Tom Izzo has been working arguably the hardest that he ever has over the past few years in regard to roster building in the NIL and transfer portal era. Michigan State’s head coach has been signing top recruiting classes and dabbling in the portal more than ever before.
He’s adjusting, slowly but surely.
Izzo has always been a great high school recruiter, however. He has never needed to truly adjust there, other than now learning he can use NIL to his advantage.
It’s clearly working. The past few recruiting classes have been elite, starting with 2023’s group of Coen Carr, Jeremy Fears Jr., Xavier Booker, and Gehrig Normand. Obviously it worked out for just two of those four in East Lansing, but the two are All-Big Ten-caliber players. The 2024 class yielded Kur Teng, Jase Richardson, and Jesse McCulloch, 2025 had Cam Ward and Jordan Scott, and now 2026 features Ethan Taylor, Carlos Medlock Jr., Jasiah Jervis, and Julius Avent.
Stacking elite classes like this is what’s going to win Izzo that second national title, so he’s getting started on the 2027 cycle already with two new targets surfacing this week.
Tom Izzo has identified two new PG targets
Earlier this week, four-star point guard Jaxson Davis spoke to Rivals’ Jamie Shaw about his interest in a few top programs who he’s in contact with, and Michigan State was one of them.
Michigan and Missouri were also in the mix for the four-star point guard from Gurnee, Ill., who’s listed as the No. 39 overall recruit and No. 11 point guard in the 2027 class by 247Sports. He doesn’t have a public offer yet, but I’m assuming that it’s going to happen.
Davis isn’t the only new elite point guard target for the Spartans, however. According to League Ready on X, five-star point guard Nasir Anderson listed Michigan State as one of the schools that has been showing the most interest throughout his recruiting process. There’s no listed offer for Anderson on 247Sports, but I also assume this changes soon.
Anderson is being pursued by Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina, too. He’s the No. 7 overall recruit and No. 2 point guard in the class.
Many of us had been getting a little impatient waiting to hear about early 2027 targets after wrapping up the 2026 class earlier this winter with signing day, so this is a good little nugget to start the offseason of high school recruiting for Izzo and Michigan State.
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