Thursday night was a long time coming for junior forward/center Jaxon Kohler. A preseason foot injury derailed his sophomore campaign. He still played in 21 games during the 2023-2024 season, but Kohler did not live up to pre-injury expectations, through no fault of his own.

After an offseason full of putting on more mass and working on his game ahead of the 2024-2025 campaign, Kohler was the standout performer in Michigan State’s 96-60 win over Niagara on Thursday night.

Kohler recorded career-highs in both points, with 20, and rebounds, with 13, against the Purple Eagles. He shot 8-for-12 from the field and only played 18 minutes. It was his second career double-double.

“On the court, it felt great,” Kohler said after the win over Niagara. “On the court, it felt like I finally got to show people what I’m capable of. It’s been a weird, difficult road and (on Thursday night) I felt like I really showed people what I could do. Not only that, but I can do more in the future.”

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"At the request of the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee, the NCAA staff issued a blanket waiver suspending the school limit on the number of official recruiting visits available to FBS members for hosting football prospective student-athletes. The waiver is effective immediately and is in place for football's current recruiting cycle (April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025).

The committee requested the waiver to provide schools additional flexibility to address the impact of recent changes in NCAA legislation (immediate eligibility for undergraduate four-year college transfers and unlimited official visits for prospective student-athletes) and the intercollegiate environment.

Prospective student-athletes can visit a school as many times as they like for an unofficial (self-financed) visit, and a school can host a prospect for one official visit. Since December 2022, FBS programs have been able to host a maximum of 70 official visits for football prospects from April 1 to the following March 31.

The committee will continue to review football official visits and assess the intercollegiate environment to determine whether to introduce legislation to modify football's official visit limit. The Division I Football Championship Subdivision Oversight Committee is scheduled to discuss institutional limits on official visits Monday."

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It's very early on in the recruiting process for 2028 cornerback/athlete, but he has already received 12 scholarship offers. Michigan State is the latest program to offer and he looks forward to taking a visit in the future.

Rutgers, Penn State and others are standing out in the early going for him.

"It felt great to get a Michigan State offer," Evans said. "I was excited to get another Big Ten offer."

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Quick update, but I have gotten word on what a few of the Michigan State football assistant coaches have been up to during the bye week. As expected, many are on the road recruiting.

-Assistant head coach/co-special teams coordinator/running backs coach Keith Bhonapha traveled to Chicago yesterday

-Wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins has been in New Jersey/out on the East Coast and offering some prospects out that way.

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-Cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin is in his home state of California and offered a plethora of Tustin High School prospects.

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Earlier this week, tight ends coach Brian Wozniak was in North Carolina and offered 2026 tight end/athlete William Vaughn

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I believe some coaches stayed in state and will be checking out their commits/prospects of interest in the Michigan playoffs.

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Michigan State's rotation goes 10, 11 or 12 deep. Keeping guys fresh and wearing down opponents is a method that will be replicable for the Spartans throughout the season.

“We have guys coming off the bench, we have the starters — everyone can do a little bit of everything, and when we have our rotations and our next guys coming in, there’s no drop off."

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EAST LANSING, Mich. – After placing fourth at the Big Ten Championships, Michigan State's Rachel Forsyth was named the Big Ten Women's Cross Country Freshman of the Year, the conference office announced Thursday.

The Big Ten Conference also announced that MSU senior Taylor Ewert and sophomore Parker Lambers were the Spartan women's and men's recipients of the B1G Sportsmanship Awards, respectively.

Finishing fourth in the Big Ten Championship, Forsyth also garnered first-team All-Big Ten honors. Her time of 19:26.2 was a Michigan State Big Ten Championship record, just besting All-American Leah O'Connor who won the 2014 title with a time of 19:26.3. At the Big Ten Championship, Forsyth improved upon her 6k time of 20:16.0 set at the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals on Oct. 19.

The Ann Arbor native becomes the first Spartan to win the award since Kaitlyn Hynes in 2021 and Maggie Farrell in 2017. She is only the sixth Michigan State woman to be named the top Big Ten rookie in program history.

Ewert, a senior from Beavercreek, Ohio, had the fourth-best finish for the MSU women at the conference championships. The Arkansas transfer set an MSU personal-best time of 20:15.8 to finish 48th. She has been a solid performer all season for the MSU women competing in both the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals (20:39.5 - 6k) and the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational (17:04.4 - 5k).

