Morgan could be effective captain, legendary Spartan

As always, a ton of good information came out of the MSU men’s basketball Media Day. There were plenty of good notes, quotes and anecdotes, but today we’re going to focus on everybody’s favorite player to argue about — senior forward Raymar Morgan.

As I wrote Thursday, head coach Tom Izzo’s biggest concern is where leadership will come from. But how much leadership he gets out of Morgan — who, as everyone has seen in the past, seems to pout when things don’t go his way — is No. 1 on Izzo’s hit list, along with the leadership of junior guard Kalin Lucas.

Because of the type of outward emotion Morgan has displayed in the past, many media members are questioning the decision of the players to unanimously vote Morgan a captain. Junior guard Chris Allen stood up for the team’s decision, and also said he thinks being a captain will help Morgan continue to grow.

“I think this will help Raymar. He’s not really that vocal, and of course people talk about his attitude or whatever, but with him being (a captain), I just think it will mature him,” Allen said. “And he’ll just accept all the roles and he’ll just starting thinking about all his actions on and off the court and just see where his head is this year. I think it’s just going to help him.”

“It’s going to make him more focused,” Allen continued. “(He’ll think), ‘Man, I can’t believe I used to do this, and if I talk a little bit, that’s going to help them because they look up to me.’”

Outside of his on-court demeanor, perhaps too many MSU fans have the feeling that Morgan has underachieved in his career. On Wednesday, Izzo — who has criticized Morgan more than anyone — put what Morgan has accomplished at MSU into perspective.

Until he got sick last season, Izzo said Morgan was averaging 16 points and seven rebounds per game, including 17 and nine in Big Ten play — numbers that probably would have made him a First-Team All-Big Ten selection and a legitimate competitor to Lucas for Big Ten Player of the Year honors. Unfortunately, Morgan ended the season averaging 10.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game — the lowest scoring output of his career and one percentage point away from his lowest rebound total.

If Morgan has that same output this season — and everyone is expecting much more than that — he’ll leave East Lansing 12th on MSU’s all-time scoring list — 40 points away from No. 10 — and close to top 10 in rebounding. If he equals his sophomore season — 14 ppg, 505 total and 6.1 rpg, 221 total — he’ll end up being 10th all-time in both scoring and rebounding.

“I spent a lot of time saying what Raymar Morgan needs to improve on,” Izzo said. “If he could just do what he did last year, he would be one of the top 10 guys that have ever crossed our court.”