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

By Connor Muldowney

EAST LANSING, MI - JANUARY 24: Caleb Swanigan #50 of the Purdue Boilermakers post up Miles Bridges #22 of the Michigan State Spartans in the first half at the Breslin Center on January 24, 2017 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
EAST LANSING, MI - JANUARY 24: Caleb Swanigan #50 of the Purdue Boilermakers post up Miles Bridges #22 of the Michigan State Spartans in the first half at the Breslin Center on January 24, 2017 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /
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Honorable Mention

Brian Bowen leads the way as the most painful miss that didn’t make the top five, but he’s not alone in the category of honorable mentions. He could have joined a class with Jaren Jackson Jr., but decided to focus his attention elsewhere despite growing up around the MSU program and being related to Jason Richardson.

It turns out, Michigan State dodged a bullet with Bowen as his family accepted cash from Louisville and that led to Rick Pitino’s firing and he ended up being deemed ineligible before heading overseas. Things may have been different if he picked Michigan State.

In the 2019 class, Isaiah Stewart and Romeo Weems were painful misses as both looked to be headed to Michigan State.

Mark Smith and Brandon McCoy headlined the 2017 class, Taurean Thompson brings back bad memories in 2016, Tyler Ulis hurt in 2014 and those are just the recent ones.

Michigan State has missed on some kids who turned out to be stars elsewhere, but who tops the list of most painful recruiting battle losses?

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