The holidays came a little early for senior guard Mat Ishbia this year.
The 5-foot-10, 175-pound walk-on’s status shifted just before the season when men’s head basketball coach Tom Izzo gave him a scholarship.
Ishbia said he didn’t see it coming.
“It was a great honor,” Ishbia said. “To say you got a scholarship at one of the best basketball programs in the nation, it’s an honor. I appreciate coach Izzo doing that for me.
“He called me up one day, and I didn’t have any idea that’s what it was about,” Ishbia said. “I was surprised and honored - it was great of him to do that for me.”
Ishbia is a big factor in preparing the starters during practice, associate head coach Brian Gregory said.
“He understands what his role is as an elder statesmen on the team,” Ishbia said. “The one that can act as a liaison between the coaching staff and the players.
“He is in a lot of ways the heartbeat, the pulse of this team,” Gregory said. “That would be the intangible. He does a heck of a job running that scout team. He gets those guys prepared, he tries to get the team to play exactly the way our upcoming opponent’s going to play.
“I have to calm him down every once in a while, but other than that I don’t mind having him. I’d rather have a guy you have to calm down than one you have to fire up all the time.”
But even though his role is to lead the “White team” in practice, Ishbia may see significantly more playing time this season. Last season MSU won every game Ishbia played in until it lost to Arizona in the Final Four, but this year Ishbia averages 3.5 minutes a game.
And going up against some of the best college basketball players day in and day out for the last three years has improved his play, Gregory said.
“He’s improved as a player,” Gregory said. “He actually shoots a jump shot now, he never had a jump shot before. He can handle the ball well, he can run the team. He can defend. He’s improved as a player and that’s our goal to get the guys better.”
Coaching the game might be in his future too, Gregory said.
“He does understand the game - he really does,” Gregory said.
“And he understands our system and he believes in what make this program successful. Because I think he sees that the steps that this program has taken to become successful are the same steps he used to become successful as a high school player and as a student.”