Lambers has had a breakout season for the Spartans. A native of Holland, Michigan, Lambers scored in the Big Ten Championships with a time of 23:32.3 in the 8k race. Earlier this season, he set a personal best at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational with a time of 23:20.0.

Michigan State continues postseason action on Friday, Nov. 15 at the NCAA Great Lakes Regionals in Norton, Ohio.

Release courtesy of MSU Athletics.

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How Bill Self and Kansas rebuilt from their worst season​

Kansas Jayhawks head coach Bill Self is determined to put last season behind him and live up to the expectations of being the No. 1 team again in 2024-25. Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

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  Jeff Borzello, ESPN Staff WriterNov 8, 2024, 08:00 AM ET

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- In retrospect, even Bill Self admits the timing wasn't ideal. Less than an hour after Kansas' 2023-24 season ended in an 89-68 second-round NCAA tournament defeat to Gonzaga, Self was asked how long the loss would stick with him.

"I think for the last month, I've been thinking about next season, to be honest," the Kansas coach said.

The wheels had long since fallen off for Kansas, which opened last season at No. 1 and still sat at No. 4 in early February. After opening the season with 13 wins in their first 14 games, the Jayhawks went 10-10, including 5-7 in their final 12 games. Their 23-11 overall record and 10-8 record in the Big 12 were the program's worst since Self took over in 2003.

Self looking ahead to more hopeful days wasn't a surprise. But saying it right after a 21-point tournament loss raised some eyebrows.

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"If you sit in our meetings, 50 percent of the time what we're talking about isn't this year's team," Self told ESPN in late October. "It's who we're going to recruit. Portal, money, what can we afford? Salary cap, roster management. That's what we talk about all the time. Now, the timing of saying it right after the game ..." ... But what I said was actually 100 percent accurate."

Self's post-game comments set the tone for Kansas' off-season. After a hyper-aggressive portal push in which the Jayhawks signed five perimeter players, Kansas finds itself in a familiar position as the 2024-25 college basketball season begins: No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.


After two exhibition games that included a loss at Arkansas and a win over Washburn, the regular season started off with an 87-57 win over Howard. Now, the difficult part: living up to the expectations, avoiding a repeat of last season's collapse. And it starts with Friday's blue-blood showdown against No. 9 North Carolina (7 p.m. EST, ESPN) -- the first heavyweight team on a schedule that also includes Michigan State, Duke and Creighton before Big 12 play begins.
"There's definitely a different mindset and a different kind of motivation," center Hunter Dickinson said. "We're going to need everybody we've got."

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Lost in the analysis of Kansas' second-half struggles last season was that the Jayhawks were one of the best teams in the country through the first two months. At full strength, they beat UConn, Tennessee and Kentucky. The losses in February and March coincided with the health of All-American forward Kevin McCullar Jr., who sat out eight games because of a bone bruise and was hampered for the final two months of the season.

Without him, Self had to rely on a shortened rotation that included his starters routinely playing 35-plus minutes per game.
"I actually thought last year we played to that ranking early in the season," he said. "But when it counted the most, we didn't sniff playing to that ranking. There were reasons why, but you can't make excuses.

"If a pro goes down, if the wrong guy goes down, it's going to hurt your team regardless. But we didn't have a way to combat that with depth."

So by the round-of-32 loss to Gonzaga, Self already had a reloading plan in mind. In Dajuan Harris Jr., KJ Adams Jr. and Dickinson, he had three veteran anchors around whom to build. Five-star freshman Flory Bidunga, ranked No. 18 in the ESPN 100, was coming in to provide depth behind Dickinson.
What was left to add? Guards and wings. Shooters and athletes with length. Kansas ranked 11th in the Big 12 last season in 3-point shooting and the Jayhawks consistently had trouble creating their own shots and defending teams who could attack aggressively off the dribble.

"I told my staff, we got to get guys that are good enough -- eight starters that can play meaningful starter minutes at Kansas if something happens," Self said. "And I think that we did that for the most part."

South Dakota State transfer Zeke Mayo was the first one, picking the Jayhawks on April 2. Florida transfer Riley Kugel committed one day later, followed by AJ Storr (Wisconsin) and Rylan Griffen (Alabama) later in April. Mississippi State transfer Shakeel Moore arrived in June and Northern Illinois transfer David Coit in August.

All of these players bring plenty to Lawrence, but most importantly: They can shoot. Mayo and Griffen each shot better than 39% from 3 last season; Storr and Coit are both above 35% for their careers. Moore was above 36% last season, too.

