Michigan State basketball locks in official visit with 4-star PF from New Jersey

Bergen Catholic #0 Julius Avent make his entrance. Ridgewood boys basketball hosts Bergen Catholic in a game on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025.
Bergen Catholic #0 Julius Avent make his entrance. Ridgewood boys basketball hosts Bergen Catholic in a game on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. | Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Thursday was a big day for Michigan State basketball.

No, it's not because it's the second-to-last Thursday of the Moneyball Pro-Am and one of the last opportunities for fans to watch their favorite Spartans participate in the annual event, but rather because the Spartans announced a home-and-home exhibition showdown with UConn and it also announced that Grind Week will be on Sept. 5.

Not only is Grind Week official, but a couple of visits for top recruits were also set in stone on Thursday as Justin Thind of 247Sports reported that four-star point guard Carlos Medlock Jr. and four-star power forward Quinn Costello would be visiting that weekend of Sept. 5.

Lost in all the breaking news was the report of another official visit.

Julius Avent, a four-star power forward from Oradell, N.J., told League Ready that he would be taking three visits in the coming month and a half: Michigan State, Penn State, and Xavier.

Getting the first visit is always a positive as it gives Tom Izzo a chance to set the bar incredibly high, but it could also backfire because that last visit is the last thing on a recruit's mind before he commits. Penn State has the displeasure of getting the dreaded middle visit.

This is a big one for the Spartans, however. Avent was just offered on June 14 and he's already moving forward in the recruiting process with Michigan State, scheduling one of his three officials to East Lansing. That shows that the interest is real and it's growing rapidly.

Avent is ranked the No. 88 overall recruit and 13th-best power forward in 2026.

In the span of a week, Michigan State will host three top-100 recruits with a chance to kickstart the 2026 recruiting class.