Michigan State basketball fighting blue bloods for 5-star Vernon Carey Jr.

Michigan State basketball has made the cut for five-star forward Vernon Carey Jr., but the Spartans have their work cut out to land him.

Let the fun begin. Michigan State has made an exclusive list for the nation’s No. 2 recruit in the class of 2019. The Spartans were listed along with three college basketball blue bloods and one up-and-coming program in the ‘final five’ for five-star power forward Vernon Carey Jr.

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The five-star target who has been on everyone’s radar listed his top five programs on Wednesday night, and there weren’t many surprises.

Michigan State’s biggest competition has to be Duke, but Kentucky has been surging of late, Miami is the local favorite and North Carolina is usually in on big-time prospects.

The Spartans feel pretty good about their chances. Jaren Jackson Jr. even had some fun with the five-star recruit who listed the Spartans in his final five.

https://twitter.com/jarenjacksonjr/status/996955114303868928

The battle to land Carey Jr. is just heating up and now that he’s narrowed it down to five teams, mostly blue bloods in the college basketball world, Michigan State knows what it’s dealing with.

Michigan State has already received an official visit from Carey Jr. back in February and Tom Izzo has been in to see him since. The two sides have plenty of mutual interest, but Spartan fans must be skeptical because of the listing of Duke and Kentucky in his top five.

Right now, I’d put Michigan State’s chances to land him at about 15 percent — lower than the Spartans’ Crystal Ball on 247Sports which is at 23 percent.

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Carey Jr. would be an absolute game-changing recruit and would be an instant impactor for the green and white in the 2019 class — zero commits thus far in that cycle for MSU. Can Izzo land this big fish?