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Old school principles helped make the difference for MSU with Booker

In a new era of NIL craziness, some old recruiting principles seemed to make the difference for Tom Izzo and Michigan State in nailing down a commitment from five star power forward Xavier Booker.


Booker went public with his commitment on Saturday afternoon. Booker gave strong indications to Michigan State earlier in the week that he would be picking the Spartans. He basically was a silent commitment for days. And he never wavered. No drama. Everything was straight. Because that’s how Michigan State played it, led by Mr. Izzo.


“He’s a really down-to-Earth dude, very caring,” Booker said of Izzo. “He’s always asking how I’m doing, how I’ve been and he always keeps it real with me and gets straight to the point when we are talking. Overall, I really like him.”


Izzo’s assistant coaches followed the head man’s lead in this recruitment with Mark Montgomery having a major hand in one of the first big-time commitments he has helped secure since he returned to the staff last year after a 10-year run as head coach at Northern Illinois.


“He’s the same as Izzo - a really caring, down-to-Earth dude,” Booker said of Montgomery. “I feel like I can talk about anything to him. The whole staff really sounds like they have their best interest in me. Being given the opportunity to play for them is just a blessing that not many get.”


Booker has skyrocketed from being a Top 100 recruit, to a Top 50 recruit to now a candidate for the No. 1 overall slot for the class of 2023. He is ranked No. 2 in the nation by Rivals.com.


Michigan State got in on him early, and stayed strong with Booker while Purdue, Notre Dame, Indiana, Gonzaga, Kansas and others came in with varying levels of interest and recruiting heat.


Michigan State became regarded as the team to beat last spring, if not last fall. That familiarity continued to help the Spartans as the process unfolded.


He took an unofficial visit to Michigan State on Oct. 30, for the Michigan State vs Michigan football game. That helped stem the tide of any momentum the Hoosiers and Boilermakers may have had after he took official visits to those schools earlier in the fall.


He took an unofficial visit to Michigan State for the Spartans’ March 6 victory against Maryland.


Izzo watched Booker play in the Indiana Division 4 State Championship on March 26 in Indianapolis. Booker closed out his junior year averaging 12.5 points and 6.7 rebounds while shooting 34 percent from 3-point range.


Booker was back on campus for an official visit to Michigan State on April 15, during the weekend of the spring football game.


A mixture of old school relationships and multiple visits to campus kept Michigan State No. 1 in his heart.

“First I would like to thank God,” Booker said while delivering his announcement news during a 2 p.m. Instagram Live session with ESPN on Saturday. “Without him, I wouldn’t be here right now. I would like to thank everybody who supported me on this journey, thank all the coaches and everybody who recruited me but I’ll be committing to Michigan State University.”


The atmosphere of the Michigan football game in East Lansing last October and the Maryland basketball game in March helped Booker envision himself taking the court as a Spartan.


“The best part is definitely the atmosphere,” he said. “It was amazing. There’s just not many like it. The crowd was just engaged the whole game and not many schools are like it.”


And the university itself? For a guy whom many suspect could be a one-and-done pro, Booker maintains a traditional outlook on what he wants to experience as a collegian.


“I like the campus,” he said. “It’s not too big or small and I feel like I fit into their program in every aspect, not just basketball but academically as well.”




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