MSU's Zapala Named to Home Country's EuroBasket 2025 Roster

Originally posted on Michigan State Spartans on SI
By Aidan Champion | Last updated Jul 3, 2025 7:50 PM ET

Another Michigan State player who has moved on from East Lansing will have a shot at continuing his basketball career.

On Wednesday, Igor Miličić, head coach of the Polish national basketball team, revealed his broad 20-player roster as his team prepares for the EuroBasket 2025. Former Spartan center Szymon Zapala was one of them.

Per Miličić, the roster will be trimmed down, so Zapala is going to have to make the most of his opportunity in order to represent his country in the tournament.

Zapala is joined by players like Miličić's son, Igor Miličić Jr., who comes off his final year with Tennessee and signed with the Philadelphia 76ers after going undrafted, and Jeremy Sochan of the San Antonio Spurs.

The former Spartan center spent just one season in East Lansing after transferring over from Longwood, where he played one season after transferring over from Utah State.

In his lone season as a Spartan, Zapala averaged 4.3 points per game and 4.0 rebounds while starting in all but one game for the Green and White.

"There's a lot of lessons that I learned (at Michigan State)," Zapala said following his final game as a Spartan, Michigan State's Elite Eight loss to Auburn. " ... The biggest lesson I learned this year is that winning is worth it. If you can sacrifice for winning, it's really worth it."

Zapala and the Spartans did a lot of that. They won a Big Ten title and were a win away from making the Final Four.

Other Spartans from last season's squad who have earned an opportunity to extend their basketball careers are Jase Richardson, of course, who was taken by the Orlando Magic in the first round of last week's NBA Draft, Jaden Akins, who was recently named to Orlando's NBA Summer League team, and Frankie Fidler, who was invited to join the Milwaukee Bucks' Summer League team.

The group stage of the EuroBasket will be held in Poland from Aug. 28 to Sept. 4. Miličić led the squad to a fourth-place finish in the 2022 tournament.

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