This week has felt like a year for Michigan State fans. After reportedly feeling good about Aiden Sherrell following his Indiana visit, Tom Izzo had to pivot to other options after the Alabama big man was reportedly not leaving Bloomington without committing to the Hoosiers.
Darian DeVries seemingly out-bid Izzo for Sherrell as well as SMU big man Samet Yigitoglu, but there are other places to turn.
I’m not 100 percent sure that Yigitoglu was a target for Izzo for more than a day or two, so I think we may have all overreacted a bit when he committed to the Hoosiers. It just hit a little extra hard that one of the only other center targets was going to the same program that was in the process of wrestling Sherrell away from the Spartans.
Fortunately, Izzo kept some of his options open, reaching out to Charlotte center Anton Bonke and Cincinnati star Moustapha Thiam. I think one of those is much more realistic than the other, but it’s been nice to see Izzo not putting all of his eggs in the Sherrell basket.
There’s also been a rumor of Mount St. Mary’s big man Luke McEldon being in the mix for Michigan State, but I just don’t see him being anything other than a backup center at the Big Ten level.
Right now, Izzo has some options:
- Anton Bonke, a 7-foot-2 center from Charlotte who’s being courted by Kansas, Clemson, USC, Gonzaga, and Arkansas.
- Moustapha Thiam, a 7-footer from Cincinnati who’s a former top-50 recruit and he’s likely going to command a huge bag from a blue blood. This isn’t all that realistic.
- Luke McEldon, a backup center option from Mount St. Mary’s who was on campus recently.
- Carson Cooper returning for a fifth year.
The last option was touched on briefly during Carson Cooper’s appearance on LockedOn Spartans hosted by Matt Sheehan. He was asked if he would consider a fifth year if it was allowed by the NCAA and he said yes. That’s also something that he said he’s spoken to the staff about a little bit. It’s not impossible, but not super likely. That could be best-case scenario at this point.
Tom Izzo is taking another chance
After taking a chance on not getting a big-time portal center a couple of years ago with Szymon Zapala coming in, Michigan State was able to win 30 games, win the Big Ten, and make it to the Elite Eight before running into an elite big man on a more talented team.
It worked out, for the most part, but his decision was ultimately his downfall in the Elite Eight against Johni Broome and Auburn.
Izzo took another chance last offseason after knowing he needed some guard help, landing an underrated point guard in Divine Ugochukwu and a decent mid-major guard in Trey Fort who showed flashes of having that go-to scoring ability. He also added Kaleb Glenn who was supposed to be a major piece, but he suffered a season-ending injury before the season even tipped off. It worked out for one of those three guys really, and it was ultimately the downfall in the Sweet 16.
After rumors swirled that he was not going to be matching Indiana’s offer for Sherrell (nothing confirmed, just rumors), Izzo knew he was taking a risk by shifting to a Plan B when his roster is truly an elite center away from being a national title favorite.
Izzo is taking a chance that a guy like Bonke is Carson Cooper 2.0 and/or that the NCAA rules that current seniors can utilize a fifth year and he can get his big man back.
Let’s hope this decision doesn’t become his downfall next March.
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