The NCAA Basketball season has been rough for many of the blue bloods. Michigan State is certainly one of them, with a record of 10-8 (4-8) on the season and currently with little to no hope of getting an at-large bid for the 2021 NCAA Tournament. And the bad news continues for the Spartans, getting news that class of 2022 commit Enoch Boakye won’t be joining them in the future.
Boakye is a consensus top-40 prospect in that class, with 247sports listing him as a five-star ranked No. 20 overall. Originally from Ontario, Canada, the 6’10 and 240-pound big man is an impressive athlete for his size and two-way potential. He has the body and measurables that’ll make him a future NBA prospect and someone who won’t be in college for long.
There was a chance that Boakye would reclassify and join Michigan State next season, creating a superclass of freshmen along with Emoni Bates, Max Christie, and Pierre Brooks. However, things have changed in the past couple of months which has led to a change of mind.
Enoch Boakye tells SI that the rationale for his decommitment is the number of big men set to be on MSU's roster: "It looks like they will have a lot of guys staying. I want to go to a place where I have the opportunity to make an impact right away." https://t.co/0jYWS8AlEH
— Kyle Austin (@kylebaustin) February 15, 2021
There’s certainly a current logjam of big men in the frontcourt for Michigan State. Julius Marble, Mady Sissoko, Marcus Bingham, and Thomas Kithier are all available to return next season, and based on their play currently, none of them will be going pro. And with the scholarship crunch, there just isn’t a way to find room for him if he did want to reclassify. Also, if Bates is only around for one season, joining the Spartans in 2022-23 wouldn’t make much sense either.
So now, one of the top prospects in the 2022 recruiting class is now available, meaning that the programs that were in the running the first time will be back at it. Right now, there are 10 programs where there seems to be mutual interest between them and Boakye.
Enoch lists the following schools as ones he’s interested in: Duke, Kentucky, Arizona, Baylor, Texas Tech, USC, Texas, Gonzaga, UNLV, Arizona State.
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) February 15, 2021
*Recruitment is fully open*
While there certainly will be others in this brand new recruitment process, these 10 likely will have the current upper hand to start out, with one of them very likely to land a future commitment.
But which of them is the best fit if playing time seems to be a big factor? Here’s a closer look at Boakye’s potential match with all 10.
*Points will be in case he chooses to join 2021 or 2022 class