Michigan State basketball has reached out to UIC transfer Jace Carter

Tom Izzo and Michigan State basketball have now reportedly reached out to three top transfers in the portal.

Before you say it, yes we know that Tom Izzo has been openly opposed to transfer portal talk about the past year, but the Michigan State basketball coach knows he needs to adjust to the times.

The transfer portal is going to be critical annually for national title contenders.

Michigan State sees itself as such every year and while the Spartans are currently in the Sweet 16, they’ll have a heck of a squad next season, led by an elite freshman class.

And Izzo knows that if guys like Malik Hall, Tyson Walker, and Joey Hauser all move on, he’ll need to supplement an elite freshman class with some proven veterans. He can do that through the transfer portal.

Izzo has already reached out to a couple of transfers and he’s keeping tabs on the portal. On Tuesday, Brandon Jenkins reported that Michigan State was one of the early schools reaching out to UIC wing transfer Jace Carter, a sophomore from Florida.

NEW: #MichiganState has reached out to UIC transfer wing Jace Carter.

The 6-foot-5 sophomore from Florida averaged 16.6 ppg & 7.0 rpg while being named 2nd-team all-conference: https://t.co/6Naf8cZmaa

— SpartanTailgate.com (@SpartanTailgate) March 21, 2023

Carter would be an interesting addition to next year’s roster and you have to believe he would be a nice scorer on the wing. He could help replace Walker, Houser, or Hall.

The UIC transfer is 6-foot-5 and strong on the boards which is probably what Izzo is looking for along with that 16.6 points per game he averaged as a sophomore. He also shoots an impressive 46 percent from the floor while his 30 percent from deep could use some work — he made 38 percent of his threes as a freshman. But we have seen drastic 3-point improvement from other transfers as Walker shot 35 percent from deep at Northeastern and he’s well over 40 percent at MSU.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this transfer as Izzo continues to put feelers out there for some big-time wing players to help bolster next year’s title chances.