MSU recruit Marcus Bingham Jr. 'came from bottom' to become state's No. 1 prospect

ALLENDALE — Expelled and facing yet another change in schools, Marcus Bingham Jr. had some soul searching to do.

He was going down the wrong path, following the example of an older cousin and frequenting the principal’s office.

Bingham was failing.

School was not a priority. Neither were sports. Disruptive and disrespectful, the final straw came during his freshman year when he put his hand in a teacher’s face.

Bingham said he would often look in the mirror and ask himself, “is this who I really want to be?”

That was the turning point.

It led him to a long wooden table inside the gym at Grand Rapids Catholic Central High School where, on Nov. 8, the 6-foot-10 power forward inked his name on a letter of intent to join the basketball program at Michigan State University. He became Tom Izzo’s fourth signee in the Spartans’ 2018 recruiting class.

He was considered the second-ranked player in the state then. Today, the 17-year-old is all alone at the top.

He owes it all to that mirror, he said, to that moment, that stark realization.

“I was doing little kid stuff,” Bingham said Tuesday night inside the Allendale gym where his Cougars had just routed the home team, 67-20. “I told myself, ‘I’m not nobody else. I’m me. I’m different from everybody.’

“I would just look at myself. I would think, ‘I’m big. I’m bigger than everyone else. Why not change and separate myself from everyone else?’”

Tuesday night as Bingham strolled onto the court for the tipoff, the senior towered over the Allendale forward. He easily took the opening jump.

With a wingspan of 7-foot-4 and a smile to match, Bingham resembles current MSU freshman Jaren Jackson Jr. He is all arms and legs. He clogs up the lanes.

On Tuesday, he rejected every shot in the paint. No one in red and white stood a chance.

It became apparent early on that the now 7-1 Cougars were in full control from the first tip. Bingham easily maneuvered his way through the lane, laying in five points in the first eight minutes. His team built a 19-point lead and head coach TJ Meerman called off the dogs with a minute left in the opening frame.

Sitting courtside, Marcus Bingham Sr. watched as his son lackadaisically lagged behind the rest of his teammates running down the court. He looked slow, almost disinterested.

“He doesn’t really care about points or being the big star,” his father said. “He has already established himself. He is very humble, and he has nothing left to prove.”

In layman’s terms, his son wasn’t going full speed. It was a product of the score and the opponent, a gesture of sportsmanship. The game was already out of hand. and Bingham wasn’t being asked to pour it on.

The highlight reel got a night off.

This night was about his supporting cast, especially No. 24.

That number belongs to 6-foot-6 sophomore, Mykel Bingham, Marcus Bingham’s younger brother, who led the Cougars with 15 points and eight rebounds.

Hyped up on the sideline, Bingham Sr. hollered at each player as they came down the court. He urged guys to shoot and not hesitate. After Mykel Bingham sank his final bucket, his father had a bold prediction.

“Mykel is going to be better than Marcus,” he said emphatically. “I said it, write it down.”

Mykel Bingham isn’t ready to go that far yet, although he did snicker and remark that he is already better than his brother was when he was a sophomore.

“When we play, it’s competitive,” Mykel Bingham said about 1-on-1 battles with Marcus. “I will hit the game-winning shot, and he will say my foot was on the line.”

For now, Mykel Bingham is simply enjoying the ride. He relishes the opportunity to play alongside his brother. He said he loves the smile that comes across Marcus’ face when he gets a text from Izzo or other coaches.

“I am glad it’s going so good for him,” Mykel Bingham said. “I hope, one day, it happens for me, too.”

Marcus Bingham Jr. said he would be lying if he didn’t daydream a bit about his little brother one day joining him in East Lansing. As far as the driveway hoops games, he said, he is still on top.

“I hope he is better than me. That would be really good,” Marcus Bingham Jr. said of Mykel. “But I still beat him 1-on-1.”

