Two days stand between Tom Izzo and his first five-star commit of the 2027 recruiting class.
The Michigan State legend just hosted another successful Grind Week along with a couple of big-time recruiting targets from the 2027 class. He picks his visitors for Grind Week carefully because they're usually his top targets in the class so when Antonio Pemberton and Jaydn Jenkins earned that invite, they knew immediately that they were priorities for Izzo.
Pemberton has felt the love enough to schedule a decision date for Friday, Sept. 18.
All the signs are pointing to him becoming a Spartan when he does make his commitment official for several reasons, and one of them is the development above: his scheduled commitment date.
First of all, committing within a week of a visit is always a good sign for the last team to host a recruit. Michigan State hosted him until Sunday and he's committing the following Friday. All the momentum is on the Spartans' side despite him visiting Tennessee, Kansas, and Creighton in the weeks leading up to his trip to East Lansing.
Second, the announced commitment date means that he'll be canceling his final visits. He was set to see Ohio State on Sept. 18, Boston College on Sept. 25, and UCLA on Oct. 23. It doesn't look like any of those are happening now that he's about to pick a school.
Third, Izzo is always aiming high for point guards and many believe that Pemberton is his top target in the 2027 class so he's just going to get what he wants. And he can sell Pemberton on joining an elite lineage of great Spartan point guards. Also, who wouldn't want to potentially (not likely he returns) learn from Jeremy Fears as well as Carlos Medlock Jr.? That's an advantage for a young star.
And lastly, all the experts had been hinting at the Spartans trending heavily for Pemberton right before he announced his decision date.
The writing is on the wall for Michigan State to land the No. 20 recruit in the 2027 class.
Who might follow Antonio Pemberton if he commits?
If Pemberton were to commit on Friday, who might follow his lead?
My first guess would be Jenkins who was just on campus for Grind Week with Pemberton and the friendship formed there could be enough to make them want to team up in East Lansing. Jenkins is the No. 60 recruit in the class as a 6-foot-10 center from Pennsylvania. Another East Coast kid which seems to be the new theme of the roster -- Jasiah Jervis, Julius Avent, and Kur Teng are all East Coast guys.
Jenkins may not be a lock to be next as high-four-star center Kamsi Awaka just announced an upcoming visit to Michigan State.
Joshua Tyson is listed as a 6-foot-1 combo guard and he has a visit scheduled for Oct. 9, so he's on the radar as well. We'll see if Izzo wants to take two 6-1 guards, but a pure point and a combo guard might not be a bad combo, especially if Pemberton truly has that scorer's mentality that we've all heard about.
Michigan State will have some options if Pemberton does commit on Friday and center will likely take the next spot.
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