Tom Izzo may finally have his own Fab Five, 30 years after Chris Webber broke his heart
Nearly three decades after being turned down by one of the best high school basketball players in state history, Tom Izzo finally landed his own Chris Webber in Emoni Bates. Now, Izzo may be getting his own Fab Five, too.
If Bates, who played at Ypsilanti Lincoln and is the top player in the 2022 class, and Enoch Boakye, a recent Michigan State recruit who is one of the best big men in the 2022 class, both reclassify and arrive on campus for the 2021 season, Izzo will have put together MSU’s best incoming group in school history.
He’ll also have secured the best class in the Big Ten and likely the best class in the country. The latter has never happened before.
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Not only would the 2021 class include three five-star players — Bates, Boakye and Chicago-area shooting guard, Max Christie — but all five recruits fit positionally. Aside from the star power, Izzo also secured commitments from wing Pierre Brooks and four-star point guard Jaden Akins; this is what makes the class so stellar.
It’s unlikely that Izzo would start all five. Even if MSU loses Aaron Henry, Joey Hauser and Rocket Watts to the NBA, it would still return several players good enough to start in 2022: Gabe Brown, Malik Hall, Julius Marble, Marcus Bingham Jr. and Mady Sissoko.
Izzo would pencil Bates and Christie into the starting lineup immediately. And there’s a good chance Akins could earn the starting point guard job. And while the Fab Five eventually took over all five starting spots, the comparison between U-M's iconic class and what Izzo may roll out is tantalizing.
Bates is, of course, the supernova, a 6-foot-9-inch scorer with unlimited range, a point guard’s handle, and a competitive rage. He is like the Webber of the Fab Five. Not in style or game, but in potential and in his ability to swallow up a court.
Christie is like Juwan Howard. The second-highest rated prospect of the five. Also, like Howard, Christie possesses a mature and fundamental feel for the game and combines it with NBA-level skill. Unlike Howard, Christie's skill resides on the perimeter.
He chose MSU after sitting near courtside for the Spartans’ final home game, on senior night, when Cassius Winston played the game of his season and got serenaded before a grateful fan base. Christie wanted to be a part of that, and to build on that culture.
Brooks is like Ray Jackson, though this may be the least fair comparison. Like Jackson, Brooks is the lowest-rated recruit in the class, and, like Jackson, he could be the last of the five to earn a starting spot.
Yet he has more to his game than Jackson did and is the third-best shooter of the five, after Bates and Christie. Like Jackson, Brooks plays with a devious kind of physicality.
Boakye is Jimmy King. And though he is a higher-rated prospect than King, he will arrive with next-level talent as King did. King made it to the NBA but couldn’t stick. Boakye will likely get his chance, too.
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This leaves Akins. The last to commit.
Like Jalen Rose.
Also, like Rose, Akins is the point guard, plays with an edgy confidence, and could have stretches where he is the most important cog on the floor, even though his overall talent isn’t what Bates' or Christie’s is.
Rose held a similar role with the Fab Five. He wasn’t as gifted as Webber or Howard, but his presence was critical as the group leader. Akins may or may not be the leader. That’s hard to say, even though he occupies the slot on the floor that so often produces the team’s leader.
If all five get to campus in 2022, they will get there with less fanfare than the Fab Five. They were the first, not just to come with four McDonald’s All-Americans — something no class ever had — but the first to start five freshmen. The first to bring its own panache and game-changing fashion, such as black socks, shaved heads and baggy shorts, the first to bring such swagger at so young an age.
Yet even the Fab Five didn’t have anyone quite like Bates, who’s prodigious skill and sense of the moment will bring East Lansing a level of wattage Izzo’s never had. And while he isn’t likely to change the culture of college basketball as the Fab Five did, he could certainly shift the perception, and expectations, of MSU’s program.
Bates plays with otherworldly belief and swagger. His state title playoff run a year ago was marked by late-game daggers and uncommon calm for a freshman. His star power transcends high school basketball and will transcend college basketball if he chooses to play.
His commitment to MSU also helped bring Boakye and Akins. Bates is scheduled to play his junior season on a prep team with Akins. Brooks helped recruit, too. He was the first of the five to say yes to Izzo. He spent hours and hours reaching out to those who eventually joined him.
In that way, he is the Howard of the class.
Izzo can’t talk about his potential class just yet. NCAA rules prohibit him. But he sure can dream. And he should. Because it’s a real possibility.
If it happens, Izzo will have landed the best college basketball class in Michigan in almost 30 years, built around a supernova recruit. Just as the Fab Five was built around Webber.
Izzo famously wept when Webber chose U-M over MSU. Izzo thought he had him.
He doesn’t worry about that recruiting loss anymore and hasn’t in a long time. Nor should he. Besides, here he is, nearly three decades later, with the chance to see up close what it's like to coach all that talent.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.