5 Star Basketball Prospect Caleb Swanigan Reportedly De-Commits from Michigan State
A month ago, Tom Izzo appeared to have won his first blue chip recruiting battle in several years when 5 star big man Caleb Swanigan out of Fort Wayne, Ind. verbally committed to Michigan State.
Now, the prospect has reportedly changed his mind.
ESPN reported on Thursday that Swanigan had de-committed from MSU and was likely to end up at Purdue.
Swanigan, a 6-foot-8, 275-pound forward, had narrowed his recruitment down to seven finalists: Arizona, Cal, Chicago State, Duke, Kentucky, Purdue and MSU when he chose the Spartans on April 10. He’s a McDonald’s All-American, and would have joined fellow McDonald’s All-American and 5-star recruit Deyonta Davis, of Muskegon, as a Michigan State commit.
As a senior in high school, Swanigan averaged 22.6 points and 13.7 rebounds per game en route to becoming 2015 Mr. Basketball in Indiana. He’s ranked among the best players in the country by all recruiting services, and most have him as the No. 1 player in Indiana.
At the time, it was considered a huge recruiting win for Izzo and MSU, and not just because Swanigan is a consensus Top 10 player. The Spartans had lost out on prized blue-chip recruits Jabari Parker, Tyler Ullis, Tyus Jones and Jahlil Okafor, among others, to the likes of Duke and Kentucky in recent years.
Much media speculation suggested Swanigan would choose Cal over his other finalists in a packaged deal with Jaylen Brown, who just committed to the Bears over the weekend.
Just days ago, Swanigan told the Lansing State Journal that he was still "100 percent" committed to MSU. But speculation erupted early Thursday when he removed "Michigan State commit" from his Twitter bio.
Swanigan's adopted father, Roosevelt Barnes, played football, basketball and baseball at Purdue in the early 1980s.
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