It has been reported that Malik Hall and Jaden Akins are both expected to miss time during the Phil Knight Invitational tournament the Spartans are set to play in over the holiday weekend.
Now, the Spartans find themselves down to 8 scholarship players, and a serious depth problem on their roster.
Who should fans expect to step up with the increase of minutes available?
Well, the obvious answer is Pierre Brooks and Tre Holloman, two players who already are featured in the rotation and get quality minutes. But there is one player on Tom Izzo’s bench I expect to see more of this week.
Jason Whitens.
Whitens is a walk-on transfer from Western Michigan. He transferred into MSU for the 2021-22 season, before a torn ACL ended his season in the first exhibition game.
Now, Whitens is back for another year and he may get thrusted into action amid injuries. At Western Michigan, he played in 67 games, while starting 47 of those games, so he is a guy with experience at the division one level. In his WMU career, Whitens averaged 4 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists in an average of 19.7 minutes per game.
Michigan State has a plethora of minutes available, and will need several guys to step up to fill the void and I am expecting Jason Whitens will be a part of that group.
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