Tom Izzo glowed over continuing to produce home-grown talent.
A few hours later on Wednesday, Sept. 30, the Hall of Fame coach landed another piece to Michigan State basketball’s future roster when four-star center Jaydn Jenkins became the second commitment for the Spartans’ 2027 class.
Jenkins picked MSU over finalists Ohio State, Georgetown, Xavier and North Carolina State. The 6-foot-10, 220-pounder from Abington, Pennsylvania, joins five-star point guard Antonio Pemberton in Izzo’s next recruiting haul.
With a 7-4 wingspan, Jenkins is rated the No. 60 overall recruit and No. 8 center nationally, according to 247Sports.com’s composite rankings. The product of Warminster Archbishop Wood in suburban Philadelphia also was selected to participate
in the USA Basketball Men's Junior National Team minicamp, which runs Oct. 9-11 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Jenkins averaged 9.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.7 blocks in 24 games as a junior last winter, shooting 62.1% from the field and 70.7% at the free-throw line according to Philadelphia Catholic League stats.
Izzo after practice Wednesday, with the Spartans preparing to open exhibition play Friday night against Incarnate Word (7 p.m./BTN+), pointed to his program’s ability to attract and retain high-level high school talent over the past three years as the NIL/revenue sharing/transfer portal era continues to explode.
“Recruiting has been damn good,” Izzo said. “And we’ve done it the way we’ve needed to do it for us, which is maintain our people. Hopefully, you live with and grow with the people we recruit.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State lands Jadyn Jenkins, 4-star big with 7-foot-4 wingspan
