After winning 30 games and making the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament last season, Michigan State Basketball has had to retool its roster. The top three scorers on the roster left in Jaden Akins (graduation), Jase Richardson (NBA Draft), and Tre Holloman (transfer portal). 

While the Spartans showed that a collective effort can be good enough to win in college basketball, there’s still a need for more offensive firepower. The team landed a trio of transfers in Divine Ugochukwu (Miami), Trey Fort (Samford), and Kaleb Glenn (Florida Atlantic).

On paper, the key newcomer is Glenn, a former top-100 prospect out of high school who started 11 games as a freshman at Louisville before transferring over to FAU. Although he was the team’s 6th Man, Glenn had a big sophomore campaign, averaging 12.6 ppg and 4.8 rpg on 53% shooting from the field and 41% from deep. 

With Frankie Fidler and Xavier Booker also gone, there’s a big need for Glenn to come in and have a big impact on the forward positions. However, we’ll have to wait a year to see him in a Spartan uniform.

The likely plan for Michigan State was to have both Glenn and Coen Carr start on the wings next season to maximize the lineup on both ends. Now, Carr will be tasked with having an even bigger impact on offense. This now puts a ton of pressure on a trio of freshmen frontcourt players. Jordan Scott and Cam Ward are incoming four-star newcomers, while Jesse McCulloch redshirted last season and is also a former four-star recruit.

As we saw with Richardson’s impact, freshmen can indeed excel at Michigan State. But with Glenn now out for the upcoming season, the Spartans will need one of them to break out. Otherwise, they’ll be in danger of taking a big step back in the Big Ten in 2026.