A foreigner
Goran Suton had no idea what to expect when he first came to MSU in the summer of 2004. Although the now-senior center on the MSU men’s basketball team had attended Lansing Everett during the previous four years, the native of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina admitted he is still learning his way around the American lifestyle, let alone the college life. “I didn’t know what to expect coming in,” Suton said. “I was a foreign kid and I didn’t know a lot about college basketball, really. But it’s been great. It’s been up and down and at the bottom of the sea and I’ve had my struggles and my doubts with (MSU head coach Tom Izzo), but I think he made me mentally tougher and it’s helped out.”
A basketball player
Suton came to East Lansing as an out-of-shape big man who needed to improve his skills and conditioning to become an impact player.
When he and fellow seniors Marquise Gray, Idong Ibok and Travis Walton play their final home game at Breslin Center at noon Sunday against Purdue, Suton will leave as exactly that.
“He’s improved his shooting, he’s improved his strength — he’s always been a good passer and now he’s a real good passer,” Izzo said. “He’s improved in a lot of areas.”
This season, Suton — who is called “G” by coaches and teammates — is averaging 9.8 points and 7.7 rebounds a game, while also leading the Big Ten in rebounding in conference games. With solid, fundamental post moves and a smooth 3-point shot, Suton has become one of the key players for the No. 8 Spartans, who are 24-5 overall and Big Ten Champions with a 14-3 conference record.
The team suffered two of its worst losses of the season — an 18-point loss to Maryland and a 35-point blowout to North Carolina — when Suton missed six games due to a knee injury in November and December.
A “pretty boy”
Suton’s “pretty boy” status is only one of the many stories of the senior center floating around the MSU locker room.
“G tends to be the pretty boy and everyone knows it,” Ibok said. “He makes sure his hair is all nice when he leaves the house, he checks his face and hair and everything on his phone and the mirrors. Every time. You can catch him looking at himself in the phone or something just making sure he looks alright.”
Gray said Suton still has a little Bosnian in him.
“Sometimes he talks too fast and I think he forgets he’s an American and not a Bosnian anymore,” Gray said with a grin. “He might slip one of those Bosnian words in every now and then.”
But no one can top the tales Walton, who has lived with Suton for the past three years.
For one, Walton never let up after finding out the childhood nickname Suton’s parents gave him was “Go-Go.”
But the embarrassment of “Go-Go” pales in comparison to Walton’s favorite story, when the 6-foot-10 Suton tried to strut his stuff on the dance floor.
“We were at my house one day and we were all just chilling and having fun and we were dancing to (DJ Webstar’s ‘Chicken Noodle Soup’) and I saw him doing it and it was hilarious,” said Walton, who video taped the dance and loaded it on his laptop. “That was the funniest thing. He had no rhythm.”
Sadly, Walton’s computer broke, and so with it went the video of Suton.
A player full of potential
Izzo has said it time and time again. He loves Suton as a person, but there are times he doesn’t like him as a player.
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There’s still one thing Izzo is looking for from the big man — desire.
“The area I don’t think he’s improved as much in is what his goals are and what he believes he can do,” Izzo said.
At 6-foot-10 and 245 pounds, Suton has the body frame to play basketball somewhere professionally, whether it be in the U.S. or Europe. And with the prototypical European inside-outside game, Suton has the skill to do well in either league and said he’ll “give (the NBA) a shot.”
The question of Suton possessing the skills to play professionally is moot. Izzo has said that there is no question Suton has the skills and basketball IQ to succeed. The lone aspect that can stop Suton from succeeding professionally is the same one that, in his coach’s mind, has stopped him from dominating at the college level.
“He’s got to want to and work on it,” Izzo said. “And I think the guy has a chance to do something, I really do.”
A Spartan looking for a “beautiful ending”
When thinking back on his five years in East Lansing, Suton said he looks at both the good times and the bad — and the good times far outnumber the bad.
There was last season’s trip to the Sweet 16, defeating Texas in Houston earlier this season and beating Indiana to clinch the program’s first Big Ten Championship since 2001, which Suton called “a beautiful ending” to his career. But all those moments on the hardwood take a back seat to the memories he has created bonding with his teammates.
“There are so many good times that you share with your teammates, your brothers, that are sometimes not even part of basketball,” Suton said. “Just being a part of this family has been incredible.”
On Sunday against Purdue, the seniors will leave Breslin Center and kiss the block “S” at halfcourt. Although that moment and the Big Ten Championship will be highlights of Suton’s career, he and the rest of the seniors want more. The sun hasn’t completely set — leaving time for more championships, more banners and more great memories for Suton to have when he leaves MSU.
“We still have the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament, and we still have bigger goals that I want to achieve before I leave here,” Suton said. “I think I’ll just sit down and think about those things. It’s been a great ride, it’s been a great adventure so far, but it’s not over yet.”
Staff writer Kyle Feldscher contributed to this story.
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