{"id":5791,"date":"2023-07-22T14:32:12","date_gmt":"2023-07-22T18:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/?p=5791"},"modified":"2023-07-22T14:32:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T18:32:12","slug":"is-michigan-state-basketball-premier-recruiter-big-ten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/?p=5791","title":{"rendered":"Is Michigan State basketball the premier recruiting program in the Big Ten?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>A recent ranking of the top recruiting programs in the Big Ten recently came out. Is Michigan State basketball really the best?<\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;re on Twitter, you probably know of the account &#8220;College Basketball Report&#8221; and its rankings lists. Michigan State basketball fans often find themselves interacting because, well, sometimes we feel slighted.<\/p>\n<p>A recent ranking of the best recruiting teams in each power conference had plenty of Spartan fans disagreeing.<\/p>\n<p>CBK Report ranked Indiana No. 1, Illinois No. 2, and Michigan State No. 3 in terms of recruiting.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The top 5 recruiting programs in each college basketball power conference\ud83c\udfc0 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BPBwGjPxOd\">pic.twitter.com\/BPBwGjPxOd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CBKReport\/status\/1682143076549050379?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 20, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Is this a legit ranking? Are Indiana and Illinois really better than Michigan State basketball when it comes to recruiting? I found that hard to believe, but I dove into some numbers to really weigh the three.<\/p>\n<p>Suffice to say, I think Michigan State is the best recruiting program in the Big Ten.<\/p>\n<h3>By the recruiting numbers<\/h3>\n<p>Since recruiting rankings are based more so on class size in basketball, I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s an incredibly fair tool to use to compare the programs. Sometimes MSU will need a bigger class than Indiana and Illinois, and sometimes the latter two will have 3\/4-man classes and the Spartans will have 1-2.<\/p>\n<p>So for the sake of fairness, we&#8217;ll go by average rating per recruit on the 247Sports Composite. Obviously 100 is the highest possible average rating so anything close to that is a quality class.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s how Michigan State has compared to Indiana since 2011 (the furthest back ratings go) in average rating:<\/p>\n<p><strong>2011:<\/strong> MSU (92.35), Indiana (90.59) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2012:<\/strong> MSU (96.95), Indiana (96.58) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2013:<\/strong> MSU (87.58), Indiana (94.78) &#8212; Indiana<br \/>\n<strong>2014:<\/strong> MSU (92.11), Indiana (88.27) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2015:<\/strong> MSU (95.55), Indiana (92.47) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2016:<\/strong> MSU (99.0), Indiana (89.83) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2017:<\/strong> MSU (96.66), Indiana (91.69) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2018:<\/strong> MSU (95.24), Indiana (95.89) &#8212; Indiana<br \/>\n<strong>2019:<\/strong> MSU (95.01), Indiana (95.94) &#8212; Indiana<br \/>\n<strong>2020:<\/strong> MSU (97.76), Indiana (95.17) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2021:<\/strong> MSU (98.29), Indiana (98.05) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2022:<\/strong> MSU (97.31), Indiana (96.14) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2023:<\/strong> MSU (97.84), Indiana (96.66) &#8212; MSU<\/p>\n<p>Michigan State has had a higher average rating in 10 of the past 13 seasons over Indiana. Mike Woodson has never had a higher average rating that Tom Izzo.<\/p>\n<p>Now let&#8217;s take a look at how the Spartans compared to Illinois in average rating since 2011:<\/p>\n<p><strong>2011:<\/strong> MSU (92.35), Illinois (93.16) &#8212; Illinois<br \/>\n<strong>2012:<\/strong> MSU (96.95), Illinois (NA) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2013:<\/strong> MSU (87.58), Illinois (93.45) &#8212; Illinois<br \/>\n<strong>2014:<\/strong> MSU (92.11), Illinois (93.87) &#8212; Illinois<br \/>\n<strong>2015:<\/strong> MSU (95.55), Illinois (92.70) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2016:<\/strong> MSU (99.0), Illinois (90.75) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2017:<\/strong> MSU (96.66), Illinois (90.48) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2018:<\/strong> MSU (95.24), Illinois (90.22) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2019:<\/strong> MSU (95.01), Illinois (92.59) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2020:<\/strong> MSU (97.76), Illinois (92.95) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2021:<\/strong> MSU (98.29), Illinois (95.68) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2022:<\/strong> MSU (97.31), Illinois (97.20) &#8212; MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2023:<\/strong> MSU (97.84), Illinois (92.97) &#8212; MSU<\/p>\n<p>Just like the Spartans&#8217; advantage over Indiana on the trail, Michigan State has had a higher average rating than the Illini in 10 of the past 13 seasons. They&#8217;ve also had a higher rating in nine straight cycles. Brad Underwood has never had a higher average rating than Izzo.<\/p>\n<p>Since I want to be fair to every team that made the list, here&#8217;s who holds the average rating advantage between Michigan and Michigan State basketball since 2011:<\/p>\n<p><strong>2011:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2012:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2013:<\/strong> Michigan<br \/>\n<strong>2014:<\/strong> MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2015:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2016:<\/strong> MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2017:<\/strong> MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2018:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2019:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2020:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2021:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2022:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2023:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<\/p>\n<p>As you can see, in 12 out of the past 13 years, Michigan State has had a higher average rating than Michigan. And Juwan Howard has never had a higher average rating than Izzo<\/p>\n<p>Now let&#8217;s do Ohio State:<\/p>\n<p><strong>2011:<\/strong> Ohio State<br \/>\n<strong>2012:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2013:\u00a0<\/strong>Ohio State<br \/>\n<strong>2014:\u00a0<\/strong>Ohio State<br \/>\n<strong>2015:\u00a0<\/strong>Ohio State<br \/>\n<strong>2016:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2017:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2018:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2019:\u00a0<\/strong>Ohio State<br \/>\n<strong>2020:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2021:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2022:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<br \/>\n<strong>2023:\u00a0<\/strong>MSU<\/p>\n<p>Chris Holtmann has only had a higher average rating than Izzo one time and Michigan State has been higher in seven out of the past eight seasons. From 2011-15, however, Thad Matta was an elite recruiter.<\/p>\n<p>Is Michigan State basketball the premier recruiting program in the Big Ten? I think it can be safely stated that the Spartans have been recruiting at a higher level than the rest of the conference over the past decade-plus.<\/p>\n<p>The average rating for each program since 2011 is as follows:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Michigan State:<\/strong> 95.51<br \/>\n<strong>Ohio State:<\/strong> 94.81<br \/>\n<strong>Indiana:\u00a0<\/strong>94.00<br \/>\n<strong>Michigan:<\/strong> 93.98<br \/>\n<strong>Illinois:\u00a0<\/strong>93.00<\/p>\n<p>This recruiting success does not shock me one bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Izzo is an elite recruiter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[188],"tags":[59,190,189,211],"class_list":["post-5791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bb-recruiting","tag-featured","tag-michigan-state-basketball","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-tom-izzo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}