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Izzo: A.J. Hoggard will not return for a fifth season at MSU

April 18, 2024
<p>Sophomore guard AJ Hoggard calls a play during the Spartans&#x27; 71-69 win against Minnesota on Jan. 12, 2022.</p>

Sophomore guard AJ Hoggard calls a play during the Spartans' 71-69 win against Minnesota on Jan. 12, 2022.

After four years, the A.J. Hoggard era is over for Michigan State men’s basketball.

The 6-foot-4 point guard will not return to MSU for a fifth year after declaring for the NBA draft but maintaining college eligibility, head coach Tom Izzo announced Wednesday on the Tim Staudt Radio Show.

“He could go back to college. It wouldn’t be here,” Izzo said regarding Hoggard. 

Hoggard, a native of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, started at least one game in each of his four seasons at MSU. This past season, as a senior, he earned an All-Big Ten honorable mention after averaging 10.7 points and 5.2 assists per game.

Hoggard was named in the All-Big Ten Third Team as a junior and led an underdog MSU group to the Sweet 16 in 2023, where he scored 25 points in an overtime loss to Kansas State. There was optimism that Hoggard would become a Big Ten Player of the Year candidate as a senior, but inconsistencies plagued his performance. 

Now, with a year left of eligibility, Hoggard can choose between pursuing a professional basketball career or returning to the collegiate landscape one final time. If he does, it won’t be in East Lansing.

MSU’s group of young guards headlined by current freshman Jeremy Fears Jr. and sophomore Tre Holloman will add two four-star guards to the mix with incoming freshman Kur Teng and Jase Richardson, along with redshirt freshman Gehrig Normand

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