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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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EAST LANSING, MI – JANUARY 24: Caleb Swanigan #50 of the Purdue Boilermakers in game action in the second half against the Michigan State Spartans 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 in game action in the second half against the Michigan State Spartans at the Breslin Center on January 24, 2017 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /

3. Caleb Swanigan

File this under the “head-scratcher” category with Cliff Alexander because I think that Michigan State fans are still confused about what happened to this day.

Caleb Swanigan shocked Michigan State fans in April of 2015 when he announced his commitment to the green and white. He was almost a lock to Cal and it looked like the Spartans had finished up their class with Deyonta Davis, Matt McQuaid and Kyle Ahrens. They had the No. 25 class in the country and were following up a Final Four season.

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But Swanigan pulled a surprise commitment and picked the Spartans.

It took only four weeks for him to shock everyone again and de-commit before committing with Purdue less than two weeks later and then signing the next day. What the heck happened?

No one really knows the specifics, but Tom Izzo didn’t promise everything Swanigan wanted and he bolted for Matt Painter and Purdue.

Michigan State got the last laugh on the former No. 19 player in the 2015 class, beating him in the 2016 Big Ten Tournament championship after he took an ill-advised 3-pointer near the end which bricked and solidified the win for the Spartans.

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