Mikey D

As you know, I’m a little bit of a basketball recruiting junkie. I follow it almost religiously. The last week has been absolutely nuts in the MSU recruiting world with three recruits committing in Kenny Kaminski, Branden Dawson, and Travis Trice. You guys saw how excited I was over the Kaminski verbal commitment this past weekend, as he is a perfect start to the 2012 class. But as excited I was about Kaminiski, I’m ten times more pumped about Dawson. He is the crown jewel of the 2011 class, and Izzo’s number one target.

Let’s start with Dawsen. Ratings-wise (and there is always a discrepancy among recruiting sites) Dawsen is between the 15-25th best player in the country overall. He’s a small forward listed at 6’6” and about 200 pounds (and probably some change). Just looking at him you know he’s an athlete- he’s got that type of build. Like I mentioned, he’s been Izzo’s number one target for quite awhile, and with good reason. Check out these write-ups on Dawson (from Scouts, Inc.) and tell me that he isn’t an MSU-type player:

“Dave Telep: However you want to phrase it, pound for pound, inch for inch, whatever, Branden Dawson is in my opinion the best rebounder in this class. Actually, he’s the best offensive rebounder, which to me is an even loftier distinction. Dawson owns a strong body, a nose for the ball and the natural ability to track down a rebound like he’s locked in via homing device.

Evan Daniels: The nation’s top rebounder isn’t a power forward or a center. The nation’s top rebounder is 2011 wing prospect Branden Dawson. An athletic 6-foot-6 forward, Dawson makes it his personal goal to lock down the paint and snag any and every rebound in his vicinity. He’s especially an animal on the offensive glass and more often than not turns those boards into points.”

Branden Dawson is a rebounding machine that is coming to play for Tom Izzo. That’s just downright scary. It’s hard to compare Dawson to any particular player from MSU’s past, but it seems like he’s got the versatility of a Raymar, the hops of Durrell, and has the potential to be the type of player Jason Richardson was. There is definite reason to be VERY excited about this kid. He’s probably our biggest recruit since Shannon Brown.

Dawson’s recruitment has been very interesting as well. Dawson visited MSU back in early spring and gave the visit “an 11”. He’s been very high on MSU, almost as much as Izzo’s been high on him (Izzo attended every one of his AAU summer league games). Still, Dawson let the media know that he wasn’t going to commit until next spring, which is a typical decision of most high profile players. So it definitely came as a shock that here we are in early August, and Dawson let his intentions be known through texts to reporters and on his Facebook page that he was going Green (the media actually found out before Izzo!). Apparently the bond he’s supposedly developed with Izzo is strong enough to make him decide to verbally commit well before his original timeframe.

This commitment also sends shockwaves through the Big Ten landscape. Dawson was born and raised in Gary, Indiana- Purdue country. Joe Rexrode of the LSJ said that “Gary is sort of like Purdue's Flint”, and the fact that Izzo went in and took Dawson away from Purdue is a very big deal (conversely, could you imagine if Matt Painter came and stole an MSU recruit from Flint?). If there was any doubt who the king of Big Ten basketball is, there isn’t any more. Izzo recruits the players for his system, and he’ll take them from any Big Ten school’s backyard.

Now as surprising as the Dawson commitment was, the Travis Trice commitment was equally surprising because nobody had even heard of the guy. As far as recruiting services and messageboards are concerned, he wasn’t even on MSU’s radar. So who is he? Well, from the limited information about him he is a point guard that can score, score, and score (and hopefully not with Durrell’s girlfriend). Did I mention he can score the basketball? He is very small at 5’11” and weighs only 160 (apparently he’s getting stronger and putting on more weight, we shall see though), so think of him like a Korie Lucious, but a better scorer. Another comparison would be to Taylor Battle of Penn State, in terms of his ability to score.

So how did he end up on Izzo’s radar? Well, care to venture a guess as to who the PG of Branden Dawson’s summer league team was? Yep, Trice. Izzo was at not only all of Dawson’s games, but Trice’s as well, and apparently he liked what he saw. And Trice seems to have some chemistry with Dawson that should be exciting to see when they come to State together. Says Trice:

"I've actually been playing with (Dawson) since freshman year," Trice said. "We're really close so we've got a nice chemistry together. ... He's a heck of player and I love playing with him, so it's good I'm gonna get to spend at least four more years playing with him."

While it’s nice to have a point guard on board next year with Lucas leaving, there is one major question: Was Trice’s offer given in order to land Branden Dawson? Now this is pure speculation, but it is a question that should be asked. Personally I cannot believe Izzo would do that in order to land one guy, as he has always been a “do what’s best for the team” coach, as evidenced by the Chris Allen dismissal. I don’t think there’s any way he uses a scholarship on a guy he doesn’t like. It also should be pointed out that Trice was really rising up recruiting boards this summer with three stellar performances at camps, and was offered a scholarship to Minnesota by Tubby Smith (unfortunately for Minnesota he committed on the spot when he received the MSU scholarship). So he’s no bum, it’s just that his commitment came out of left field.

The 2011 class is now filled, and should be a top-15 class overall when all is said and done. Izzo has done it again by grabbing top in-state talent and prototypical MSU guys. The benefits of wrapping up the 2011 class now are huge. Izzo can focus on the remaining two scholarships of 2012 (Matt Costello- a power forward- seems like he will go Green, leaving one more scholarship to go to either PG Denzel Valentine or super-stud PG Gary Harris) and then really focus on 2013. The 2013 class is huge because Izzo will have two years to recruit the best of the best (PG Cha Cha Tucker is a top target). If you give Izzo two years to recruit for one class…watch out. Here’s what we’re looking like the next couple of years:

2010:
Guards: Kalin Lucas, Korie Lucious, Keith Appling, Durrell Summers Russell Byrd, Austin Thornton, Mike Kebler
Bigs: Draymond Green, Delvon Roe, Garrick Sherman, Derrick Nix, Adreian Payne, Alex Gauna (Redshirt)

2011:
Guards: Korie Lucious, Keith Appling, Russell Byrd, Austin Thornton, Brandon Kearney, Dwaun Anderson, Travis Trice
Bigs: Draymond Green, Delvon Roe, Garrick Sherman, Derrick Nix, Adreian Payne, Alex Gauna, Branden Dawson

Just looking at our 2011 line-up, depending on how are guards develop this coming season (Appling and Byrd), our 2011 team could be better than our 2010. Do you see the depth we have with our bigs? We lose nobody for the next two years, and add two top-25 recruits to the mix. We could be absolutely dominate in the post.

It’s a very very very good time to be a Spartan. We are looking quite good the next couple of years.

~Mikey D