Michigan State has missed on plenty of elite prospects during the Tom Izzo era, but rarely do these recruits end up burning the Spartans multiple times.
There have been occasions recently like Josh Jackson at Kansas or Tyus Jones and Jahlil Okafor at Duke where these guys have faced Michigan State head-to-head after committing elsewhere and they beat Michigan State in some really big games. I’m sure it’s happened countless times, but those are the most prominent memories of former top targets committing elsewhere and then beating Michigan State in a huge game.
Maybe you can count Trey McKenney just because the “big” games were of the ranked rivalry variety and not necessarily during March Madness.
Hopefully that doesn’t happen again this season, but there’s going to be another opportunity for a former top Michigan State target to beat the Spartans in a high-profile matchup. Michigan State will face a ranked Arkansas team at Little Caesars Arena on Thanksgiving Day and the Razorbacks will be featuring a newly-reclassified stud true freshman in Davion Thompson.
Yes, you read that correctly, Thompson is reclassifying from the 2027 class where he was a five-star and the No. 21 recruit in the country to the 2026 class where he’s a top-40 recruit. He’ll take the court this season for an already-scary Arkansas team, making them even more daunting of a non-conference opponent.
The former top target of the Spartans was hearing a lot from Izzo and Michigan State last fall but they didn’t make the cut for him when he trimmed his list to five before committing to Arkansas.
Michigan State vs. Arkansas might break some records
I know it’s early and predicting this really means nothing right now because it’s only based on a gut feeling, but I have an inkling that Michigan State vs. Arkansas is going to break some viewership numbers. I’m not sure whether it’s going to be a Thanksgiving Day college basketball game record, or a network record, but I feel like Lions fans who don’t feel like watching the next game would rather cleanse their paletes with a ranked hoops game in Detroit.
Not just Lions fans, but families who are either starting or wrapping up their Thanksgiving dinners and feel like watching something other than football (I know, very un-American of me).
The Michigan State vs. North Carolina game was the most-watched college basketball game in the history of FOX and that was last Thanksgiving. The Spartans are going to have another big-time viewership number during this year’s Arkansas showdown.
Michigan State basketball will be must-see TV.
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