East Lansing — The Michigan State men’s basketball program added its second transfer this week when Cleveland State’s Bryn Forbes, a Lansing native, confirmed Friday he was joining the Spartans.
“I’ve been around the program since I’ve been young, and I’ve always looked up to the players on the team and coach (Tom) Izzo,” Forbes said. “So I just knew it would be an exciting experience especially being back around my family, too.”
Forbes joins West Virginia guard Eron Harris, who signed with Michigan State earlier in the week. Both will be eligible for the 2015-16 season, but there is a possibility Forbes applies for a hardship waiver because of family issues. He said Friday a decision hadn’t yet been made on whether he would apply for that waiver.
Forbes played at Lansing Sexton along with current Spartan Denzel Valentine. The duo won state titles in 2011 and 2012.
“We are excited to add Bryn Forbes, a homegrown product, to our roster,” Izzo said in a statement. “He was extremely well coached by former Spartan Carlton Valentine at Lansing Sexton, and brings with him the championship attitude that he developed there as he teamed with Denzel Valentine to win back-to-back state championships.
“Bryn enjoyed two great seasons at Cleveland State, but he’s decided to come back closer to home. He brings the ability to shoot the basketball and you can never have enough shooters on your team. Look at some of his best performances, and you can see that they’ve come against top-notch competition, such as scoring 22 points against Kentucky.”
At Cleveland State, the sharp-shooting guard averaged 15.6 points per game and shot 42 percent from 3-point range last season after earning Horizon League Freshman of the Year honors in 2013.
Forbes earned second-team NABC All-District 12 honors last season in addition to his second-team all-conference accolades. His 15.6 points per game scoring average not only led the Vikings, but also ranked sixth in the Horizon League. He ranked second in the league in 3-point field goals made (2.5 pg), trailing only Oakland’s Travis Bader, the NCAA’s all-time leading 3-point shooter. He scored in double figures in 26 of 32 games, including 10 games of 20 or more. He scored a career-high 27 points on two occasions against Detroit and Notre Dame (Ohio), while scoring 22 points at Kentucky.
Michigan State has reached its limit of scholarship players for this season with the arrival of Forbes and Harris while Muskegon’s Deyonta Davis and Ohio’s Kyle Ahrens will arrive as part of the 2015 class that is likely to add at least one more player.
“It’s very exciting meeting all of them,” Forbes said. “They are all very talented and it should be fun playing with them.”