Fully healthy at last, Tum Tum Nairn takes on more leadership for Michigan State!

Michigan State guard Tum Tum Nairn (11) dribbles up the court in the second half of their Big Ten basketball game against Penn State at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Sunday, February 28, 2016. Michigan State won the game, 88-57. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

 

ALE -- After a game of made shots, passes and sprints up and down the court, Tum Tum Nairn was able to say something he hadn't been able for all of last season.

"I'm pain-free," Nairn said on Thursday after his debut at the Moneyball Pro-Am. "Praise God for that, I'm pain-free."
Nairn, Michigan State's rising junior point guard, is confident the nagging foot injury that kept him limited his entire sophomore year is at last behind him.
Nairn played 28 games and started 18 in 2015-16, but was never healthy. Plantar fasciitis meant he played in pain, and was limited in minutes and in what he could do on the court. Michigan State shut him down for seven games midseason, but to little avail.
After the Spartans' NCAA Tournament loss, he could at last have the only treatment to cure his ailment: a surgery, and plenty of rest. Nairn was operated on soon after the season and said he returned to full action about a month ago.
Since then, he said he's been able to resume his normal, intense workout schedule he had to abandon last August, a critical part of his improvement.
"That part of my game got taken away from me, and that's who I am," Nairn said. "I'm just really happy that I get that back."
The opening night of Moneyball served as Nairn's public debut, post-surgery. It featured him looking like the player who took over the starting point guard role and led the Spartans to the 2014 Final Four, bringing energy throughout with crisp passes and speed up and down the floor.
It also featured him showing his developing jumper. When Michigan point guard Derrick Walton gave him open shots (following the typical opponent scouting report on Nairn), the Spartans' point guard hit three of four 3-pointers.
As Nairn has rejoined Michigan State's summer workouts, he finds a group that's significantly different than the one he played with last year. The Spartans lost their top three returning scorers, and bring in a quartet of freshmen to help fill the void. That includes adding depth at point guard, in the form of four-star recruit Cassius Winston.
As the only returning captain from last year, Nairn said he's taking a leading role in offseason workouts.
"I have confidence in myself that I'm a leader of this team," Nairn said. "I have to lead these guys, they're great players, but they don't know what it's like to play in a Big Ten game, or to play against Duke or to play against Michigan, so I have to kind of tell them beforehand."