Former Michigan State basketball fan-favorite returns to East Lansing

Former Michigan State basketball fan-favorite Rocket Watts will be back in East Lansing on Monday to face the Spartans.

Michigan State basketball is set to host the Oakland Golden Grizzlies on Monday at the Breslin Center. A former Spartan star happens to be on this Oakland team and will be making his second trip to East Lansing since transferring from the program.

Let’s take a look at how Rocket Watts has been doing at Oakland.

Rocket Watts returns to East Lansing

Former Spartan Rocket Watts will be making his second trip to East Lansing since leaving when Oakland comes to town on Monday night. In case you don’t remember, Rocket played for Michigan State for two years before transferring to Mississippi State. After one year in Starkville, he transferred once again, this time to Oakland.

Rocket was part of some iconic Spartan teams while he was still in East Lansing. Watts was a freshman on the 2019-20 Big Ten title team that was led by senior Cassius Winston. This squad had all the makings of a national title team before the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to Covid-19. Watts was a significant contributor to this team, averaging nine points across 22 minutes per game.

Watts returned as a sophomore the next season when his play, and the team’s overall success, declined. As a sophomore, he averaged 7.7 points in 22 minutes per game. After this season, he transferred to Mississippi State for one year before he made his final move to Oakland.

Rocket Watts at Oakland

Rocket has had a decent career so far with the Golden Grizzlies in his two years with the program. Last year he averaged 8.7 points and 2.7 rebounds per game. Rocket however did not fare well when these two teams played a year ago. Watts played 27 minutes but only contributed four points, one assist, and one rebound in Michigan State’s 67-54 victory.

I, for one, hope this year will be different for him. He’s averaging roughly the same amount of points and rebounds this year at 8.5 and 1.9, respectively. He is doing this in five fewer minutes per game, so all things considered his play is roughly the same as it was last year. Obviously I want Michigan State to dominate this game, but I do think it’d be fun to watch Rocket have a good showing. I don’t want him to go off, but a solid 12-14 points wouldn’t bother me.