Welcome Aboard - Kyle Ahrens

Michigan State added a second member to its 2015 basketball recruiting class when Coach Izzo received a verbal commitment from Ohio wing Kyle Ahrens on Thursday. Ahrens is 6’5" and is the #136 player overall by 24/7, #140 by Rivals, and the #20 small forward by Scout.

Ahrens cracked his left leg last December and that undoubtedly slowed his recruitment and evaluations. Until then, he was having a strong fall picking up offers from schools like Vanderbilt, Butler, Xavier, and Michigan State. He also was recently offered by Iowa. Ahrens was keeping in contact with Ohio State and Michigan but hadn’t received offers from those two schools. He has received some comparisons to fellow Buckeye State recruit Luke Kennard (Duke) as a sharpshooting wing with good size. Ahrens is known as a shooter first and foremost but his previous videos show a respectable athlete with the ability to get up and play up at the rim. Kurt J. Stubbs of OhioHSHoops.com is a fan and commented back in March that Kyle is "so underrated. Could be a real steal for whoever lands him." 

Recruiting is a dance and you respect a player and family’s participation in the process but it’s always nice to gain an early commitment from someone who clearly wants to be a Spartan. Ahrens used his first official visit for Michigan State this week, felt at home, and committed without reservation before leaving East Lansing. That’s always a victory for MSU. He has talked about the importance of playing close to home and this should be an easy trip from Versailles, OH to the Breslin.

Michigan State still has three more open scholarships for 2015 with recently minted five-star Deyonta Davis already committed too. It seems likely that Coach Izzo would welcome a full class of five players. Michigan State is aggressively pursuing PG Jalen Brunson and believed to be in good shape there. They offered a number of wings including AJ Turner, Jalen Coleman, Eric Davis, and Teki Gill-Caesar. There’s no reason to believe MSU wouldn’t accept another play from that list to join Ahrens on the wing. The Spartans are also after junior post men Caleb Swanigan and Henry Ellenson, two big-timers in the 2015 class. There’s both plenty of room and time to add those players for the 2015-2016 season.

Today, we welcome Kyle Ahrens and his family to our own Spartan family! Go Green!

Here are some videos of Kyle from last season demonstrating both his ability to shoot and attack the basket.

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6'5" Sophomore Kyle Ahrens Shows Off Sharp Shooting At NIKE Super Sixteen Tournament (via 3RDCOASTBLOG)

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Kyle Ahrens 2015 Versailles High School highlights at the Chicago Summer Jam (via PrepHoopsTV)