Just something I was thinking about regarding the Nix committment.
You have to assume that Izzo and his staff pay attention to the Big Ten's recruiting landscape, especially in regards to their closest competitors (ie. Wisky, OSU and Purdue). If someone is loading up in a certain area that the staff feels may give
MSU a problem down the road, logic would tell you that they might try to recruit someone to help alleviate that potential disadvantage.
I wonder if
MSU's biggest bugaboo the past few years, Bo Ryan and the Wisconsin Badgers, were in mind at all when Izzo offered the 6'9" 285 lb Derrick Nix? Why do I think that could be the case? Just take a look at some of Wisky's frontcourt depth and size next season.
Ian Markolf, 7’1” 255 lbs (frosh)
Jared Berggren, 6’10” 245 (frosh)
Keaton Nankivil, 6'8" 250 (soph)
Now I don't know about the talent level of those three players (though I know Berggren is highly though of), but that's some serious beef at the hands of MSU's chief competitor and a competitor I might add who's known for squeezing the absolute most out of its' talent. It would be foolish to think that those three players aren't going to be key contributors for Ryan over the next four or five seasons.
Nix and probably Sherman as well seem to match up (at least on paper) with those future Badger frontcourts pretty darn well. Hell, maybe Izzo knows what he's doing more than some of those DE'ers in the peanut gallery think. 