Much to the delight of Michigan State basketball fans, Tom Izzo told CBS Sports last week that he has no intention of retiring any time soon and it definitely won't be after this season.
For that reason, he's going to have to work toward building elite rosters if he's going to win that elusive second national title. It's been 24 years since he hoisted the national title trophy and was on top of the college basketball world, but he knows that he'd be in rare air if he was able to capture his second. It's not going to be easy.
But targeting the nation's best prospects will help.
Izzo did this in the 2023 class, landing the No. 4 group in the country, led by Xavier Booker, Coen Carr, and Jeremy Fears Jr. with Gehrig Normand redshirting. The 2024 class is also shaping up nicely.
However, it's time to focus more on 2025 with maybe one spot remaining in 2024, potentially reserved for Bryson Tucker. That 2025 class could also be a special one, assuming Izzo sticks around and it could be led by five-star in-state prospect Trey McKenney who says that he's heard from Michigan State, among 11 other programs the most.
Trey McKenney (@mckenneytrey1), the No. 13 ranked recruit in the 2025 On3 Industry Ranking, tells me he’s hearing from these schools the most often.
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) January 25, 2024
The 6-4 SG has visited schools like Michigan State, Michigan, Georgetown, Rutgers, Indiana, and others. https://t.co/ayycTcdqIt pic.twitter.com/YZMYoelAJo
Other schools included on his list are Indiana, Michigan, Rutgers, UCLA, and USC in the Big Ten alone and Kansas, Notre Dame, Missouri, Georgetown, and Arkansas. Clearly there's a lot of competition for the five-star shooting guard, but Izzo is putting in the work.
It's going to come down to whether McKenney wants to stay close to home for college ball and if that's the case, it feels like the Spartans would win out considering Michigan is currently a disaster.
McKenney is the No. 13 overall prospect in the 2025 class, per the 247Sports Composite.