Benching senior guard in favor of freshman guard Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn Jr. against Ohio State on Feb. 14 may have been considered an unorthodox rotation switch by head coach Tom Izzo, but the move has turned Trice’s season around.
Trice has since re-entered the starting lineup, and his stats since the benching — 17.8 points 4.6 assists — are solid.
Trice had to pull more than his fair share of weight with MSU’s rotation being depleted by mid-February. Given Trice’s injury history, Izzo said his body wasn’t prepared for the heavy work load.
“We moved Tum in there and I think we struggled a little bit because we just wore him down,” Izzo said. “He had to play so many minutes. There was no (Alvin) Ellis available even for minutes. There was Javon Bess for minutes. Branden Dawson was out some. Bryn Forbes had the broken hand, and it was like — Trice and Valentine playing a ton of minutes. Valentine’s body is a little more comparable handling that.”
Trice now starts at shooting guard alongside Nairn, who’s energy and speed has given the starting lineup a necessary jolt. It also allows Trice to focus solely on scoring, which the Spartans welcome given that the roster lacks another player who can get his shot as easily as Trice.
“I thought we wore Trice right down to nothing,”Izzo said. “And taking him off the point helped because he didn’t have to guard the guy and didn’t have to bring the ball up. Gave him a chance to give him a little more rest, and I think it gave him a chance to come off some screens and be a better shooter.”
MSU has seen steady improvement from a number of players this season, but the development of Trice and Nairn has been one of the more pivotal aspects of MSU’s late season turnaround.
“Tum Tum has improved a lot. Marvin (Clark Jr.) is starting to improve a lot. Matt (Costello) is improving a lot,” Izzo said. “I think Travis has improved a lot his second half of the year.
“So we’re making some progress. It’s just been a little slower, and it’s been jagged. It hasn’t been smooth because of the different injuries that we had to deal with ourselves.”
