Two years ago, Tom Izzo landed the top player in the nation and then lost him a year later.
On Saturday, Michigan State basketball’s head coach may have did it for the 2023 class.
Xavier Booker announced Saturday his commitment to the Spartans on Instagram. The 6-foot-10, 205-pound power forward from Indianapolis chose MSU over his other eight finalists Michigan, Purdue, Ohio State, Indiana, Gonzaga, Notre Dame, Oregon and Auburn.
Booker is the nation’s best player, according to rivals.com and is rated the No. 3 player and top power forward by 247sports.com. Both of those sites have Booker as a five-star prospect. The 247sports.com composite ranking lists him as a four-star recruit and No. 58 nationally, but that is dragged down by an ESPN ranking that appears it hasn’t been updated this summer and doesn’t have Booker in its top 100. Paul Biancardi, who hosted Booker on his Instagram Live for the decision, said Saturday that Booker would likely make ESPN’s top 100, and could be ranked relatively high, when the new rankings drop Aug. 29.
Izzo has had his share of big-time recruits, with Mateen Cleaves’ decision in 1996 the building block for the Spartans’ 2000 national championship. In recent years, Miles Bridges in 2016 and Jaren Jackson Jr. a year later became the Hall of Fame coach’s highest-rated recruits, along with Kelvin Torbert and Shannon Brown as other top-10 prospects in the early 2000s.
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But should Booker finish in the top three of the major recruiting sites, he would be Izzo’s highest-rated recruit as he prepares for his 28th season as MSU’s head coach.
According to MaxPreps.com, Booker averaged 12.5 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks a game last season for Indianapolis Cathedral High. The 17-year old with a 7-4 wingspan took part in USA Basketball’s Under 18 training camp in May but did not make the squad.
Booker joins four-star point guard Jeremy Fears in Izzo’s 2023 class. Fears, 6-1, 165-pound point guard ranked No. 42 nationally…
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