Done for the night and sitting on the bench between his teammates, visible emotion finally poured out of Marcus Bingham. Each time his brother, or any of the GRCC bench players, sank a shot, Bingham leapt out of his seat, pumping his fists. The smile never left his face.

It was genuine bliss.

“He’s the first guy up and the loudest guy screaming for those guys,” said Meerman, who is in his fifth-year coaching at GRCC. “On a lot of other teams, (Marcus Bingham) could average 35 points a game, but he has been all about our team from the start of the year this year. That’s the Marcus Bingham not a lot of people see.”

It was a pedestrian night for Bingham. He scored a dozen points and pulled in seven rebounds to go along with eight blocked shots. He cruised through three quarters and sat out the final one.

This season, he has averaged 22 points and 13 rebounds per game. Those numbers were good enough to earn a nomination to play in the 2018 McDonald's All-American Game in late March in Atlanta.

Bingham said he is just as shocked as anyone that he is in the spotlight.

The notion that he is the top prospect in the state still brings shyness to his demeanor. He never thought he would be this good, especially this fast. He has only been playing organized basketball since his freshman year at Ottawa Hills. Even then, he wasn’t serious about it.

A growth spurt helped.

Bingham entered high school a 6-foot-2 football player. He will leave it standing nearly 7-feet tall, remembered as a local legend on the basketball court. Those eight inches gave him confidence, assurance. They opened a whole new world for him. They will lead him across the stage this spring in a cap and gown.

That is what is most important to his mother.

“He really struggled in middle school,” Jonie Bondon said, alluding to behavioral issues and poor academics. “He was not excelling. We just want him to graduate.”

While attending Ottawa Hills High School, Bondon said, her son managed just a 1.3 GPA and was still allowed to participate in athletics. He never did homework. He was there to socialize. Bondon said she was never worried about losing her son to the streets, but without an education, how bright could his future be, she thought.

Following a game during Bingham’s sophomore year, a stranger suggested GRCC. It is known as an institution where academics trump athletics, yet they are both important.

The 99% graduation rate is what got Bondon’s attention, so she applied for both of her sons to make the move. It wasn’t easy. After being denied initially, the school agreed to let Marcus Bingham attend on a probationary status. He would have to earn it in the classroom before he could join the basketball team.

“He basically crammed three years of school into two,” Marcus Bingham Sr. said, adding that his son attended summer school and was forced to miss the first 10 games of his junior season. “He got kicked out of 8th and 9th grade for talking back to teachers. Since he has been here, we have had none of that.”

Now, he has a 3.1 GPA.

On Monday, Meerman took his team to see the movie “Selma” for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Two hours before practice, he said, Bingham was in his classroom, studying for a pair of exams. After an hour-long workout and the trip to the movies, Bingham was right back in his seat, nose in book.

“He has really changed his academic life,” Meerman said. “His mom said, before he came here, he never studied at all. That part is pretty special to me, because he is going to need that at MSU.”

Bingham credits GRCC for changing his focus in life. He is thankful for the chance they have given him. And he wants to pay it back some day, somehow.

The idea that he might never have come to this institution is a scary thought for Bingham. What would his life have become?

“I don’t know,” he said solemnly. “I actually don’t know. I try not to think about it. I try not to think about the bad things. I am past that. I really love Central Catholic. I’m so blessed.”

Awaiting the conclusion of the junior varsity game Tuesday night, Bingham stood just off the edge of the court, surrounded by his teammates. He is nearly a head taller than the group. He is not hard to spot.

His blue long-sleeve warm up shirt doesn’t live up to the name. The cuffs stop around mid-forearm. His pants are no different, showing plenty of black socks and even a little skin.

“I don’t know how he got so tall,” Bondon joked. “Day by day, he just keeps getting taller.”

But not wider.

