Becomes 3rd Spartan to declare for the portal
Earlier this afternoon, Xavier Booker announced he was entering his name in the transfer portal. Understandably, this is not coming as a surprise to many of us in Spartan Nation. That being said, I still feel obligated to share this brief story of how I knew this was going to happen. On Sunday, after the loss to Auburn went final, the MSU team went into their locker room and the door was shut for a 15-minute “cooling off” period. After that, there was a press conference featuring Jaden Akins, Jase Richardson, Jaxon Kohler, and Coach Tom Izzo. I know many of you have seen video of that, and if you did, you know how emotional the three Spartan players on that stage were. Jase, particularly, was a wreck. Interesting note, every other game I have covered, the media was allowed to take video, record audio, and snap pictures of these pressers. But this time, we were told none of that was allowed; I guess only the network airing the game was allowed to have that content.
After the press conference, we all raced back to the locker room where we were now allowed to enter. This is now about a half hour after the game had ended. Several players were still in their uniforms sitting in front of their lockers. Many still were in tears. Coaches and other staff were coming around to give them hugs and console them, and teammates were hugging each other, as well. Members of the media were spread out interviewing a number of different players.
While all this was occurring, I saw Xavier Booker approach his locker from the bathroom area and was quickly getting dressed in his street clothes. Not a single member of the media was trying to interview him. He was not engaging with any of his teammates and seemed indifferent to the emotion going on in the room. One of his teammates said something to him, but he responded with a brief shoulder shrug and a “Hmm.” He was the first player I saw leave the locker room. He very much had the look of someone who no longer was interested in being on the team.
TOC was very intentional about not writing about the growing speculation on Booker’s future up to this point. But now that he has announced his intentions to find a new school, this story felt like it should be shared. Good luck wherever he lands. But this should be addition by subtraction for MSU.