Four-star Lucas is off the board
The juniors just keep on dropping. Kalin Lucas, a 6-foot, 165-pound point guard from St. Mary's High School in Orchard Lake, Mich., made a verbal commitment on Thursday afternoon to a Big Ten program.
Lucas, the No. 28 ranked in the class of 2007, is headed to Michigan State after driving to East Lansing and committing in person to the Spartan program.
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"I told coach (Tom) Izzo that I was ready to play for him," Lucas said. "So the first thing he started to do was start hollering and jumping up and down. He grabbed me and gave me a big hug. My little brother thought something was wrong with him."
There is plenty of reason for Izzo to be excited. Lucas is a huge in-state get in a talented Michigan pool of players. Michigan landed Alex Legion earlier in the season and Lucas decided that he was ready to follow suit.
"I've been thinking about it for a while now and I sat down and talked to my parents and decided to do it now," Lucas said. "I figured why wait so we decided to get it done."
Now that he's a committed man, Lucas is looking forward to play recruiter himself. His first call since committing went to Durrell Summers, a five-star guard from Detroit.
"I just hung up with him," Lucas said. "I told him that I committed to Michigan State and asked him if he wanted to come to there with me to win a National Championship."
Lucas has that same kind of impact on a team that former Spartan Mateen Cleaves had. A better athlete and shooter, Lucas and a player like Summers or Georgia shooting guard Chris Allen, a top MSU target in 2007, would be a deadly duo in the backcourt.
Watching guys like Cleaves shine at the college level and onto the pros was a major factor in his decision, he said.
"It did a lot," Lucas said of MSU's guard history. "They let their point guards play and he does a good job of getting them to the NBA. I hope he can do that with me."