Tom Izzo and His Chicago Troubles

Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans left Chicago with a bright smile Tuesday night. Not only did they defeat the number one ranked Kentucky Wildcats and their talented freshmen 78-74, but they also became the top team in the country. With a veteran laden team the Spartans were one of the primary teams expected to compete for a championship this season. They feature a senior point guard in Keith Appling and a senior center in Adreian Payne to go with two future NBA draft picks on the wings in Gary Harris and Brandon Dawson. When Michigan State fans look back at the 2013-14 season they will remember Chicago as the place their journey began however they will also come to realize that the same city is the root cause for where things started to go wrong.

On Friday, February 17, 2012 Tom Izzo sat in a front row seat at Chicago State University. He was one night off an impressive 69-55 home victory over Wisconsin which put the Spartans at 10-3 in the Big 10 with an upcoming trip to Purdue on the docket. For two hours he watched the top high school junior in the country in Simeon sensation Jabari Parker (#3-2013) along with a young and talented sophomore center from Curie High School in Cliff Alexander (#5-2014). Both players were plagued by foul trouble but Izzo did not so much mind the foul trouble as he was there strictly for face time. He got his wish that night being the one and only big name college coach to attend the game. 

Alexander was Izzo's prized recruit

Over the next year Izzo returned to Chicago numerous times to watch Parker and Alexander, along with two other highly regarded that just happened to reside in Chicago. 

• March 6, 2012: Izzo joined Coach K and Bruce Weber in watching Parker’s Simeon team face-off against one of the top sophomores in the country in Jahlil Okafor (#1-2014).

• December 1, 2012: The Chicago high school season kicked off with the Chicago Elite Classic. Izzo was front and center for the two prime time night games which saw Okafor dominate current N.C. State big man Beejay Anya (#60-2013) along with Parker making his brief return from a summer injury.

• December 9, 2012: On a Sunday night, Izzo watched junior Cliff Alexander in the last game of the Team Rose Classic and was the only head coach in attendance while schools such as Kansas, Baylor, and DePaul sent assistants.

• January 29, 2013: Up and coming junior point guard Tyler Ulis scored 25 points for Marian Catholic (IL) which included a game winning shot in front of Izzo.

• March 8, 2013: In a game that decided which team advanced to the Illinois state tournament and which team went home, Izzo was front and center for another Simeon / Whitney Young showdown featuring Parker and Okafor as they battled it out for Chicago supremacy.

The games listed above are only the ones I personally saw Izzo at so most likely there were many additional games he attended in Chicago. Despite all of the trips and the hard work he put in recruiting these players from Chicago, Izzo ended up empty handed when it came time for the top players in Chicago to choose their colleges. 

Jabari Parker’s decision came first on December 20, 2012, where the former Sports Illustrated cover boy committed to the Duke Blue Devils over the Spartans in a news conference from his high school.

"(Izzo) has been recruiting me ever since I was a freshman in high school, and he's been to most of my games," Parker said. "But a lot of things went into it like, 'How will I be used on the floor?' (Spartans forward) Branden Dawson and I play the same position, and it would be kind of a controversy if me and him were on the same floor and we run into each other. I just wanted to go to a school that was fitting for me."

Assuming Parker is only in school for one year, this decision will not have a direct impact on Michigan State’s future; however two factors do come into play 1) Parker could easily end up being what separates the Spartans from the Final Four and a championship considering that he is currently excelling at the power forward position which also happens to be the one weak spot in East Lansing and 2) Parker was the first Top 5 prospect from Chicago (class of 2013 / 2014) to spurn Izzo and the Spartans 

While Parker’s decision hurt, Izzo was still gearing up for a big haul with the class of 2014 given all of the expected departures come the spring time. Jahlil Okafor, the 6’10” center and top ranked player in the 2014 class was an important target for the Spartans; however in October he cut his list down to four schools leaving Michigan State out in the cold. It’s long been noted that Okafor would play college ball with his buddy Tyus Jones, one of, if not the best point guards in high school hoops. While Izzo was also recruiting the Minnesota native in Jones he saw the writing on the wall early on in the summer and began to target other point guard options. 

One of those options was diminutive point guard Tyler Ulis (#29-2014) who saw his recruitment explode in the early stages of 2012. When Izzo saw Ulis play in January, the buzz was just beginning to build for the 5’8” point guard and it took until early May for Izzo to offer. At this time the Michigan State offer became the prized possession for Ulis and most assumed that Michigan State also became the new leader for his services especially considering former Spartan Travis Walton was his cousin. As Ulis continued to impress at each stop on the AAU and summer camp journey he also caught the eye of John Calipari with a 22 point, 17 assist effort against Jones in the Nike Peach Jam. After visiting Lexington, KY in both August and September the lure of playing for the Wildcats was too much for Ulis to pass up and he committed just days after his September visit. 

The Okafor and Ulis decisions stung, but it was the deterioration of Alexander’s commitment that made the deepest cut. Right now, Alexander is considered a Top 5 player in his class and right on par with Jahlil Okafor. A few years ago, he was a notch below and just a talented athlete that could dominate games on the defensive end but was still just a dunker on the offensive end. Izzo made trips to Chicago specifically to see Alexander during his beginning as a raw and powerful athlete while other schools were only sending assistants. Michigan State was the presumed leader early on and it seemed all but a guarantee that Alexander would end up a Spartan and Izzo would get the guy he coveted most. As Alexander began his rise up the rankings with routine double-doubles in AAU games this spring and summer it seemed the high pedestal that the Spartans stood on began to diminish. When it came time to take official visits, Alexander noted he had already taken numerous unofficial visits to Michigan State and wanted to check out other campuses. He visited Arizona, Memphis, DePaul, Kansas, and Illinois. After taking his official visits, Alexander decided he was done with visits and dropped the Spartans saying “Right now, no relationship. They’re not on my list anymore.”

With those words, the last and most important of the Chicago prep stars gave Izzo and the Spartans the cold shoulder. When asked about recruiting the city of Chicago a few days later during the Big 10 media day, Izzo responded:

“Everybody has its hot few years. I don't know if it's different in any city. I think there's always the same issues. But if there's good players, there's going to be a lot of coaches around. If there's a lot of coaches around there's going to be issues. I don't know if it's any different than anywhere else. But I don't know what else I can say. I don't want to get slapped by somebody for saying the wrong thing as far as talking about recruiting. A lot of good players, a lot of coaches and good players. There's a lot of middlemen."

It’s been a long time since Izzo received a Chicago commitment with the last one occurring in August 2002 when Shannon Brown announced he was headed to East Lansing. Almost 10 years later Izzo re-entered the Chicago recruiting scene and came out swinging. Whether it was the middlemen or other factors that contributed to the Spartan strikeouts is up for debate. Michigan State fans  departed from Chicago in a joyous manner this past week after watching their talented and experienced team; however at some point down the road Chicago will be the same city that caused their smile to fade.