EAST LANSING - Michigan State added two more pieces to its future on Thursday, and Tom Izzo didn’t waste time making clear why he likes both of them.
The Spartans officially signed 2027 guard Antonio Pemberton and forward/center Jaydn Jenkins, giving Izzo his first public chance to speak about the pair. NCAA rules kept him from discussing either recruit before the paperwork was in, but once the signings were official, he was ready to talk about what they bring.
“It was O.K.G.: they were both our kind of guys,” Izzo said Thursday. “We’re happy to have both of them here, and I think both of them are going to be really good Spartans.”
Pemberton is the bigger name on the rankings sheet. The five-star guard sits No. 24 overall in the 247Sports Composite for his class, and he looks like the kind of backcourt talent Michigan State hopes can keep the machine rolling. With Jeremy Fears Jr. expected to be in his final season in a Spartan uniform, Pemberton won’t be asked to be a carbon copy replacement - but he does give MSU a high-end guard to build around.
Izzo sees a scorer with range and burst.
“He’s an explosive guard,” Izzo said about Pemberton on Thursday. “He can really shoot the ball.
He can score it in a lot of different ways. He’s got a pull-up (jumper); he’s got a long-range (shot).
He can get to the basket; he’s athletic enough to finish in there. When we first saw him, he was a guy I was really excited about.”
Izzo’s interest in Pemberton went well beyond a standard recruiting pitch. He said he showed up at Pemberton’s home in Massachusetts at 12:01 a.m. on the first night he was allowed to make an in-home visit.
“His mom said she’d be sleeping because she was working the next day, and she answered the door,” Izzo recalled. “It’s that kind of family, and the hour we spent there was pretty cool.
I think it helped a lot in our recruitment. It showed what they felt about us, but it also showed what we felt about them.”
Jenkins brings a different kind of upside. The four-star recruit is ranked 60th overall and is listed at 6-foot-10, but Izzo said his wingspan reaches 7-foot-4. That kind of length gives Michigan State a player who could matter quickly on the defensive end, even if the offensive game still needs work.
“(He’s) really got a chance to be a dynamic two-way player,” Izzo said of Jenkins. “He can block shots; he can do some things there.
He’s got great athleticism. He’s got to keep improving his offensive skills, but he’s got some around the basket.”
Izzo also pointed to Jenkins as a contrast to current starting center Anton Bonke. Bonke’s size helps clog the paint, but he is not especially mobile. Jenkins, by comparison, offers movement and length that fit the way Izzo wants his big men to defend - out on the perimeter, hedging ball screens, and covering ground.
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