MSU forward Julius Marble reveals transfer destination

Marble's father passed away last July, which weighed heavily on the junior throughout the 2021-22 basketball season. A native of Dallas, Marble returns to his home state and will have two years of eligibility remaining with the Aggies, due to the COVID-19 waiver.

"I want to Thank God for putting me in this position," Marble wrote on Twitter. "I would also like to thank my Mother, Chanler, Bob, Chris, Rich, Coach Buzz and the entire Staff. It’s been a long three years but I’m ready to come home!"

This past season, Marble played in all 36 games for the Spartans, most often as the first big off the bench backing up starter Marcus Bingham Jr. Marble averaged 14.4 minutes and tallied 6.4 points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.5 blocks per game. He shot 59.2 percent from the field and 76.6 percent from the free throw line.

Marble's departure leave a hole for Tom Izzo to fill in his starting lineup. Currently, the only viable options for the Spartans are Mady Sissoko, who averaged 4.6 minutes per game last season, or incoming freshman Jaxon Kohler. However, MSU was aided when senior forward Joey Hauser recently  announced his intentions to return to East Lansing, despite going through 'Senior Day' ceremonies in March.

Michigan State has now lost seven players to transfer over the past two seasons. Rocket Watts, Foster Loyer, Thomas Kithier and Jack Hoiberg departed after the 2020-21 season, while Marble, Davis Smith and Peter Nwoke have each departed this offseason.

Upon entering the transfer portal, Marble posted this message to the Michigan State community:

“Spartan Nation thank you for an amazing 3 years. I wanna thank Coach Izzo as well as the coaching staff for everything they’ve done for me. I would also like thank my teammates for always being there for me, love y’all boys! With all of that being said I gotta find the best situation for me and my family so I’ve decided to enter my name into the transfer portal.”

Marble played in 90 games, with 13 starts, over his three-year Michigan State career. He had a career-high 18 points on 7-for-7 shooting in a 64-62 loss to Northwestern on Jan. 15.

Since the offseason began there has been speculation that Izzo and his staff would scour the transfer portal to add depth to the Spartans' lineup for the upcoming season, but that has not yet come to fruition.

One of Michigan State's targets, former West Virginia forward Jalen Bridges, spurned the Spartans in favor of Baylor. There have also been reports of Michigan State's interest in Oakland transfer forward Micah Parrish, who visited East Lansing last week, but no further word has come on Parrish's status.