Why five-star Karim Mane could be Tom Izzo's next great MSU basketball point guard

Karim Mane’s high school basketball career came to an end with the postponement of the Canadian national championships, which were set to begin Thursday.

His college decision also got put on hold when the Big Ten last week put a moratorium on in-person recruiting because of the coronavirus crisis, and the U.S. and Canada agreed Wednesday to close their shared borders. Those two factors forced Mane to cancel a planned visit for next week to Michigan State basketball.

Andy Hertzog, the 19-year-old point guard’s high school coach, believes Mane has what it takes to blossom under Tom Izzo, should he pick the Spartans.

“I'll be very honest. I never tell a kid go here or don't go there, but there would be some kids I would caution about going to Michigan State because coach Izzo is a very, very demanding old-school coach — as am I,” said Hertzog, who coaches Mane at Vanier College in Montreal. “... Some kids can't thrive with a coach who's really in-your-face and extremely tough on you and uncompromising.

“But I think Karim would flourish in that. He can handle it very well, and he actually flourishes in that type of situation.”

Izzo’s offseason quest is to find a replacement for Cassius Winston. In part because his greatest teams have thrived with great point guard play — from Mateen Cleaves to Kalin Lucas to Denzel Valentine and Winston.

MSU could turn to Foster Loyer or Rocket Watts, both of whom played point guard when Izzo rested Winston, his senior All-American. He also could use incoming freshman AJ Hoggard to run the offense.

But Mane might be a difference-maker if he becomes a Spartan instead of signing elsewhere or turning pro.

Rising star

The 6-foot-5, 195-pound product of Senegal, who emigrated to Montreal as a child, is a 3-star prospect and the No. 121 player in the country, according to the 247Sports composite rankings, which uses an algorithm to incorporate rankings from other prominent recruiting sites.

Mane’s talents are considered significantly better than his composite ranking. In their own evaluation, 247Sports lists him as a five-star prospect and rates him No. 25 overall in the 2020 class. Rivals.com lists him as a five-star prospect despite not including him in their overall ranking, which includes 32 other players rated with five stars.

“I think what makes him such a great player is his work ethic and determination,” Hertzog said. “I've been coaching altogether 42 years, 32 at this school, and I've never seen a kid develop so rapidly in my life. He's got the physical tools. He's a 6-5, 6-5 1/2 point guard with a 7-foot wingspan. He's very athletic, he's long, he's very explosive, he's got a great first step and can be just about anybody off the dribble.

“It's more his determination and work ethic. I mean, this kid is special. He announced to me when he came that his goal was eventually to make the NBA and I sort of chuckled to myself, but here we are three years later, and it looks like he's on that path.”

Hertzog called Mane “a sponge” who “learns very, very quickly” and is “always asking good questions.” He also called him a tough competitor whose work ethic helped him improve his 3-point shooting from 20% his first year at Vanier to 40% the next. Mane put the time in the gym and weight room, Hertzog said, and was the first in and the last out the door.

“It was just a question of consistency. And I told him I said, 'Listen, with your explosiveness, if you can become a consistent 3-point shooter, you're unguardable,’ ” Hertzog said. “And he spent so much time after that with our shooting machine, I said he had to name it because it was officially his girlfriend.”

Mane burst onto the recruiting scene late last spring while playing for Canada in the FIBA U19 World Cup. He averaged 11.7 points, 4.4 rebound and 3.1 assists with eight steals in seven games, helping Team Canada to the quarterfinals and an eight-place finish.

In November, he played with his Vanier teammates in front of two dozen NBA scouts at the National Prep Showcase in New Haven, Connecticut. Mane — who turns 20 on May 16 and is NBA draft eligible — was up and down in two games. He scored just 12 points on 1-for-8 shooting and missed all four of his 3-point tries in the first game (though he was 10-for-12 at the free-throw line). The next day, he got 28 points on 9-for-18 shooting, going 3-for-7 from deep and grabbing 10 rebounds. He had just four assists between the games.

