Michigan State Basketball: 5 most painful recruiting misses under Tom Izzo

Though Tom Izzo has won a lot of intense recruiting battles for Michigan State basketball, he’s also had his fair share of painful misses.

It’s been a rough couple of days for our rival fans down the road with a massive recruiting miss followed by a major decommitment — both from top-15 players in the country.

That got me thinking: who was Michigan State’s most painful recruiting miss in the Tom Izzo era? There have been a few that have made us scratch our heads, but there are about five that stand out above the rest.

Whether it’s local players deciding to head elsewhere despite being essentially “locks” to Michigan State (Brandon Johns, Romeo Weems) or kids Izzo recruited for years only to see them pick schools like Duke, Kansas or Kentucky despite being high on their lists. Recruiting can be painful, especially in the college basketball ranks.

Over the years, Izzo has won some big battles like Cassius Winston, Jaren Jackson Jr., Gary Harris, Branden Dawson and Miles Bridges, to name a few, but that doesn’t make the misses sting any less.

Imagine putting all your eggs in one basket and expecting a talented four or five-star player to pick your school only to see him pick up another school’s hat or don their shirt in the end. It’s painful.

So which five recruiting misses under Izzo have been the most painful?