Michigan State basketball: A healthy Malik Hall is key to 2023-34 success

Malik Hall fought through injuries and now that he’s getting healthy, he’s the key to a successful Michigan State basketball season.

Malik Hall was a four-star power forward out of Aurora, Ill., rated the 76th-best player in the country according to 247Sports. He was a 6-foot-7, 190-pound forward coming out of high school. He committed to Michigan State basketball over the likes of Texas, Villanova, Ohio State, and others.

Let’s see how his career has gone so far.

Freshman season

Hall started in nine games as a freshman and appeared in 31 games. He averaged 16 minutes per game and 4.6 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. Malik was a star in his third game as a freshman where he scored 17 points in the second half to beat the No. 12 Seton Hall Pirates. He showed an ability to make threes and drive to the rim with his patented fadeaway jumpers.

Sophomore season

Following his freshman season, he averaged 17.6 minutes and started nine games again as a sophomore. Hall averaged 5.0 points per game and 4.2 rebounds per game. He shot 36.6% from three as a sophomore but found himself behind Joey Hauser. He continued to show flashes in both his freshman and sophomore years that Spartan fans would have liked to see on a more consistent basis.

Junior season

During his junior season, Hall had a clear-cut role backing up Hauser. Despite being undersized he found himself playing the center role against certain teams. However, Malik only averaged 21.8 minutes a slight uptick from the prior season. He was able to increase his three-point percentage as he attempted 68 threes and shot 42.6% from deep. Malik averaged 8.9 points and 4.6 rebounds per game and continued to show the flashes in a more regular fashion.

Senior season

Tom Izzo and staff decided to start Malik Hall at the small forward position due to a lack of wing depth and the reliability of Hauser at the power forward. Hall started the first four games of the year before suffering a stress reaction in his left foot. Surprisingly he returned against the Buffalo Bulls working himself back into playing again. Within just six games of returning, he would end up re-injuring the foot against Illinois in Champaign. Malik would end up coming back against Iowa after another three-game absence. He ended up battling out the rest of the season playing in a total of 22 games and averaged 26 minutes per game. Hall would end up playing the small forward, power forward and small ball center in this season. He ended up averaging 8.7 points and 4.5 rebounds in a battled season for Hall.

Hall decided to return to Michigan State for his COVID-19 redshirt season. He had minor surgery on his foot to straighten out the top of the foot so the hope is he will never have any problems with the foot again. All Spartan fans hope for a healthy Hall to put it all together and solidify the power forward position with Hauser moving on. The Spartan hoops fans also hope that we see Hall to put it all together in his fifth year.