Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo is closing in on his first 2025 commitment.
Five-star forward Jalen Haralson would surely kick off the class with a bang. Haralson is the No. 14-ranked player in the class, out of the prestigious La Lumiere in La Porte, Indiana. Haralson announced Monday that today would be his decision date.
His Top 3 schools? Michigan State, Indiana, and Notre Dame. The Spartans have a one-in-three chance at landing the phenom. But what is the outlook?
On3’s Recruiting Prediction Machine is favoring the Hoosiers to land the talents of Haralson. It gives the Hoosiers a 34.9 percent chance. Next is Notre Dame, another in-state school. The Irish have a 22 percent chance. The Spartans have a 15.1 percent chance.
Of course, all of these “crystal balls” are going to be faulty. Typically, a crystal ball consists of a recruiting “insider” making a “guess” after the recruit himself straight-up tells said insider what the decision will be.
Recruits have cell phones and post their numbers. Reporters, “insiders”, and “experts” (like this reporter) call those numbers and ask. Obviously, whatever the recruit says will be the “prediction.”
It’s like how NFL mock draft gurus come up with their predictions. The good ones base their projections on what they are hearing from the teams themselves. General managers, scouts, you name it.
This reporter does not know what goes into On3’s “RPM”, but the fact it is percentage-based leads me to believe it might not be the most trustworthy.
Haralson has no crystal ball predictions, which means he has likely kept any potential decision quiet to the media or experts.
I do not know who Haralson is going to choose later today. I also do not make guesses or predictions. I’ll leave that up to the so-called experts.
I give this one thought: the Sunday of Haralson’s official weekend visit to Michigan State (he attended the Prairie View A&M game), he announced that he was cancelling planned official visits to Kansas and Missouri. And he moved up his visit to Purdue.
Consequentially, the timetable of a decision was moved up. Of course, that news came Monday. In-state powerhouse Purdue did not make the cut. Michigan State, Indiana, and Notre Dame did.
It all started with the visit to East Lansing.
Michael France is Sports Illustrated’s Michigan State recruiting beat writer, covering all things Big Ten recruiting for Spartan Nation. Be sure to follow him on Twitter/X@michaelfrancesi for exclusive Spartans recruiting coverage.
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