Basketball season is finally back in East Lansing.
The sixth-ranked Michigan State men's basketball team is officially opening its 2026-27 campaign against Quinnipiac on Monday (7 p.m. ET, B1G+). MSU is still a heavy, heavy favorite in this one, but there's added intrigue for these first two contests against Quinnipiac and Toledo after shaky performances against UConn and Marquette , and with No. 2 Duke coming up on Nov. 10.
A sharp performance is needed for the Spartans to get back on track or, really, start the year on the right track. These three players are guys who could use a solid day and, therefore, are ones to keep a close eye on in Monday's game.
Michigan State's Coen Carr shoots a free throw against UConn during the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament at Capital One Arena on Friday, March 27, 2026. | Starr Portice, Michigan State Spartans on SI
Coen Carr struggled a bit during the games that didn't count. UConn and Marquette did a good job limiting the space Carr had to operate in transition. That's the area where Carr has always been most deadly, with his all-world athleticism and the best passer in the nation, Jeremy Fears Jr., looking to throw the alley-oop.
Concern level for Carr shouldn't be very high. He's gotten better every year he's been at Michigan State and averaged 12.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game last season. The next step for Carr has been his jump shot. Carr's shot didn't really fall during the exhibition games, but the form, the quickness, and the confidence behind the attempts seem improved. It's just too early to know whether Carr has truly improved in that area yet.
The frontcourt needs somebody to step up, though. Carr might be tasked with a lot of minutes at power forward or the four this year, with all the guards MSU will want or have to play. Tom Izzo says Carr has gotten better at putting the ball on the deck himself and attacking the rim, which would definitely be a welcome sight.
Carr's rebounding will also be huge. He's improved in that area in college, but he'll have to be more aggressive in pursuing the ball when he's playing the four.
Michigan State center Anton Bonke (34) battles for possession during an exhibition against UConn at the Breslin Center on Tuesday, October 20, 2026 | Starr Portice, Michigan State Spartans on SI
The biggest storyline from the exhibitions was the lack of minutes for Anton Bonke . He was brought to Michigan State to be the team's starting center, but things haven't gone very well so far. Bonke got just nine total minutes during the exhibition games against UConn and Marquette. Izzo kept him on the bench for the entire second half of each contest.
Bonke still started the exhibitions against Incarnate Word and UConn, though. That certainly implied he had shown enough during the summer to begin with that kind of role. The impression he's made in his limited minutes hasn't been awful, either -- definitely not to the level where he's hardly playing in exhibition games.
Izzo said this past Thursday that they're going to get Bonke some more minutes. Just how many more minutes is the question, because it's not exactly a super high bar to clear. MSU might have to change up how it defends ball screens with its bigs to get Bonke on the floor more, but those are philosophies Izzo hasn't diverged from in years. It's a pretty difficult balancing act.
Regardless, Michigan State absolutely needs more out of its lone transfer portal addition from the offseason. The Spartans really needed a center this past spring, and if Bonke becomes a non-factor, that drastically changes the team's outlook.
Michigan State's Kaleb Glenn passes the ball against UConn during the first half on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Monday is also set to be the long-awaited Spartan debut for forward Kaleb Glenn . He missed the entirety of last season with a knee injury after transferring from Florida Atlantic. Glenn was physically well enough to help run the scout team for the final month or so of the 2025-26 campaign, but there is a big difference between running practices and succeeding in a live, 5-on-5 environment.
Glenn has been open about there being a real mental aspect to coming back from a severe injury. He's got to learn to trust that right knee/patellar tendon again, and different people may need different amounts of time.
Even with that, Glenn can be used in a variety of ways. He'll likely split his time between the three and the four for MSU, but he's got an interesting skill set that features some guard skills. Glenn averaged 12.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in 2024-25 while shooting 41.0% from behind the arc. He struggled in the team's exhibition games, but Glenn is dynamic enough to carve out a real role on this Spartan team that seems to be becoming pretty guard-heavy.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/michiganstate as 3 Players To Watch Closely in MSU Basketball's Opener vs. Quinnipiac .
