New MSU assistant Saddi Washington already making recruiting presence felt

Recruiting now more than ever has become one of the most important things when it comes to running a successful college basketball program. Not only do coaching staffs still need to recruit high school prospects extremely well, but they have to also recruit the transfer portal and at times recuit their own players to keep them out of the portal.

Thankfully for us, Michigan State and Tom Izzo have done an excellent job adjusting to the new style of recruiting in college basketball. Their high school classes are still some of the best in the country and they have successfully kept their most important players from even flirting with the portal as well.

But there is always room for improvement in recruiting, and if Izzo is going to win that coveted second national championship then the program has to get better.

And that's exactly what Izzo did this offseason when he hired former Michigan coach Saddi Washington as his next assistant.

There are a lot of things Washington does well as a coach, but he is arguably at his best as a recruiter. In fact, 247Sports named him the Recruiter of the Year in 2021.

His addition comes at the perfect time considering the increasing importance in recruiting that we already discussed. Washington has only been on Michigan State's staff for a little over two months, but his presence in recruiting is already being felt in a big way.

We all know how well Michigan State does year in and year out in recruiting, but this offseason with the 2025 class feels like it's on a different level. Now I know Michigan State hasn't earned a commitment yet, but the amount of recruits they are in a good spot for is something I have never seen before. And they aren't just your average recruits, they are some of the best in the country.

The Spartans are in great position with 11 elite recruits right now, and recently I broke down 10 of these recruitments. But let me share some numbers with you to get an idea as to how impressive it really is.

The first thing that stands out is that all 11 recruits are inside the top 50 in the country. It’s very normal for Michigan State to target these high level recruits, but usually we see them go after some lower ranked players as well. Not this time.

But to take it one step further, seven of these recruits are inside the top 25 and a whopping six of them are five-stars. And to put the icing on the cake, all 11 recruits have upcoming visits to Michigan State in the coming months.

Now I know every member of the coaching staff deserves credit for this uptick in recruiting, but there’s no denying that it’s been noticeably improved the second Washington was hired. Now we just have to hope Izzo and his staff can close on some of these recruits so we can start filling out the Spartan’s 2025 class.