Grind Week was a huge opportunity for Tom Izzo to close on a couple of his top recruiting targets in the 2027 recruiting class. He hosted five-star point guard Antonio Pemberton and four-star center Jaydn Jenkins in the hopes of kicking off his 2027 class with a bang.
That bang came on Friday evening with the commitment of Pemberton.
And that tells everyone one thing: Izzo isn’t close to retirement.
Pemberton picked Michigan State over Tennessee, Kansas, Ohio State, Creighton, and UCLA and now we all know that Izzo isn’t even contemplating retirement if he has his point guard of the future already committed, following the footsteps of Jeremy Fears Jr. and Carlos Medlock Jr.
NEWS: 2027 Top-25 overall recruit Antonio Pemberton has committed to Michigan State, he told @Rivals.
— Joe Tipton (@JoeTipton) September 18, 2026
The 6-1 senior is one of the top point guards nationally. https://t.co/Qr9JbB1HnW pic.twitter.com/JuuXKLCk27
On top of that, he’s making Mateen Cleaves Jr. a priority in the 2028 cycle.
Izzo not only has plenty of gas left in the tank but the Hall of Famer still has his fastball. Not many coaches have the type of recruiting juice that Izzo does and he’s 71 (!!) years old. He has no intention of retiring any time soon and he’s said that several times but everyone kind of assumed it was coach-speak. He really means that.
Pemberton committed to Michigan State because Izzo sold him on being that next great point guard and he wanted to play for a Hall of Fame coach who would put him in the best position to succeed at the college level and build up his NBA stock.
Folks, Izzo’s still got it.
Antonio Pemberton is a special player
The writing was on the wall with Pemberton all week leading up to this decision considering he canceled his last few visits to make a decision five days after leaving East Lansing.
While the commitment isn’t shocking considering what we’ve heard all week with Michigan State having momentum, it’s still best-case scenario. He was the top point guard on the Spartans’ 2027 recruiting board ahead of guys like Joshua Tyson and Jaxson Davis and it looks like both of those looming official visits will no longer be happening.
Pemberton isn’t your typical Izzo point guard, though. He does have that “dawg” and “OKG” mentality that Izzo looks for, but he’s much more of an offensive-minded point guard. Medlock is cut from the same cloth but Pemberton is higher rated coming out of high school and many experts believe that he’s more polished at this point in his career.
Having two elite scoring options at the point guard position next season (assuming Fears leaves for the NBA) is going to give Izzo a ton of offensive flexibility.
Pemberton is a special talent and Izzo got his guy. What’s new?
Add us as a preferred source on Google