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

1. Jabari Parker

Jabari Parker may very well be the founding father of a list like this for Michigan State. He was the first big-time recruit that spurned Tom Izzo and made every Spartan fan cynical when it came to recruiting battles with programs like Duke, Kansas and Kentucky.

Back in the 2013 class, Parker was arguably the most coveted recruit in the country and just about everyone expected him to pick Michigan State.

There was still some traction with Duke, but by all accounts, he seemed as green as can be. He arrived at his commitment ceremony and Michigan State fans tuned in, ready to celebrate a huge recruiting victory for a Chicago-native five-star and then he pulled a Duke hat out of his bag and it was like the first time Spartans fans got broken up with.

To put this into perspective, Michigan fans’ pain of losing Josh Cristopher to Arizona State was about equivalent to Michigan State fans’ pain of losing Jabari to Duke. It was bad.

Parker went on to be a one-and-done with the Blue Devils and he got upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to 14-seed Mercer. Michigan State went to the Elite Eight before losing to eventual-champion UConn. If Parker was on Michigan State, that would have all been different.

Many believed that an MSU team with Parker in 2013-14 wins the national title.

The worst part about his commitment to Duke was that he claimed Branden Dawson playing the same position as him was the deciding factor — I’m sure Izzo could have worked around that.