Sidney Cooks' long-awaited decision came and passed Tuesday, as the six-foot-four-inch senior forward declared her allegiance to Sparty.
Wisconsin was among her other choices, along with Purdue, Michigan and No. 9 UCLA.
The coveted recruit, who averaged 23.1 points per game along with 12.5 assists, will now bolster the 2017 recruiting class for head coach Suzy Merchant, teaming up with guard Claire Hendrickson when the two take the floor as freshman in East Lansing. Michigan State may not be done striking gold with its recruiting class, as fellow five-star wing Madison Wise is also considering the Spartans.
For UCLA, missing out on Cooks will sting, but the signing of Michaela Onyenwere––who is the third-best forward in the 2017 class behind Cooks––will cushion the blow nicely. For Wisconsin, with no big recruit, or any recruits at all for 2017, missing out on a prospect in the program’s backyard hurts.
Cooks was the kind of dynamic frontcourt mainstay the Badgers needed. She has the ability to both wreak havoc on defense by disrupting shots and bail out the offense with an array of post moves guaranteed to fool defenders.
Coach Tsipis will now have to lean on his 2016 class––which he mostly inherited from former coach Bobbie Kelsey––for the program’s future, as his starting frontcourt in forward Avyanna Young and center Kendall Shaw are both set to graduate after this year.
