Michigan State basketball: Roster nearly set with transfer portal closed

The Michigan State basketball roster is nearly set now that the transfer portal window has closed for two NBA draft entrants.

The window for college basketball players to enter the transfer portal officially closed on May 11 meaning that anyone who did not enter their name already is now unable to. Even after May 11, it was still uncertain if any Michigan State basketball names would be announced as entering the portal as it can take a couple of business days for names to officially be announced as being in the portal.

With today being May 16, it’s safe to say that no more Michigan State players will be entering the transfer portal. There were rumors circulating that Jaden Akins could be entertaining the thought of transferring, but that can all be put to bed — it seems.

The offseason in college sports has become crazy since the one-time transfer rule was introduced by the NCAA, but thankfully MSU hasn’t had any major turmoil. This offseason so far has gone nearly perfect for the Michigan State basketball program with the only player transferring from the program being Pierre Brooks. It’s always sad to see any player leave the program, but I think Brooks transferring was a move almost everyone saw coming.

Joey Hauser is also officially leaving the program, too, which was no surprise.

Michigan State, on the other hand, did get some amazing news when both Tyson Walker and Malik Hall announced they’d be back in East Lansing for one more season.

Now with the portal closed, we don’t have to worry about any other players transferring (barring a wildly late announcement), but one question does still remain: Will AJ Hoggard and Jaden Akins withdraw their names from the NBA draft? They both have until June 1 to withdraw from the draft to keep their college eligibility, so those decisions could be coming any day now. I think it’s likely both return due to neither receiving an NBA Combine invite, but we can’t be 100 percent sure until they officially make their decision.

Will both Hoggard and Akins return to MSU? I think they will, and if they do, MSU will be one of the front-runners to win the Big Ten and make another run to the Final Four.