Michigan State basketball: Tyson Walker named to Naismith Award watchlist

Michigan State basketball star Tyson Walker was named to the Naismith Award watchlist with a month left in the regular season.

The end of the season is heating up as Michigan State basketball is beginning to position itself in the Big Ten standings and working on improving its NCAA Tournament resume. This season hasn’t gone as we may have hoped, but one Spartan in particular has had an excellent season.

Tyson Walker has been lights out for MSU all season long. So much so that he was just named to the midseason Naismith Award watchlist.

One of the best players in all of college basketball ❕ pic.twitter.com/cxMyVwrYlh

— Michigan State Men's Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) February 15, 2024

Tyson Walker named to midseason Naismith Award watchlist

This is no small feat for Tyson and is a huge recognition for the impressive season he has had. The Naismith Award is the most prestigious in all of college basketball, similar to the Heisman in football. The award goes to the best player in college basketball, regardless of age or position. And as it stands today, Walker is one of 30 players still in the running for it.

He is also one of four Big Ten players included on this list. Northwestern’s Boo Buie is on the list as well as Purdue’s Zach Edey and Braden Smith.

This is awesome for Walker to make it on this list, but what matters most is where he’s at when the season comes to an end. So does he stand a chance at winning this award?

Walker’s chances of winning this award

Unfortunately, I don’t think Walker stands a realistic chance of winning the award. Obviously the impossible could happen and Walker could finish at a crazy statistical pace, but that isn’t likely.

For Walker to win, he’d likely need to score 30-plus points every game, MSU would need to win every game, and Purdue would need to stumble so the Spartans can win a share of the Big Ten title. Considering Purdue has a four-game lead over Michigan State, I don’t see that happening.

What can’t happen is what we saw in MSU’s 80-72 win over Penn State. The Spartans still won, but Walker only scored six points. At the end of the day, winning is all that matters and Tyson would agree, but if he wants to win awards at the end of the season he can’t have any more games like that.

Purdue’s Zach Edey is the frontrunner as of today to win this award. The Boilermakers are one of the best teams in the country and Edey is their best player, so him winning it wouldn’t be surprising.

Regardless of who wins it, Walker is a special player and honors like this prove that. He may not win this award, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had an amazing year this season.