Another newcomer is ESPN 100 freshman Rakease Passmore, who signed last fall and maintained his commitment despite the influx of talent.
"I think coming in they probably thought he would redshirt or were expecting him to, but I think he's one of our better perimeter defenders and he makes an impact when he is out there," Dickinson said of Passmore. "So I feel like it's going to be hard for him not to be on the floor sometimes."
Zeke Mayo was a 39% 3-point shooter last season at South Dakota State and should get heavy minutes on a deep roster at Kansas. Wesley Hitt/Getty Images
When the dust settled, the Jayhawks brought in six new perimeter players with whom to surround Harris, Adams and Dickinson.
"I feel like the athleticism is definitely different than last year," Dickinson said. "We got a lot more athletes on the team. Like last year, our best warmup dunker was a walk-on. The warmup lines will look way different this year."

As Kansas kept adding more players, from the outside it looked congested. But then Kugel and high school recruit Labaron Philon decommitted, and Elmarko Jackson, who started 16 games last season, sustained a season-ending injury. The bodies -- and competition for minutes -- now seemed necessary.
"At some point in our careers, everybody's going to face adversity for whatever reason," Storr said. "If that's playing time, fighting to get on a roster -- this is just preparation for that. I understand it's going to be somebody different every night."

And there are signs Kansas' offseason roster approach is working. Against Howard, the Jayhawks shot 50% from 3-point range and made 11 3s; they made more than 11 3s only once last season and hit the 50% mark only twice. They also played 10 players at least 14 minutes; only seven players averaged more than eight minutes last season.

"Everything is interchangeable," Self said. "How do we address length? How do we address perimeter shooting? Nobody's going to beat KJ out, but if we're going to play KJ, we need to put shooters around him. ...Our house looks crowded, but after you watch us practice, it's not near as crowded as what people think."

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Despite most of the newcomers arriving in Lawrence with plenty of college experience, playing at Kansas -- and alongside so many proven producers -- requires a change in approach. Not only do most have to prepare for a diminished role on offense, but some have to alter their team vs. individual perspective.
"It's not been a change with my game, necessarily. I would say mindset," Storr said.

Dickinson went through a similar process when he arrived from Michigan, where he earned All-American honors, in the spring of 2023.
After the Wolverines earned a Big Ten title and 1-seed in 2021, they went a combined 37-31 in Dickinson's final two seasons at Michigan. As the losses piled up in his final season under coach Juwan Howard, Dickinson made headlines for the wrong reasons: calling Wisconsin "scumbags" on a podcast and wearing a ski mask while walking into a game against the Badgers.

Hunter Dickinson puts in the hook shot and lets the crowd hear it. Then Kobe Bufkin hits a three to end the half, and Dickinson eggs on the crowd more.
Upon arriving at Kansas, he shifted his motivation from his individual game to winning at the highest level -- and that hunger for titles brought a tweak in his personality.

"I probably have dialed it back a little bit in what I say and stuff. Just coming to Kansas, I was trying to mature a little bit," Dickinson said. "I know how much winning means and especially winning at a place like this, what it can do for your basketball career, for your life in general. ... Other people offered me more NIL money, but I knew if I didn't win, there was no point in going to those schools because it wasn't going to help me get to where I really wanted to go."
As a freshman at St. John's, Storr's team went 18-15 and missed the NCAA tournament. Last season at Wisconsin, the Badgers went 22-14 and lost to 12-seed James Madison in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

"UConn got four guys drafted and, statistically, some of those guys' numbers weren't as good as other players out there. But they're the ones that got drafted because they won a national championship," Storr said. "Winning is the main thing I'm focused on right now. I'm going to develop, regardless. When you're winning, you're developing."

On a couple of unseasonably warm October days that turn Allen Fieldhouse into a sauna, Self spends long stretches in practice trying to instill aggressiveness into his newcomers. Though Mayo and Storr were go-to guys at their previous schools, and Griffen might be the team's best pure scorer, all three have gone through bouts of uncertainty in the preseason.

In the days following Kansas' exhibition loss to Arkansas, Self told reporters Mayo played too cautiously, and that he has "AJ messed up at the moment because he doesn't know what aggressive looks like," but acknowledges "that's not on him as much as it is on us." He reiterated that Storr and Griffen need to play to their ceiling if Kansas is going to compete for a national championship.

At practice before the exhibition against Washburn, Self urges Storr to get open and cut harder off the ball. He implores Griffen to take a shot when he instead passes to a teammate.

When Storr finally drives to the rim off a screen and finishes with a dunk, Self is encouraged.
"That's much better!"