About a month before Ethan Taylor took an official visit to Michigan State, he was on the phone with coach Tom Izzo.

The 2026 five-star center relayed his plans for that evening involved making homemade pizza with his parents. That caught the 70-year-old by surprise.

“Really, a 7-1 pizza guy?” Izzo recalled during his weekly radio show on Thursday night.

Izzo stored that nugget away and followed up by making the September visit to campus even more personalized. His daughter, Raquel, bought the ingredients and his secretary purchased a few chef hats to complete the look.

Prior to hosting players, recruits and their parents at his house, Izzo told Taylor and his family to come over a bit early. That’s when they went to work in the kitchen .

“We made three pizzas – for real now – and t

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