Many people pegged the Michigan State Spartans as one of the favorites to win the Big Ten coming into this season. As it stands now, Michigan State is in the middle of the pack with their 7-5 record in league play. The Spartans have had to play their last seven games without starting point guard Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn, three of which were losses, and they may be without him for another month at least, according to Joe Rexrode of the Detroit Free Press.
Nairn is currently dealing with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, and there is no guarantee that he will be able to return to the court at all this season. Tom Izzo shut down Nairn after a loss against Iowa in the middle of January when he realized the pain was really affecting his play. The only thing that Nairn can do for the injury is rest and rehab, and while that has helped a little bit it, still hurts when he tries to do anything substantial, according to Kyle Austin of MLive.com.
With plantar fasciitis, there is always a chance that the pain in the foot could go away in an instant, but barring that it seems as though Michigan State will hold the sophomore point guard out until the postseason. Nairn has been dressing, but Izzo has not been putting him in the game, and even if he is well enough to play it, may be as no more than a change of pace off the bench.
"I don't see him coming back and playing any kind of minutes that are going to make us change what we're doing. I see it as three minutes here, four minutes there, two minutes there. Maybe it's an emergency on foul trouble. I mean he is going to do whatever we ask him to do. The sad part is, I mean he would suck it up and play 20 minutes. I know he would. And he could probably do that in a game if it was really needed because unfortunately, he did it for half the year," Izzo said.
Nairn is not someone who will blow you away on paper or with his stats, but he does bring a lot to the table for the Spartans. Nairn is a very good defender who is extremely quick and can help push the pace. In 18 games this season, the 5-foot-10 guard is averaging 4.1 points and 4.5 assists per game, but his impact goes way beyond the box score. There remains a possibility that Nairn could have an impact in the postseason, but even that would likely be limited. The goal now is to get Nairn ready for next season and to get the current team used to life without its starting point guard.
