1 week Ago By Lansing State Journal
Michigan State’s most recent basketball season will be remembered for a lot of good things — for reinvigorating a fan base, for putting the program atop the Big Ten again, for an NCAA tournament run that lasted to the end of the second weekend, for old-school culture largely winning the day, for incredible depth and roster parity, and for freshman Jase Richardson.Until Richardson’s February emergence as a true headliner and primary weapon offensively, this was a team lived its “strength in numbers” mantra to the point that I didn’t know whether any of MSU’s players individually would deserve much of a place in MSU basketball lore. Not without another season or two on their program resume.
But given the February and March we just witnessed, it’s worth examining where on the list off MSU all-time greats — or all-time goods — Richardson and senior Jaden Akins belong.Eleven years ago, in 2014, I first put together a ranking of the top 50 MSU basketball players all-time, with the criteria being program impact and performance at MSU only. In the years since, I’ve updated the rankings several times over as greats like Cassius Winston and Denzel Valentine earned their place, and as really good players finished their MSU careers.
Players like Bryn Forbes, Travis Trice and Matt Costello moved into the bottom of the top 50 for a time and then were bumped out. Last year, Tyson Walker was added, at No. 30.
Unlike with football, you don’t need to be a star to make the top 50. But you do need to leave an imprint.Richardson and Akins both have a case.
Let’s begin with Richardson. One comparison is Marcus Taylor, whose brilliant February as a sophomore in 2002 helped him lead the Big Ten in scoring and assists, before he turned pro. Taylor was No.
50 in the original rankings. He’d be No. 59 now.
While Taylor’s numbers were comparable in some ways and he led a young MSU team to the NCAA tournament and a game short of a shared Big Ten title (albeit in a much weaker Big Ten that season), Richardson was the catalyst for an outright Big Ten championship at a time when such a title was sorely needed. Richardson’s program impact is greater.FROM 2016: Couch: Marcus Taylor at peace with basketballAnother comparison is Travis Trice, who spent three seasons as a backup at MSU, but, as a senior, was dazzling during the Spartans’ unexpected Final Four run in 2015.
Trice came in at No. 47 in the original rankings and would be No. 52 today.
He averaged 15.3 points for the season, but 19.8 during MSU’s four wins on the way to the Final Four.
He set the standard at MSU for what it means to be a senior on a mission late in one’s career. Yet, Richardson’s final 15 games of his lone season in East Lansing were beyond any stretch that many of MSU’s greats ever put together. Richardson’s 16.
1 points per game during those 15 games, from Feb. 8 on, don’t fully explain how essential he became to the Spartans’ Big Ten championship and NCAA tournament run. MSU leaned on him heavily in wins against Oregon, at Michigan, at Maryland, at Iowa, and against Mississippi in the Sweet 16.
The Spartans don’t win any of those games without Richardson being the player he became in the second half of the season. He became the guy. Every player on both teams knew it.
And he was usually up for it.How you judge Richardson comes down to more than just the smooth, efficient and well-rounded player he was for MSU. It also comes down to how you value this past MSU season, which I’d argue rekindled something that a lot of folks thought might be gone forever.
There’s an argument that this Big Ten championship, led by Richardson, was Tom Izzo’s most important Big Ten title since his first. That carries a lot of weight.I have Richardson above Trice and Bryn Forbes (at No.
51), who was never the headliner. Richardson was a more complete offensive player at MSU. If Richardson had stayed for his sophomore season, he might have climbed into the top 15 or higher on this list, like Miles Bridges (No.
14). Still, one full season of tantalizing efficiency and freshman maturity, and 15 games of leading man stuff in high-stakes situations is enough to climb ahead of productive old-timers Al Ferrari and Pete Gent, who didn’t win or shoot at a high percentage. It’s enough to be in the top 50 for sure.
If we were picking teams for a game, Richardson might in the mid-30s all-time at MSU, near his dad, who’s No. 35. But program impact and multi-year performance keeps some others ahead of him.
I’ll put Richardson at No. 44 — just behind Shannon Brown.The case for Akins in the top 50 is his career performance on both ends of the court (as early as MSU's Sweeet 16 run two years ago) and being a critical piece of this latest Big Ten championship team, even as Robin to Richardson’s Batman.
If Akins had shot better than 29% on 3-pointers as a senior — he made 36% of his 3s as a junior and 42% as a sophomore — he’d have averaged at least 15 points per game (instead of 12.8) and would have had a few more difference-making offensive performances (like against New Mexico in the NCAA tournament). And he’d have been safely in the 40s in these rankings.
I have him behind Trice and Forbes, somewhere in the 50s.Here’s the new top 50 MSU basketball players of all-time, welcoming Richardson to the club:1. Magic Johnson2.
Mateen Cleaves3. Cassius Winston4. Scott Skiles5.
Steve Smith6. Shawn Respert7. Denzel Valentine8.
Greg Kelser9. Johnny Green10. Mike Robinson11.
Jay Vincent12. Morris Peterson13. Draymond Green14.
Miles Bridges15. Terry Furlow16. Xavier Tillman17.
Ralph Simpson18. Julius McCoy19. Sam Vincent20.
Charlie Bell21. Horace Walker22. Kalin Lucas23.
Adreian Payne24. Drew Neitzel25. Lindsay Hairston26.
Maurice Ager27. Paul Davis28. Andre Hutson29.
Lee Lafayette30. Tyson Walker31. Gary Harris32.
Aaron Henry33. Darryl Johnson34. Jack Quiggle35.
Jason Richardson36. Branden Dawson37. Stan Washington38.
Antonio Smith39. Eric Snow40. Chet Aubuchon41.
Mike Peplowski42. Keith Appling43. Shannon Brown44.
Jase Richardson45. Kirk Manns46. Goran Suton47.
Alan Anderson48. Bill Kilgore49. Pete Gent50.
Al FerrariPreviously No. 50: Ken RedfieldAs always, apologies to Joe Rexrode for having Alan Anderson too low. MORE:Couch: Inside Jase Richardson's road from career-threatening surgery to MSU basketball revelationContact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.
com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU basketball: Where Jase Richardson and Jaden Akins rank all-time.
