Michigan State Basketball: Top target Xavier Booker now No. 4 in the country

Top Michigan State basketball target in the 2023 class Xavier Booker has received a massive recruiting rankings bump to No. 4.

Tom Izzo has been putting in some serious work with Xavier Booker over the past few months and it makes sense. Booker is one of the best bigs in the class and he’s been improving his stock plenty over the summer. He also seems like a perfect Michigan State basketball fit.

Some wondered why Izzo completely abandoned the idea of adding anyone else to the roster for 2022-23 in order to focus on Booker and the 2023 class, but it’s all making sense now.

Booker is a hot commodity in the 2023 class even though he was ranked the No. 91 overall prospect in the country by 247Sports. That was until Thursday.

In fact, 247Sports released its updated recruiting rankings for the 2023 class and Booker went from No. 91 all the way up to No. 4. This is a Jaren Jackson Jr.-sized leap and he saw a similar jump when he was a recruit in the 2017 class. Maybe this is why Izzo is trying to sell a Jackson-like role to Booker because both are eerily similar.

If Michigan State can land Booker, it would be one of Izzo’s top commits ever and he has gone from outstanding power forward who could be a multi-year player to an elite big who may be a one-and-done much like Jackson Jr.

Michigan State’s lone commit in the 2023 class, Jeremy Fears Jr., was inexplicably dropped 17 spots to No. 44 which doesn’t make a ton of sense but still landing two top-50 players (maybe even more) would be a huge win for Izzo.

Booker is going to be a tough get but at least Izzo was in on him very early.