana and Illinois were called off because of the Spartans’ COVID-19 issues. That will present scheduling challenges and logjams.
However, Izzo is more concerned with the short-term at the moment. And that includes trying to figure out how his team will respond to the nearly three-week layoff — assuming the game at Rutgers goes on as scheduled Thursday.
“That’s a good question nobody knows the answer to,” Izzo said. “The first week, we got to get a little rest, and that might have been good. Then, by the time of the second week and now the third week, everybody will handle that differently.”