Spartans making offseason gains

The freshmen are ready to work, the tender-footed guards are getting their bounce back, and the big man with the skinny frame is starting to see his 5,000 calories a day take hold.

These are the months that will determine how the Michigan State men's basketball team will follow up the third-best season in school history. The only way to improve on it is to win the third national title in school history - and the 2009-10 Spartans will be on the short list of contenders to do so.

But with Goran Suton, Travis Walton, Marquise Gray and Idong Ibok departing from a 2008-09 team that lost the NCAA title game to North Carolina, significant improvement will be needed from several returnees to approach those expectations.

The center position is the obvious first question. MSU lost a star in Suton and a lot of size and athleticism off the bench in Gray and Ibok.

The good news for the Spartans is that Tom Herzog is making some gains in a weight-gain quest that has been slow and torturous. Herzog, who will be a fourth-year junior next season, is up to an all-time high of 245 pounds.

"That was the big news in the weight room two mornings ago," MSU coach Tom Izzo said Thursday.

The 7-foot-1 Herzog gained 18 pounds to get to 240 last summer and played around 235 last season. He has had a hard time putting on weight despite heavy lifting and the 5,000-a-day calorie count.

At 245 with more than four months to go until fall practice begins, Herzog appears to have a chance to get into the 250s - and that would give him a chance to hold his position against post players at this level.

He has length, athleticism and aggressiveness already.

"He's even sounding a little more confident (now)," Izzo said of Herzog.

A pair of freshmen will enroll this summer with hopes of fortifying MSU's interior in the fall. Garrick Sherman of Kenton, Ohio may be ready to contribute at 6-10, 235.

Derrick Nix of Detroit Pershing is 6-9 and listed at 275. He'll be on a very different, and much less enjoyable, diet than Herzog for the rest of the summer.

"Between those three guys," Izzo said of Herzog, Sherman and Nix, "we've got to get 30 minutes (a game)."

MSU also needs guards Chris Allen and Korie Lucious to heal so they can start working on their games. Each broke a bone in a foot in the national title game.

Allen started shooting this week. Lucious will be cleared to do so next week, Izzo said, and in a couple of weeks "they'll be full go."

Another key offseason question is the status Delvon Roe, who had a solid freshman season despite being limited at times by his surgically repaired knees.

MSU forced Roe to take a month off to rest, in hopes that he can continue to regain the explosiveness he had as a high school All-American.

"That's really helped him," Izzo said of the time off. "Our trainers tell me he's a lot quicker and looks a lot better."

RECRUITING UPDATE: MSU continues to look for one more player to round out its 2010 class, while scouting what appears to be a strong class of 2011 in Michigan.

The Spartans have 2010 verbal commitments from guard Keith Appling of Detroit Pershing, guard/forward Russell Byrd of Fort Wayne, Ind., and big man Alex Gauna of Eaton Rapids.

MSU is recruiting Grand Ledge forward Jon Horford and Mount Pleasant guard Trey Ziegler, among others, for the final 2010 spot. Izzo can't speak on recruits until they sign letters of intent, which they can do in the fall.

ON THE SCHEDULE: MSU's 2009-10 schedule will be released late in the summer. So far, the Spartans have set dates at North Carolina (Dec. 1) and at Texas (Dec.22), with a possible home game against Gonzaga, and a likely appearance in a preseason tournament in New Jersey that will also include Florida.

LOFTY POSITIONS: Fox Sports recently compiled its list of the top 10 coaches in America, with Izzo occupying the top spot. AOL Fanhouse did a top-25 list, with Izzo No. 2 behind North Carolina's Roy Williams.

In the still-too-early preseason rankings, ESPN, CBS Sports and Fox Sports all have MSU No. 2, and all have Kansas No. 1.