Bondon said buying clothes that fit her son has become a chore. He wears a “38-long” pant size. The waist fluctuates, but she laughed, saying he typically wears sweat pants underneath. When it comes to shoes, that’s an easier proposition, although not a fun one for Marcus Bingham Sr. He, along with his two sons, all wear size 15.

“It sucks for me,” he said, eyes still fixated on the action on the court. “I get to wear a new pair of shoes once, maybe twice, then they take them.”

The blue-and-white Nikes that Marcus Bingham Jr. is wearing Tuesday night in snowy Allendale have a simple message scribbled on the symbol: “#getbusy”. That slogan goes for school, games and practice.

Shoes play a role in Bingham’s story.

He owns roughly 24 pairs and hopes to find a major at MSU that will lead him to the fashion industry.

A bet with a friend also landed him a new pair of kicks. He told his friend that Izzo and MSU would come calling during the fall of his junior campaign. He just capped a breakout AAU season, teaming up with East Lansing forward and future Michigan Wolverine, Brandon Johns, in Indianapolis.

Then, the call came.

Bingham worked out on campus in June of 2017 and was offered a full-ride athletic scholarship. He received offers from Ohio State, Purdue, Missouri, Pittsburgh, Xavier and others, but that day Bingham knew he wanted to be a Spartan.

“I was just shocked,” he said, shaking his head, still in disbelief. “I thought, ‘I’m really here at MSU. All my hard work is starting to pay off.’ And, I won the bet.”

What kind of shoes did he get?

“I got some Air Max’s,” Bingham said with a grin.

Bingham sat in the second row of the black-and-gray plastic seats at Coach Pierce Court postgame. He wore a GRCC sweatshirt with an MSU scarf.

Question after question, it was obvious Bingham’s mind was wandering toward the future. He hadn’t thought about the fact that he will be stuck to a strict regimen once he steps foot on campus. His father has warned him that Izzo and his staff run the show. He knows it will be an adjustment.

“I tell him, once he gets there, he is Izzo’s son,” Marcus Bingham Sr. laughed. “You belong to them now.”

Marcus Bingham Jr. said he did have an admission to make: Izzo is already fully on his mind.

“When I am lying in bed, I am always listening to music,” he said. “But for some reason, he just pops up in my head like all the time. I can just picture him. He is just sitting there yelling at me and telling me to do something.”

Soon, that will become reality.

Bingham said the current Spartans have a calming effect for him. On his official visit, he was paired up with Jackson. He said the whole team treated him like family and put his mind at ease about the upcoming transition, but Jackson, the player he most resembles, has meant the most.

Last Saturday, the Bingham family sat in the stands inside Breslin Center and watched MSU take on in-state rival Michigan. The Spartans came out on the short end, but Bingham spent the entire game soaking in the atmosphere.

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He said the smile never left his face.

Next season, he wants to be on the court with those guys. Next year, he expects a different outcome, too.

When Bingham describes himself, he says he is personable, funny and a “cool guy.” But the main thing he wants to get across is that he is different from the others. Just like that life-changing day in front of the mirror, Bingham wants people to know his priorities have changed.

Before he thinks about cutting down nets and Gatorade showers, Bingham has one goal — graduation.

“I really came from the bottom,” he said. “I just have to show everybody who I really am. There is more to life than the trouble I was getting myself into.

“My story is different.”

Contact Cody Tucker at (517) 377-1070 or cjtucker@lsj.com and follow him on Twitter @CodyTucker_LSJ.

Marcus Bingham Jr.

Age: 17

Position: Power forward

Year: Senior

Ranking: Four stars by 247sports.com (No. 1 prospect in Michigan)

High school: Grand Rapids Central Catholic

College: Michigan State (signed)

Other offers: Xavier, Ohio State, Butler, Missouri, Pittsburgh, Bradley, DePaul, Oakland, Purdue, Toledo, Virginia Commonwealth, Washington, Cincinnati, Cleveland State, Maryland, St. Joseph’s, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Western Michigan, Wisconsin-Milwaukee