Shane Battier says Tom Izzo 'messed up' while recruiting him

Originally posted on Spartan Shadows
By Connor Muldowney | Last updated 2/17/24

Tom Izzo has had some tough recruiting losses over the years, especially to Coach K and Duke. Shane Battier was one of them.

Over the years, Tom Izzo has had some crushing recruiting misses. He’s seen guys like Jabari Parker, Josh Jackson, Cliff Alexander, Brian Bowen, and Isaiah Stewart, just to name a select few, choose other schools after seriously considering Michigan State.

We all remember the big decisions like they were yesterday and I can bet that every hardcore Michigan State basketball fan can tell you exactly where they were when Jabari Parker picked Duke. That broke every Spartan fan’s heart. And it was just the latest example of Coach K having Izzo’s number on the recruiting trail.

But even before Parker, there was a high-profile recruit who was high on Michigan State and ended up picking Duke. This was arguably the first major recruiting miss of Izzo’s head coach tenure in East Lansing.

Who was it? None other than Detroit Country Day’s own Shane Battier.

Tom Izzo was hired as Michigan State’s head coach in 1995, taking over for Jud Heathcote. Shortly after, a local rising star caught his attention — along with the rest of the nation’s — as Battier was being courted by every major program. Izzo figured he had as good of a shot as anyone since Battier was in his own backyard, but with Duke and North Carolina calling, it was far from a lock.

Battier went on Draymond Green’s podcast recently to tell the story of why he chose Duke over Michigan State despite his love for Izzo.

"I didn't want to be power forward, I wanted to be a small forward and shoot threes!"

—@ShaneBattier tells @Money23Green the hilarious reason he chose Duke over Michigan State pic.twitter.com/64lADXiBOZ

— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) February 16, 2024

“He messed up,” Battier says of Izzo recruiting him.

He went on to say that Izzo tried to recruit him by saying he’d add 40 pounds to his frame if he chose Michigan State so he could be the most dominant power forward in the Big Ten. Coach K had other plans, telling Battier that he was a small forward and didn’t need to add weight. The star recruit liked that option better and in 1997, he chose the Blue Devils. All he did there was have an All-American career, being named college basketball’s best player as a senior before getting drafted No. 6 overall in the 2001 NBA Draft.

Battier went on to have an impressive 14-year NBA career and before that, he won a national title with Duke in 2001 — just one year after Izzo and the Spartans won theirs.

It would have been fun to see Battier on those elite Michigan State teams from 1998-2001, but for now, we’ll have to live with knowing that Izzo messed this one up. Both sides seemed to come out as winners anyways.

This article first appeared on Spartan Shadows and was syndicated with permission.

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