Did Michigan State basketball tease its potential starting 5?

Michigan State basketball had a scrimmage recently with a couple of lineups that resembled a potential starting five.

Michigan State basketball season is still a few months away, but it’s never too early to speculate starting lineups.

When the roster was finalized following the Szymon Zapala addition this offseason, everyone and their brother was projecting what the starting five might look like and if a video of a recent practice is any indication, most of us were right — for the most part.

According to @Loomin_Knotty on Twitter who watched the video, there were two distinct lineups facing each other.

Videos of practice today clearly showed a scrimmage of the following two lineups playing each other:

Fears, Akins, Fidler, Booker, Zapala

Holloman, Teng, Normand, Kohler, Cooper

If you ask me, those are your 1s vs 2s right now. 👀

— L➰➰min Kn➰tty (@Loomin_Knotty) August 6, 2024

You can make the assumption that the first lineup is the starting five based on the trio of Jaden Akins, Frankie Fidler, and Xavier Booker present. The two question marks in the lineup are at the point guard and center positions. Jeremy Fears Jr. will be the likely starter as long as he’s healthy and there’s a battle for the starting five that may be currently led by Zapala. That would be the biggest surprise.

As for question marks surrounding no inclusion of Coen Carr, the above Twitter account mentioned that he was standing on the baseline in the video he watched, wearing the same jersey color as the starters. So this may mean that he’s subbing in at the four or moving Booker over to the five and taking Zapala out of the lineup. Either way, it’s clear that Carr is a big part of the plans for the upcoming season.

While there’s still plenty of time between now and the start of the season (and a Spain trip is approaching), it’s interesting to see Zapala get run with the projected ones while Carson Cooper and Jaxon Kohler play the backup roles.

We’ll learn even more about this team from its Spain trip next week.