Tom Izzo and Michigan State basketball kicked off one of the most unique weekends in the college hoops landscape on Thursday afternoon as former players returned to campus to hang out with and work out with the team as well as to help the Hall of Fame head coach do some recruiting.
Izzo and the Spartans welcomed back guys like Draymond Green, Kalin Lucas, Brandon Wood, Zach Randolph, Travis Walton, Korie Lucious, Chris Allen, Branden Dawson, Jaden Akins, and Max Christie to spend time with the team.
They’re also there to help the program build for the future. This is easily Izzo’s biggest recruiting weekend of the year, every year.
Two elite recruits are on campus in Antonio Pemberton and Jaydn Jenkins who could both end up in the green and white by the time their recruitment ends, but even if just one of them commits, this weekend will have been well worth it. Both guys are at the top of Izzo’s list and both hold offers from Michigan State. This would be a great two-man start to the class.
Pemberton is a lot of fans’ favorite point guard prospect on Michigan State’s board, rated a five-star and the No. 23 prospect in the nation. He could carry on that tradition of elite point guard play after Jeremy Fears Jr. and Carlos Medlock Jr. and take over create an elite backcourt duo with Mateen Cleaves Jr. if he’s still around in 2028.
Jenkins is a four-star in the 2027 class, ranked the No. 60 recruit and the No. 8 center in the country. He’s one of a few bigs on Izzo’s recruiting board, but he may be at the top of his list — although Izzo did just check in with Kamsi Awaka.
Big weekend ahead for Izzo.
Grind Week often leads to Michigan State commitments
Grind Weeks in the past have yielded several key commitments. The most recent was Jasiah Jervis who visited during Grind Week last year and made his Spartan commitment official a couple of months later. He was also there with an eventual Michigan commit, but we won’t get into that.
Jase Richardson also committed because of Grind Week and his dad hinted at that. He said that he told Alabama not to let Jase visit Michigan State during Grind Week and he did despite leaning toward the Tide. Guess where he ended up.
It’s not a secret that Izzo uses this weekend to try and land some of his biggest targets and this year’s visitors are no different. This is a massive weekend for the basketball program.
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