Tom Izzo has landed his second Indiana Mr. Basketball recipient in the past three years in Caleb Swanigan, marking the third time in his tenure at MSU that he’s managed to recruit two McDonald’s All-Americans in the same class.
Swangian, the No. 8-ranked player in the 2015 class by ESPN Recruiting Nation, verbally committed to the Spartans April 10, totaling the number of recruits for Izzo next season to four, which includes Michigan’s Mr. Basketball Deyonta Davis, Matt McQuaid and Kyle Ahrens.
“Next year I will be going to Michigan State university (sic),” Swanigan tweeted. “Once a Spartan. Always a Spartan.”
Kentucky, Arizona, Duke, Purdue, California and Chicago State were all in pursuit for the 6-foot-8-inch big man. Leading Homestead High School to a state championship and a 29-2 overall record, the senior averaged 22.7 points and 13.7 rebounds per game, while finishing with a program record of 1,649 points and 1,048 rebounds.
“I’m happy for him that he found somebody,” Homestead men’s basketball head coach Chris Johnson said. “As a high school basketball coach, when you have a caliber player like that in (Caleb) Swanigan, you wish him but the very best and to be able to go to a program like Michigan State, it’s definitely great for our school and great for him.”
The Spartans lost their only McDonald’s participant on their Final Four roster this past season in senior Branden Dawson to graduation, but have added two just days following their loss to Duke in the Final Four earlier this month in Indianapolis.
With the commitment from Swanigan, MSU adds an athlete whose physicality in the paint allows him to out muscle opponents, which is based on his experience on the gridiron during his first couple of years in high school.
“When you’re at that college level, you’re able to put the pieces to the puzzle together to be able to fit everyone in,” Johnson said. “Obviously, that’s something what coach Izzo has seen in Caleb, that piece of the puzzle that maybe he was missing.”
Johnson had the opportunity to talk with Izzo in person earlier this year, who said that Izzo’s down-to-earth personality, as well as his knowledge of the X’s and O’s, shows why recruits want to spend their college careers in East Lansing.
Johnson, who has been at Homestead for a decade and a half, said that he gave Swanigan the green light at the beginning of the year to sit down and discuss his recruitment if it was something that Swanigan wanted to worry about during the season.
But the main focus and No. 1 goal for Swanigan’s final year at Homestead was to win a state title.
It was a memorable three years coaching the top player in the state of Indiana for Johnson, who complimented Swanigan for the long way he has come since his freshman year.
"(Swanigan) went from back to the basket, here people would give him the 15-foot jump shot,” Johnson said, “to where he worked on his craft where was able to transform some of that baby fat to muscle, to where he trimmed down even more his senior year to get it to where he can knock down the three point shot and shoot it consistently.
“Each and every year during the three years that I had him, he’s improved tremendously and that’s because of all of his hard work to himself in that position.”
