Michigan State basketball is falling behind in Trey Townsend's recruitment

It was about two weeks ago when one of the top transfer portal targets in the country, and one I think many Michigan State basketball fans were excited about, entered the transfer portal. Star Oakland forward Trey Townsend, who helped lead the Golden Grizzlies over 3-seed Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament, became available on the market and seemed like a natural fit for the Spartans.

The news regarding Townsend got even better on April 10 when Spartan fans found out that Tom Izzo and Michigan State had reached out to Trey and were at least attempting to recruit him early on. Again, this had all Spartan fans extremely excited because Townsend would undobutedly be a huge addition to the program.

Fast forward another week, and it turns out the Spartans' recruitment of Townsend isn't going as many Spartan fans hoped.

Michigan State not (currently) in the running for Trey

Townsend's recruitment, as with many transfers, has been moving really fast. He has already begun setting up official visits to the schools he is interested in, and has even already taken a visit to Michigan.

On Monday night, Townsend announced three more schools that he has future visits scheduled with, and the Spartans were not among those mentioned.

Now not being included in a recruits top schools list really isn't a huge deal to me. No team, Michigan State included, will ever have all of their top targets reciprocate interest.

That doesn't appear to be the case here.

According to 247Sport's Michigan State insider Justin Thind, it appears Michigan State is not seriously pursuing Trey right now. He shared, "It's by MSU's choice. They would’ve gotten a visit if they wanted one and they probably would’ve wanted one, had they not liked what they see on the precipice.”

Now this just doesn't make any sense to me. Trey is one of the best targets available in the portal and is a local kid, so why wouldn't Tom Izzo want him? Thind also shares that MSU could've had a visit if they wanted one, but are actively choosing to not bring him on one. But that just seems like the wrong choice to me.

Thind does also share that Tom Izzo might like other options out there, other options that maybe haven't even hit the portal yet. Players do have until May 1 to enter the portal, so maybe Izzo wants to wait until he sees what all of his options are. Or maybe he wants to wait and see what Frankie Fidler decides to do, who just recently delayed his commitment date.

Regardless, refusing to bring Townsend on a visit feels like a mistake to me. Nothing is guarenteed in recruiting. So why wait around, hoping something good happens in the future when you could potentially have something solid right now?

At this point all we can do is let the transfer portal season play out. Townsend unfortunately no longer appears to be a target for the Spartans, so once again all fans can do is sit back and wonder what's going to come from the portal.