“He reminds me of Shawn Respert”: Tom Izzo lauds freshman guard Kur Teng despite less court action vs. Monmouth

Even though he only played four minutes in the Michigan State Spartans' season opener against Monmouth, Tom Izzo believes that shooting guard Kur Teng has a lot of upside. Teng was a four-star recruit in the 2024 class, ranked 12th best shooting guard in the nation and the best player out of Massachusetts, per 247Sports.

In MSU's 81-57 win against Monmouth on Monday, Teng hit two buckets to be perfect from the floor, including a 3-pointer, in four minutes.

After MSU's practice on Tuesday, Izzo applauded that exact area of Kur Teng's game. He shed light on his consistent form and balance, ultimately citing his trust in Teng's shooting abilities.

"Like every kid, he right now has come on a little later, but he maybe shoots it as good as anybody on my team," Izzo said "And if you look at one thing he does that you hope [from] a great shooter - he reminds me of Shawn Respert, Bryn Forbes.

"His shot is the same every single time he shoots it. There are a lot of guys that are off-balance and this - every time he shoots it, I swear, it's going in."

Shawn Respert played at MSU from 1990 to 1995 and led the program in scoring for four seasons. Averaging 21.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists on 45.4% 3-point shooting, he earned a Big Ten Player of the Year award alongside Sporting News and NABC National Player of the Year honors.

Tom Izzo's comparison for Kur Teng also appeared during one of the media days, where the coach claimed that Teng reminded him of Shawn Respert.

Tom Izzo is optimistic about his Spartans after season-opening win

Tom Izzo stopped by the post-game press conference to showcase optimism about his roster. MSU ended Monday’s game with a convincing 81-57 win against Monmouth.

“Well, a year ago we were 0-1 and (now) we’re 1-0,” Izzo said. “So I guess there’s some positive things here and actually a lot of them.”

“What you saw tonight is a lot of what our team is. Trust me when I say this — we are a better shooting team than we shot. You know, I can worry about it or not worry about it, but we are better than we shot,” Izzo continued at 13:32)

Even though Michigan State shot just 3-for-18 from the arc, Tom Izzo chose to see the glass as half full. He shared that out of the 18 attempts, he saw 15 to be good and quality looks.