Michigan State Basketball: Impact of 2019-20 senior class for Spartans
By Ryan Kay
Michigan State Basketball defeated Ohio State on to get a share of the Big Ten title. It was another feat accomplished by this great senior class.
Senior Day in East Lansing for the Michigan State basketball program is a time-honored tradition. Four Spartans participated in the senior day festivities. Tom Izzo and the underclassmen got the win for his seniors as Michigan State defeated Ohio State for their third straight Big Ten regular-season title.
Walk-on senior forward Conner George may not have played a lot of minutes during his time in East Lansing but he is a valued member of the program. Senior guard Joshua Langford has not played in a game since December 2018 but he has contributed a lot during his freshman and sophomore years and there is still a chance he comes back. However, there are two seniors who played on senior day who were the main focus of senior day but one player in particular who was the main focus on Sunday.
Kyle Ahrens played against his younger brother on senior day and to a lesser extent in comparison to Langford, has battled injuries throughout his team as a Spartan. Cassius Winston, on the other hand, has been relatively healthy his entire time as a Spartan and he was the main focal point of the senior day celebrations. Let’s take a look at the four Michigan State seniors and their playing highlights as Spartans.
Conner George
After red-shirting his freshmen year, he only appeared in 10 games as a redshirt freshman. His highlight that season was scoring four points by making four free throws in a home win over Penn State. In his sophomore year, it appeared in a couple more games than the year prior and his biggest contribution that season was playing a career-high 16 minutes in a victory in the PK80 tournament game against DePaul.
In his junior year, George played in 18 games and played significant minutes in the Spartans NCAA tournament victory over Bradley. This season even though George has not played a lot of meaningful minutes on the court, he still provides leadership through his experience in his five years at Michigan State. He did however play well in this season’s game against Oakland where he played 10 minutes and had five rebounds in the Spartans non-conference win.