“I think that a year of college would be definitely in his best interests but also understand the intrigue surrounding his talent and upside with the NBA in mind,” said Corey Evans, national basketball analyst for Rivals.com who saw Mane in Connecticut. “He has to become more efficient and figure out what type of player that he wants to be, but he does have the tools, feel and size that is going to translate to the next level.”

'Natural point guard'

Izzo thought he had his point guard of the future in Flint Beecher's Jalen Terry, but the four-star recruit switched his commitment to Oregon after Hoggard gave his pledge to the Spartans in October.

That leaves Izzo with one open scholarship, though more scholarships could become available if players leave early for the pros or transfer. In November, when Izzo signed Hoggard, a 6-3 combo guard, and Mady Sissoko, a 6-10 center, he said finding another guard in the 2020 class was a priority.

“There's a couple of guards that we're looking at right now, to be honest with you," Izzo said. "We'll look that way, but we might get to take the best player, too."

That player could be Mane.

He told Evans in November that he planned to go to college, regardless of pro interest. Mane has thrived in Vanier’s rigorous academic curriculum, according to Hertzog, posting “near-Ivy League grades” despite English being his third language. Hertzog didn’t even know until last year’s team banquet that Mane was tutoring other athletes at Vanier.

“Academics is really important to me and my family, so that is why I am only thinking about going to college right now,” Mane told Rivals.com. “If there is an opportunity, then we would have to really think about (the NBA). But as of right now, all of my thoughts are about going to college.”

MSU is one of the schools heavily in the mix. Mane’s other suitors include Marquette, Maryland, Alabama, DePaul and Wake Forest. He told Stockrisers.com earlier this week that he doesn’t have a timetable for a decision but hopes to figure it out in the coming weeks.

Evans believes Mane fits in MSU’s backcourt alongside Watts next season. The two guards could share primary ball-handling duties, he said.

“Just like Watts, (Mane’s) decision-making is not the best,” Evans said. “But he is also someone that can make a few plays that only he and a handful of others in the sport would be able to make.”

Hertzog believes Mane's college position will be running the point, however.

“That's what he wants to be, that's what he naturally is,” Hertzog said. “The one thing we sort of didn't help him out a little bit is, he came to us having been a (point guard), but he had never played in a structured system before. So he didn't know anything about running an offense, running pick and rolls and your first, second, third options on plays and reading defenses and that sort of thing. He just used to beat his men and go and dunk. So you have to learn that, and it took a while. …

“But he is a natural point guard. He's got great court vision. He understands the game, and that's the position he wants to play. Because he's smart, and he knows, you know, as a 6-5, 6-6 athletic point guard, he's special.”

Fitting the mold

Hertzog sees reasons beyond talent why Mane makes sense for the Spartans. Particularly a fit with Izzo’s coaching style and what he has seen from the MSU program over the years.

“We have a very family atmosphere, and these kids, I treat them like my own kids. I want our kids to go somewhere where they're going to play for a coach who's going to care about them as people, not just about how many games he can help them win,” Hertzog said. “And coach Izzo is very much like that, and you could see he's a very genuine person who cares about his players. And that's important to us.”

Mane takes public transportation nearly two hours each way from his home in Saint-Laurent to Vanier, an English-speaking public school in French-speaking Quebec. Some of its famous athletic alums include former Michigan running back Tim Biakabutuka and former Nebraska and Detroit Lions offensive lineman Patrick Kabongo.

The athletic prowess of Vanier and Hertzog were some of the reasons Mane makes the long trek daily the past three-plus years. But he also sees that as a sign of the drive within Mane.

“He's very, very goal-oriented. He knows where he wants to go. And he's one of the rare kids who's willing to do whatever it takes to get there,” Hertzog said. “It's completely from within. He's from a very good family — his parents are tough on him. I know his father is the type that's always telling him, 'Everything you do, you do to the best of your ability. There's no half-measures.' So I think he gets a lot of that from his dad, but obviously, it's the way you grow up. And I don't know how much was just born inside of him.

“But I mean, that's the type of person he is. He's an impressive young man.”

Contact Chris Solari at csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.