Top 2026 Michigan State basketball target announcing decision on Thursday

Tom Izzo and Michigan State basketball are gearing up for a big 2025-26 season, and the Spartans are about to kick off the season officially on Oct. 23 with an exhibition against Bowling Green.

The Spartans are focused on repeating as Big Ten champs, and Izzo is more motivated than ever to win big. And yet, he’s still setting his sights on the future. It’s not easy to focus most of your attention on the upcoming season and a repeat effort while also recruiting at a high level, but Izzo is a Hall of Famer for a reason.

Izzo has landed two elite recruits in the 2026 class already in four-star point guard Carlos Medlock Jr. as well as four-star power forward Julius Avent.

Now, he’s focusing in on his remaining 2-3 open spots.

A name that has been floated around on his shrinking board of targets is four-star forward Jalyn Collingwood. The Washington, D.C., native could fit the small forward spot in the class. He will reportedly be making his college decision on Thursday evening after narrowing his list down to three schools: Michigan State, Mississippi State, and Ohio State.

This is a bit of a surprising top three, especially considering he didn’t make the trip to East Lansing for Midnight Madness like he officially planned, and because rising programs like Vanderbilt and Texas Tech didn’t make the cut despite him being high on them.

On Wednesday, an expert crystal ball projected Collingwood to end up at Mississippi State.

It’s not looking like Michigan State for the nation’s No. 88 overall recruit and 36th-best small forward. It looks like he’ll be heading to the other MSU.

Don’t fret, Spartan fans, the writing was already on the wall here. He didn’t make it to East Lansing, and Izzo has been much higher on guys like Maximo Adams, Ethan Taylor, and Jasiah Jervis to fill out his 2026 class.