Trey Fort transfers to Michigan State basketball after season as Samford shooting guard
The roster-depleted Michigan State basketball team landed Samford transfer Trey Fort from the portal, according to On3.com and a post on his personal Instagram.
The well-traveled 6-foot-4, 200-pound shooting guard has one year of eligibility remaining and will be on his sixth college.
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Fort averaged 14.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 24.6 minutes for the Bulldogs. The native of Florence, Mississippi, shot 37.9% from 3-point range (44.8% overall) and 73% at the free-throw line while adding 0.8 steals with 1.1 turnovers.
After beginning his career in 2020-21 at Tennessee-Martin (2.6 points/0.5 rebounds in 7.3 minutes over 11 games), Fort played for two different junior colleges the following two seasons before joining Mississippi State for the 2023-24 season (5.0 points/1.8 rebounds in 11.2 minutes over 20 games). The 24-year-old's first collegiate season did not count because of the NCAA's COVID waiver.
Fort and Samford played at Breslin Center on Nov. 19, an 83-75 MSU victory in which he was held to four points on 1-for-8 shooting, including 0-for-5 from 3-point range, with four rebounds, two assists and three turnovers.
The addition of Fort helps coach Tom Izzo fill the void left by the graduation loss of Jaden Akins, Jase Richardson's entry to the NBA draft and the transfer of Tre Holloman to North Carolina State for his final year of eligibility. The Richardson-Holloman-Akins trio combined to go 153-for-458 from 3-point range as the Spartans finished 329th out of 355 Division I teams at 6.1 3-pointers made and 311th at 19.5 3-point attempts per game. MSU ranked 317th in 3-point percentage (31.1%).
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Along with outbound transfer Xavier Booker (who committed to UCLA) and the graduation departure Frankie Fidler, MSU will lose nearly 82% of its made 3-pointers and nearly 83% of its attempts from behind the arc.
Michigan State Spartans forward Jaxon Kohler tries to rebound against Samford Bulldogs guard Trey Fort during the first half at the Breslin Center in East Lansing on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024.
Fort is the Spartans' second portal addition, joining 6-7 wing Kaleb Glenn (Florida Atlantic/Louisville), who will be a junior. MSU now has 10 scholarship players for next year with the two inbound transfers and incoming freshmen Cam Ward and Jordan Scott, and Izzo likely will add one or two more players during the offseason.
MSU is expected to return Jeremy Fears Jr., Jaxon Kohler, Coen Carr, Carson Cooper, Kur Teng and Jesse McCulloch from a 2024-25 team that went 30-7, made the Elite Eight, won the Big Ten title by three games and finished ranked No. 7 in the final major polls.
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Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Trey Fort transfers to Michigan State basketball from Samford
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