Brandan Kearney to transfer from Michigan State

Michigan State Spartans sophomore guard Brandan Kearney has announced that he will leave the program and transfer to another school. Kearney has not decided where he will be headed next, but he felt his role with the team wasn't big enough to justify staying with the Spartans. MSU head coach Tom Izzo spoke with reporters after team practice on Friday about Kearney's decision to leave (via the Detroit Free Press):

"He came back from Christmas and just informed me that he thinks he's better off going somewhere else, not really happy with his role," Izzo said. "He wants more of a role, he wants to score more, he wants to do this more, wants to do that more.

" ... Disappointing a little bit, but no issues, no problems. He didn't do anything wrong, we didn't do anything wrong. He just feels he wants a different role for himself and he doesn't see that here maybe with the freshmen."

The 6'5 guard from Detroit earned Class A First-Team All-State honors from the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News in 2011 as a high school senior, then in 2011-12 appeared in 34 games for MSU and posted averages of 1.2 points and 0.8 rebounds per contest.

This season his playing time increased to 16.9 minutes per game, but his shooting numbers dropped down to 29.7 percent overall and 18.8 percent from 3-point range. His effort on the defensive end will be missed, but Izzo sounded confident in his plan to move on without Kearney despite being disappointed with the decision.