EAST LANSING — On the wall inside the Breslin Center’s practice facility, a five-word battle cry for this Michigan State basketball team now adorns the wall next to the court.
“Be different,” it reads, with a second part below: “Strength in numbers.”
“I’m just trying to find any little edge I can get to make our players realize that we’ve got some things that we are doing different,” coach Tom Izzo said after practice Friday. “Maybe different than other people right now, because the number of players and everything. But being different is OK.”
A big reason for the 14th-ranked Spartans’ eight-game win streak, as evidenced by Thursday night’s 88-54 blowout of Washington, has been Izzo’s productive 10-man rotation. But he also admitted the minutes within that group vary, with the biggest question mark being MSU’s biggest offseason acquisition.
Senior swingman Frankie Fidler played 10 minutes against the Huskies after logging a season-low eight scoreless minutes in a win last Friday at Ohio State. The 6-foot-7, 217-pound Nebraska-Omaha transfer had five points and four rebounds against Washington, hitting his first 3-pointer since Dec. 4 at Minnesota.
Fidler averaged 11.4 points in 21 minutes over MSU’s first eight games. In the past seven, he has dipped to 4.9 points and seen his minutes drop to 14. A career 33.4% 3-point shooter at Omaha, Fidler is making just 17.9% (7-for-39) this season.
“Everybody’s gonna go through some of that,” Izzo said. “And sometimes you get to play your way out of it, sometimes you get the opportunity to do that. And there comes a point in time when the best players that are playing the best — not the best players, the players that are playing the best — are gonna play.”
Part of the reason for the drop in court time for Fidler has been the continued all-around development of sophomore Coen Carr and Jaden Akins spending more minutes on the wing alongside MSU’s guard-heavy lineups with Jeremy Fears Jr., Tre Holloman and Jase Richardson. Some of it has been Fidler’s struggles in moving up after four years at the mid-major level, particularly not getting shots to fall.
Izzo gave Kur Teng a career-high nine minutes Thursday, with the 6-4 freshman missing both of his shots. MSU also has 6-5 redshirt freshman Gehrig Normand waiting; both young players are considered 3-point shooting specialists.
“The best thing we did is put them on that scout team for their future,” Izzo said of Teng and Normand. “The future could be as quick as tomorrow sometimes, the future could be down the road.”
Whether Izzo could turn from the stopgap transfer toward the future of his program remains to be determined, though he said Thursday, “We’re not gonna expand our playing group right now.”
“It’s always the hardest part about being a head coach, you gotta make coaching decisions,” Izzo said. “But I’m not giving up on Frankie at all. … He was in here working last night when I left. I mean, I got no complaints over Frankie. I just hope he can continue to work on his shooting and make some shots.”
The Spartans (13-2, 4-0 Big Ten) are off to their best start in Big Ten play since winning five straight in 2021-22. They visit Northwestern (10-5, 1-3) on Sunday at Welsh-Ryan Arena (noon). MSU beat the Wildcats last year after losing three straight to them.
“This team is special, and we got a chip on our shoulder,” Fears said Thursday after his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 assists. “Obviously, none of us have won anything and and we got goals and things that we’re trying to do. So the only way we can do what we got to do is stay focused the whole 40 minutes.”
And even with his team’s recent synergy, Izzo said he believes “there’s gonna be a lot of things that change here in the next couple of weeks” as the Spartans move deeper into conference play.
“We have a lot of growth yet, seriously,” he said. “We’ve played good at times in stretches and segments of games. Now, can we get that consistent? That’d be the next big word I should put up, consistency. I could have a whole damn gym full of words.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
Subscribe to the “Spartan Speak” podcast for new episodes weekly on Apple, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tom Izzo’s new Michigan State basketball battle cry sure is working
