Michigan State's Tom Izzo encouraged by health of Joshua Langford, Kyle Ahrens

Detroit — Tom Izzo was playing golf on Tuesday, but his day job wasn’t far from his mind.

The Michigan State basketball coach was playing in the Area 313 Celebrity Challenge at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He was part of a group that included Bubba Watson, Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard and female World Long Drive competitor Troy Mullins.

There were plenty of chants of “Go Green” as Izzo played in the three-hole event, which comes roughly three months after Izzo led the Spartans to the Final Four after winning the Big Ten regular-season and tournament championships.

They did so without guard Joshua Langford and forward Kyle Ahrens.

Izzo said both are healing quickly.

“Josh, in a week-and-a-half will start working out full, meaning shooting jump shots and all that,” Izzo said. “Everything has gone really smooth for him.

“Kyle is going full-go. He’s been full-go for about a week, so that’s encouraging.”

Langford played in just 13 games last season before a broken bone in his left foot forced him to eventually undergo surgery and sit out as Michigan State its championship run. Langford averaged 15 points a game and shot 40.3 percent from 3-point range. He’ll be counted on to be a big part of Michigan State’s offense in 2019-20 when the Spartans are expected to enter the season ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Ahrens battled a back injury most of the season before suffering a grade 3 sprain of his ankle in the Big Ten tournament championship game against Michigan. He missed the NCAA Tournament but will be back for his fifth and final season after scoring 4.7 points and grabbing 2.5 rebounds in 30 games last season.

mcharboneau@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @mattcharboneau