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Brandon Johns discusses visit to MSU, and last night's win

EAST LANSING - Spartan basketball recruiting target Brandon Johns finished a fine week in helping East Lansing high school to another pair of wins, following his latest unofficial visit to Michigan State.

The 6-foot-8 Johns, who is ranked the No. 42 player in the class of 2018 by Rivals.com, visited campus last weekend to watch the Spartans’ victory over the University of Michigan.

“That was really fun, a fun environment,” Johns said. “That was the loudest I’ve ever heard the MSU fans.”

When asked if he learned anything new about the program during his latest visit, he said: “Since I’ve been there so many times before, it’s kind of the same except that game was really hype. I’ve never heard it like that before.”

Michigan State offered Johns a scholarship last summer and have kept tabs on him throughout the season. Johns has helped East Lansing, the state's No. 3-ranked team in Class A, to a 13-0 record, including Friday’s 57-49 victory over Lansing Everett.

Johns deferred some of his offense to his teammates on this night, scoring nine points on 3-of-7 shooting to go with 11 rebounds.

Everett was successful in getting the ball out of his hands after he made the catch by shooting double-team defenders at him on the perimeter. Most of Johns’ game is of the face-up variety in East Lansing’s system.

The strong-bodied Johns moves with athletic smoothness, runs well and is a good leaper. He has a nice shot release out past 3-point range, and can shoot the jumper off the dribble. He was 1-of-3 from 3-point range on Friday.

He hit a huge 3-pointer from the right wing to extend a precarious 3-point lead to 46-40 with 4:30 to play. That keyed a 14-6 run in the final minutes

Johns has terrific lateral movement on defense.

As for things he needs to improve, on defense he has a tendency to watch the ball while the shot is in the air rather than finding his man and making first contact for the box-out. Toughness on the defensive boards is something Tom Izzo will be looking for as he continues to scout Johns.

Johns said he has a list of five or 10 favorite schools but he is not willing to release them at this time. Pittsburgh visited East Lansing to scout one of this games last week.

“I haven’t listed them yet,” he said. “Right now I’m keeping them (to myself).”

Johns' best moment thus far in the season came on Jan. 13 when he scored 33 points in a 70-66 comeback victory over Holt. Johns missed more than a quarter of that game with an eye injury, returning to the game midway through the third quarter with his team down by 16 points.

"I just looked at the score and I hated seeing that we were down and there was a fire inside of us to come back," he said. "It was good motivation."

Johns scored 26 points from that point on, and finished with 11 rebounds and six assists.

Michigan State is expected to be among his favorites throughout his recruiting process. Michigan State has two commitments in the class of 2018 in guard Foster Loyer for No. 1-ranked Clarkston (12-0) and power forward Thomas Kithier of No. 10-ranked Macomb Dakota (10-3).

Last weekend, he was able to mix with 2017 MSU commitments Xavier Tillman of Grand Rapids Christian, which is 10-0 and ranked No. 2 in Class A, and Jaren Jackson of La Porte (Ind.) La Lumiere.

“It was real nice seeing them,” he said.

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