College
basketball recruiting is like following a drama on TV…there are so many twists
and turns that it becomes almost impossible to predict “what happens next”. In the sometimes shady world of basketball
recruiting, you take every piece of news with a grain of salt. It’s hard for me to get too excited on any of
MSU’s possible recruits, but I will say this about Tom Izzo: Where there is
smoke, there is fire (hmmm…bad choice of words, or are we past the
Smoker/Rogers days?). I believe that MSU
is serious players with all of the kids he is targeting. Izzo has rededicated himself to recruiting the
past couple of years and has invested a lot of time and energy into recruiting
the nation’s best, and in the next few years, we will see how much it pays off.
So
who are we looking at? I’m compiling a
list of MSU recruits, in order of how likely I think they end up at MSU.
1) Trevor Manuel
(Class of 2015, Power Forward)
Yep,
a high school freshman tops my list.
ESPN just released its initial 2015 rankings, and Manuel came in as the
#24 prospect in the country. Not too
shabby. The kid is 6’9” and a slim 210,
so there is definite growth to be made, both physically and in his game. But Izzo has recognized his talent, and
extended him an early offer to play basketball at MSU (rumor has it Louisville
and Kentucky may not be far behind).
So
why am I so confident Manuel ends up a Spartan?
Well, for one Izzo has an established relationship with the kid, as he
plays for Lansing-Sexton, right down the road from MSU. Not to mention he is a teammate of incoming
recruit Denzel Valentine, who’s dad (Carlton Valentine) is a former Spartan and
the head coach of Lansing-Sexton. I
would be absolutely shocked if this kid was wearing anything else but the green
and white with the amount of connections to MSU that already exist.
2) Cliff Alexander (Class of 2014, Center/Power Forward)
2) Cliff Alexander (Class of 2014, Center/Power Forward)
Part
of Izzo’s increased efforts in recruiting has been centered on the Chicago
area, where top recruits like Jabari Parker, Jahlil Okafor, and Cliff Alexander
make their home. Cliff is a bad man at 6’9”
and 240 pounds. He is a raw player, but
a force. He is a rebounder and shot
blocker with a developing offensive game, and he plays the game hard. He is a dunk machine (as most big men are at
the high school level), and his dunks are of the ferocious kind. Take a look at one in his latest AAU
tournament that stopped a game:
His
rapid improvement this past year and on the AAU circuit has vaulted his overall
prospect ranking to #10 overall in the class of 2014. He has commented publicly about his like for
Michigan State, and his adoration of Tom Izzo.
Izzo
has been on Alexander early, and has made him one of his top priorities for
2014. It will be interesting to see if
the relationship Izzo and Alexander formed translates into an early commit by
the rising big man.
3) Tyus Jones
(Class of 2014, Point Guard)
You
want to talk about a kid that the scouts (and college coaches) have fallen in
love with, Tyus Jones is it. People have
already anointed him the best point guard in high school, regardless of
class. His game has brought along
comparisons to that of Chris Paul, which is pretty hefty praise. As it stands now, Jones is the #3 overall
player in the class of 2014 rankings on ESPN.
Across recruiting sites, he is a unanimous top-5 overall and 5-star
talent.
I
really hesitated putting Jones this high, but I decided to put my faith in Izzo
on this one. This past MSU basketball
season, during a small break in MSU’s schedule, Izzo took his entire family to
Minnesota to sit courtside at one of Jones’s games. That just doesn’t happen too often, and it
tells you how serious Izzo is about this kid.
Jones returned the favor by showing up at one of MSU’s games this past
season as well (and one when MSU was at Minnesota).
MSU
isn’t alone in recruiting Jones (obviously).
There is hometown Minnesota, Duke, and Ohio State, as well as many more
to come as the offers continue to pour in.
Besides the attention Izzo is giving Jones, the move makes sense on the
basketball side of things for both parties.
Keith Appling will have graduated, leaving a senior Trice, with
Valentine and Kearney as the other possible ball handlers. Jones would be able to make his mark
immediately and take over point guard duties.
And depending on who joins the 2013 and 2014 classes, he could have a
lot of talent surrounding him.
What’s
going against us? Well, Jones has made
it known he wants to play with high school friend and elite recruit Jahlil
Okafor. While MSU is on Okafor, if
Alexander commits, how much would that deter Okafor from joining MSU since they
play the same position? Okafor is also
high on Ohio State, which is also a school at the top of Jones’s list (and one
he has visited). This could turn into a
Big Ten recruiting battle with the Buckeyes, with Duke in the mix as well. A possible sign of the state of Jones’s recruitment
could be 2013 point guard Demetrius Jackson.
If he signs with MSU, there could be a logjam at the point guard
position that Jones may not want a part of.
Jones recruitment is definitely going to be an interesting one to
follow, that’s for certain.
