Michigan State finds new recruiting targets despite extended dead period

College basketball: Michigan State vs. Michigan - January 5, 2020

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo yells at referees in the first half of their college basketball game against Michigan at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, on Sunday, January 5, 2020. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)Mike Mulholland | MLive.com

There’s no competitive basketball being played anywhere in the country right now, and there won’t be any chances for coaches to leave campus to recruit until at least August after the NCAA recently extended its dead period through July 31.

Yet Michigan State coaches are still finding ways to expand their list of recruiting targets during a pandemic.

The Spartans have offered a trio of new prospects in recent days as they look to both fill out their 2021 recruiting class and look to the future.

James Graham III, a 6-foot-8, 205-pound forward prospect from Wisconsin, recently reported an offer from the Spartans.

Graham is unranked, but that likely won’t last long. Since receiving that offer from Michigan State, Graham has added others from Vanderbilt, Georgetown and Auburn, as his stock seems to have risen significantly despite an absence of in-person recruiting.

A Rivals scouting report says Graham has grown six inches in the last three years and is now “a gifted 20-foot and in big man that can score facing the basket and with his back to it.”

Around the same time last week, Michigan State also quietly extended an offer to another forward prospect. Jeremy Sochan, a four-star forward originally from England who plays for La Lumiere in Indiana, didn’t report the offer but confirmed it to Rivals and Stockrisers. La Lumiere is the school that produced Jaren Jackson Jr. and a slew of other top prospects in recent years.

247sports describes Sochan as a “combo forward” who can “guard virtually anywhere in the frontcourt.” Florida State, Arizona and Kansas are among his other suitors.

Michigan State currently has one scholarship available for the class of 2021, after the commitment of guard Pierre Brooks II earlier this spring. The Spartans are set to lose Xavier Tillman and Joshua Langford after this season, if Tillman doesn’t leave earlier for the NBA.

The Spartans also recently made a rare offer to a high school freshman: Cameron Christie, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard from the Chicago area.

Notably, Christie is the younger brother of Max Christie, a five-star 2021 perimeter prospect who has received heavy interest from the Spartans.


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