Several high-profile recruitments over the years have gone down to the wire only for Tom Izzo and Michigan State to finish as the runner-ups.
It feels like Izzo is the king of recruiting at an elite level but really being a bag or two away from being arguably the best recruiter in the country. He’s always played by the rules and it’s burned him a few times. It’s also burned the recruits who decided against Izzo and the Spartans. In fact, almost a dozen former priority Michigan State targets are in the transfer portal after their previous school didn’t work out.
The list of former Spartan targets in the transfer portal could make one heck of a college basketball team:
- Milan Momcilovic, PF — transferring from Iowa State
- Aiden Sherrell, PF/C — transferred from Alabama to Indiana
- Ty Rodgers, G/F — transferring from Illinois
- Darius Adams, CG — transferring from Maryland
- Flory Bidunga, C — transferred from Kansas to Louisville
- John Blackwell, SG — transferring from Wisconsin
- Jalen Haralson, SG — transferring from Notre Dame
- Devin Royal, SF — transferred from Ohio State to Villanova
- Dwayne Aristode, SF — transferring from Arizona
All of the guys mentioned above either took visits to East Lansing, had the Spartans in their list of top schools, or both. Michigan State felt good about each of those players at some point in time.
Looking at that team, it would be a national title favorite. That tells me that Izzo has a great eye for talent and also that the Spartans have been this close to building a legitimate national champion. A starting lineup of John Blackwell, Jalen Haralson, Milan Momcilovic, Aiden Sherrell, and Flory Bidunga would be a runaway favorite to win it all. It also means that these guys may have made mistakes by not committing to Michigan State.
OK, sorry for ruining your day.
Michigan State has been painfully close too often
Being a Michigan State fan hasn’t been the easiest over the past 5-6 years, but over the past 2.5 decades, Izzo and the Spartans have been painfully close to being national champs far too often.
The above list of former priority Spartan targets in the transfer portal is proof that Izzo knows what he’s doing. One of these days, his elite talent evaluation and relationship building is going to get him a second national title. I wish he would have gone after a few more of the guys on the list above like Momcilovic, Bidunga, Blackwell, Haralson, and maybe even Royal as a stretch four, but he knows what he’s doing more than any of us.
You have to imagine what the team might look like if Michigan State had won the Sherrell or Momcilovic or Haralson recruitments over the past few years.
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