EUGENE, OR — Trey Fort’s minutes and role dwindled over the past two months.
An offseason Michigan State basketball transfer addition after a number of departures from last year’s Big Ten championship team, the sixth-year senior appeared to be the odd man out in coach Tom Izzo’s shooting guard rotation. That came as Divine Ugochukwu emerged as the starter, Kur Teng improved his 3-point shooting and freshman Jordan Scott provided lengthy perimeter defense and tenacity.
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But ask Coen Carr about his coach: Izzo doesn’t abandon his players. Especially not in January. Especially when they show coachability, as Fort has despite his lack of production and diminished opportunities.
Michigan State’s Trey Fort moves the ball against USC during the first half on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
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“Coach is never gonna give up on you,” Carr said Tuesday, Jan. 20. “That just gives you all the confidence in the world and all the confidence in the world that he’s gonna be in your corner.”
With his offense sputtering and struggling to score, Izzo showed that faith in Fort on Tuesday, Jan. 20. And Fort rewarded the 10th-ranked Spartans and his coach with four big shots at critical moments during their 68-52 victory at Oregon.
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“I just didn’t want to force things. I took things, what the defense gave me, and was just finding my groove,” said Fort, who went 4-for-5 and scored nine points – equaling his nine points scored in his first six Big Ten games combined. “Being able to make those shots for my team, it was pretty big for me and them as well.”
The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Mississippi native – playing for his sixth different college program – came off the bench with 8:31 left in the first half after MSU blew an early nine-point lead. Fort missed his first 3-point attempt, and the Spartans’ offensive quagmire reached 4:53 without a field goal and a little over four minutes without a point. Oregon took its first lead at 22-21 with 6:38 to go before halftime.
But with 4:24 before the half, Fort pulled up inside the arc and splashed in a jumper from the right elbow. About 30 seconds later, he drove from the right corner along the right baseline and hit another midrange pull-up jumper, and MSU was able to carry a 28-26 lead into the locker room.
“That was a big-time performance,” senior Carson Cooper said. “We know he’s been struggling a little bit and finding his way into the rotation and everything. We say it every day – we got it on the board there, ‘Strength in numbers.’ There’s not one person where we’re saying that we might not need you.”
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Fort credited “just staying ready” for whenever Izzo summoned him.
“Seeing that first one go in and then seeing another one go in, it’s a confidence boost for myself,” said Fort, who averaged 14.6 points a game for Samford last season. “I always have the confidence. But just to be able to have that feeling and take the advantage of the of the opportunity with my teammates boosting me on, that just feels good and keeps everything going.
“With them having my back and telling me, ‘Keep going, keep hitting shots,’ that gives me the feeling of value. And that’s a great feeling.”
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It showed and grew in the second half. Fort re-entered the game with 13:51 to play and the Spartans trailing 38-35. This time, he quickly pulled up at the free throw line and elevated about his defenders for a swished jumper that gave MSU the lead after Cooper’s basket in the paint. Following a media timeout, Fort pulled the trigger on his only 3-point attempt and buried it in the left corner, and the Spartans began their 33-14 closeout that made the final score look far more like a runaway victory than the hard-fought battle it was.
EUGENE, OREGON – JANUARY 20: Dezdrick Lindsay #4 of the Oregon Ducks handles the ball against Trey Fort #9 of the Michigan State Spartans during the first half at Matthew Knight Arena on January 20, 2026 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images)
Fort entered Tuesday averaging just 2.1 points a game and shooting just 31.8% overall and 29.4% on 3-point attempts. He had a season-high 14 points against Cornell in a blowout on Dec. 29, a high-volume 13 on 5-for-12 shooting against Kentucky and nine apiece in wins over both Colgate and East Carolina. He scored five or fewer in his other 18 games heading into Oregon.
“For me, I wouldn’t say I’m just a 3-point shooter,” Fort said. “My whole life, I’ve been playing at all three levels. And my midrange game is one of the parts that I find is a really big part of my game. I worked on it a lot. I think that flow could get me going for my 3-point game.”
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Izzo pointed to Fort’s “big buckets” as a key reason for how MSU plucked the Ducks.
“Trey let the game come to him instead of forcing the game,” Izzo said. “He gets in that midrange, and he can jump over people. I was not only impressed, but I was excited for him. It’s been a rough go for him, too.
“But that’s why you don’t give up on people, because you never know.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball SG Trey Fort hits key shots in win at Oregon