4) Jabari Parker
(Class of 2013, Power Forward)
I
don’t need to say much about Parker. He’s
an SI cover boy now, and the consensus number one player in the country. All of the major players are in on him. Normally- against Duke, Kentucky, Kansas,
North Carolina- I wouldn’t give MSU much of a shot. But this just feels different, partly because
Jabari is a different kind of cat.
We
can surmise the reasons why he’d choose any of the aforementioned schools, but
here’s the case for MSU. First, Jabari
has made it known he wants to win a national championship during his one year
in college. MSU in 2013 will have a
starting four of: Senior PG Appling, Sophomore SG Harris, Junior SF Dawson, and
Senior C Adrien Payne. What’s
missing? A power forward; a Jabari
Parker. Couple that with a bench that is
just going to be loaded: Trice, Valentine, Kearney, Costello, Kaminski, Byrd,
Gauna. The talent is going to be there.
Second,
and I know this seems repetitive, but the relationship is there between MSU and
Parker. Izzo has been at every one of
his games this summer, and it even prompted Jabari’s AAU coach to give out high
praise for Izzo and MSU, calling the program a “class act”. MSU would also provide Jabari a chance to
play close to home, near his father, who does not prefer to fly. That might sound like a silly reason to
choose a school, but if Jabari is only going to play one year of college basketball,
he may want his family to be able to see him as much as possible before he
becomes a jet-setting NBA player.
Finally,
Jabari has stated that he wants to make a fall decision. This is important. While publicly he has stated that every
school has a chance to get him, I’m not naïve to think that he hasn’t created a
list of top choices in his head. Privately, I think Jabari has a top choice, and
that he’s just putting on the public face during interviews (a la Gary
Harris). By announcing in the fall, it’s
going to give other schools less time to pursue him (cough cough,
Kentucky). The fact that Duke and MSU
have been on Jabari the longest I think bodes well for us.
If
Jabari commits to MSU (a big if), it could change the landscape and perception
of MSU recruiting for the foreseeable future, and many more top targets in 2014
and 2015 may pledge their allegiance to the green and white.
5) Demetrius Jackson (Class of 2013, Point Guard)
There’s
no denying that Jackson would seriously upgrade MSU’s backcourt. He’s an explosive and physical player, and
would fit MSU’s system nicely. The
question raised is how it would affect the Tyus Jones recruitment. My personal opinion is that MSU will hold off
on Jackson until they can gather more information on Jones, as well as see how
the Parker and James Young recruitments have progressed. If Jackson waits to make a decision (he’s
receiving very strong interest from Notre Dame, as well as Illinois), MSU could
make a real serious push.
The Rest:
6) James Young
(Class of 2013, Shooting Guard)- He’s from the state of Michigan and
the #5 overall player in the class of 2013, but has professed his love for Kentucky. MSU, at this point, appears to be the fall
back school for Young. MSU is still recruiting
him hard, and would love a Parker-Young class for 2013. He has a lot of people in his camp that want
him to be at MSU, so it’ll be interesting to see if the interest in Kentucky is
mutual.
7) Jahlil Okafor (Class of 2014, Power Forward)- Tyus
Jones’s buddy, the big man is already drawing comparisons to Jared
Sullinger. Like Jones, he has stated
that he wants to play with Tyus in college.
Ohio State seems like a natural fit for Okafor, considering their big
man lineage, with Sullinger and Oden. Of
course there are plenty of other blue bloods in on him, so his recruitment may
take awhile. For me, I just can’t
remember a player like him playing for State.
I want him here, I just don’t know if it’ll happen. MSU is pursuing him though. Here’s Draymond doing his part, with Jahlil
on the left:
9) JaQuan Lyle
(Class of 2014, Point Guard)-
Lyle actually visited MSU’s midnight madness last fall, and has definite
interest in the MSU program. He’s a kid
out of Indiana, and came in at #9 in ESPN’s overall rankings for the class of
2014. There’s some debate about whether
he will be a shooting guard or point guard because of his height, and there are
some maturity issues with him as well, but MSU is definitely on his list of
schools. What I struggle with is knowing
exactly how he fits on the priority list of MSU. He’s an obvious talent, but how do you
prioritize Jones, Jackson, and now Lyle?
10) Karl Towns
(Class of 2015, Center)- The number one overall prospect in the class of
2015 is another Jabari Parker-type player.
A different mold than the typical recruit, he is a family-first, down to
earth kid. He’s listed MSU as one of his
early favorites, as he has expressed a desire to stay close to home. His dad likes Izzo, as Izzo has gone out to New
Jersey to watch Towns play already. The
downside? Kentucky is on him big
time. Coach Cal will be coaching the
Dominican national team soon, and guess who is going to be on that squad? Yep, Karl Towns. That relationship and early bonding could be
fruitful for Kentucky, who have landed other star centers, like Anthony Davis
and Nerlens Noel.
~Mikey D
~Mikey D
