Michigan State Basketball: Impact of landing Longwood transfer center Szymon Zapala

Michigan State Basketball rounds out its roster with the pickup of Szymon Zapala to improve the team's frontcourt depth.

Michigan State Basketball head coach Tom Izzo is known for not being a big fan of the transfer portal and doesn't get a ton of players there. He did land a big name earlier on in Frankie Fidler, a 6'7 forward from Nebraska who scored 20.1 ppg and 6.3 rpg on Omaha this past season. He'll be the replacement for Malik Hall in the frontcourt on the roster.

Another player who left the Spartans in the frontcourt is Mady Sissoko, who started at center in the last two seasons. His average was around 4.0 ppg and 5.0 rpg during that time and had his ups and downs, before ultimately, transferring to Cal this offseason. That led the center rotation being Carson Cooper, Jaxson Kohler, and Xavier Booker, a former 5-star prospect who played limited minutes for the team.

To add to the frontcourt for the Spartans is Szymon Zapala, a 6'11 center who started his career at Utah State. After three years of very limited playing time, Zapala transferred to Longwood, where he started 24 games at around 17 mpg, averaging 9.8 ppg and 5.6 rpg. When on the floor, he was fairly efficient, shooting 63% from the field and producing eight games with at least 15 points, including 24 points and eight rebounds on the road at Milwaukee in 25 minutes.

Zapala isn't going to be a massive boost over Sissoko but he'll be an offensive upgrade when he's on the court. And he natural fits into what'll likely be a three-man center rotation for Michigan State, along with Cooper and Kohler.

While Zapala won't change the world for Michigan State Basketball, he'll be a solid addition to the rotation. There are some questions as to how the new-look backcourt will look but at least at center, they won't run out of bodies inside next season.