Recruiting during the transfer portal and NIL era is not for the faint of heart. Coaches and fans are finding out on a daily basis why this era of college basketball is kind of depressing, but in order to have something to celebrate, you have to play the game. That includes Michigan State’s Tom Izzo.
And by “play the game”, I mean hitting the transfer portal for perfect complementary pieces to your returning roster while also paying a little more than you’d like.
To compete, you have to pay. It’s unfortunate that it’s come to that, but here we are.
Izzo hasn’t met the apparent demands of some top transfer centers already and it’s cost him three of his targets over the past two weeks. Samet Yigitoglu and Aiden Sherrell both spurned Michigan State for Indiana and Moustapha Thiam looks to be leaning toward Michigan after a last-minute visit. Even Anton Bonke isn’t looking all that positive after no updates one way or another following his visit.
However, a new target may have just hit the portal on Monday, but he becomes less of an option when you realize that he has to apply for a fifth year waiver.
Vince Iwuchukwu entered the transfer portal after spending this past season at Georgetown, and the former five-star center is also a 7-footer. He originally committed to and played for USC for two seasons, averaging 5.5 points and 3.4 rebounds. He did only play 14 games as a true freshman which could build a strong case for that fifth year. Iwuchukwu then spent a year at St. John’s, averaging just 7.2 minutes for Rick Pitino in 2024-25 and then he ended up at Georgetown where he averaged a career-best 11.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
My only concern? He only averaged 0.8 blocks per game as a 7-foot-1, 257-pound center in over 23 minutes per game last season. Is that going to cut it for Izzo? I’m not so sure.
But hey, a 7-footer is still a 7-footer at the end of the day.
Tough decisions are getting tougher for Tom Izzo
With the transfer portal closing on Tuesday, Izzo has some tough decisions to make. While he can obviously still recruit transfers, he must figure out if he’s going to have room for a transfer and potentially a guy like Carson Cooper if he were to get a fifth year waiver.
It’s unlikely, but if that does happen, will Michigan State have room for someone like Bonke or Franck Kepnang and Cooper? I just don’t see that working out with Jesse McCulloch and Ethan Taylor, too.
So does he roll the dice and hope that he gets a waiver for Cooper and just move forward with McCulloch and Taylor as the only options for now? That would backfire in a big way if Cooper wasn’t allowed to — or didn’t want to — return. Let’s say it does work out, then you have a similar frontcourt to last season with just Jaxon Kohler switched out for Cam Ward and Taylor added to the fold.
Or does Izzo just go the safe route and find any portal center in his price range and land him knowing that he won’t cause too much of a rift in the locker room even if Cooper does come back?
I don’t envy Izzo’s position this offseason.
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