Xavier Booker officially highest-ranked Michigan State basketball commit ever

About one month ago, Michigan State basketball landed five-star big man Xavier Booker who has been skyrocketing up recruiting rankings.

On Monday afternoon, ESPN released its news 2023 recruiting rankings and Xavier Booker was the highest riser of anyone in the class.

In fact, the five-star big man was outside the top 100 before Monday but ESPN vaulted him all the way to No. 3 in their latest rankings. This was good enough to improve his overall composite ranking on 247Sports, making him the No. 3 player in the class.

It’s about time he got the respect he deserved from ESPN.

After this update and Rivals’ new rankings last week, the composite on 247Sports also updated and made Booker the highest-ranked Michigan State commit in the recruiting rankings era.

Booker is now a .9991 rated player on the composite, ranking him just ahead of Shannon Brown who came in with the 2003 class as the nation’s No. 4 player. Jaren Jackson Jr. is third on the list as he was the eighth-best recruit in the 2017 class.

Now, does this mean Booker is going to be Michigan State’s most talented player ever? Not necessarily and I don’t want that added pressure placed on him because of this lofty ranking, but you have to take into account the strength and depth of his recruiting class. The 2003 and 2017 classes were much better at the top than Booker’s 2023 class.

Still, he’s going to be a really good player for the Spartans and he’s still growing and getting better on both ends of the floor.

When he becomes a true rim protector and defensive stopper, he’s going to be a superstar in East Lansing. The potential to be great is there.