This certainly isn’t the news that the Michigan State Spartans were wanting to hear.

They’ll be shorthanded on Sunday at the beginning of Big Ten play vs. Rutgers as freshman shooting guard Rocket Watts will be absent, and possibly for longer than that.

“Rocket won’t play (Sunday), and he might not play next week,” Izzo said after practice Friday.

According to Izzo, Watts is suffering from a “stress reaction”. How long will he be out?

“It’s nothing that’s gonna be a lengthy period of time,” Izzo said. “But it just drops that two-guard thing down one more spot.”

Watts has started all eight games for the Spartans this season so far and is averaging 6.5 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 22.6 minutes per game while shooting 27.4% overall.