EAST LANSING — Michigan State coach Tom Izzo returned back from a key recruiting trip in Virginia to sit beside junior forward Adreian Payne on Sunday night as Payne announced he was returning for a national title run his senior year.

NCAA rules prevented Izzo from going into any detail about who he was going to see at the AAU tournament in Virginia, but a recent USA Today story shed light on that.

Izzo, it seems, was sharing a wink and a nod with Jahlil Okafor, a 6-foot-11, 260-pound post from Whitney Young High School in Chicago who Rivals.com ranks as the No. 1 payer in the Class of 2014.

Okafor revealed in the USA Today story how he work out a code of communication with coaches he's close to that met NCAA guidelines.

It started last summer when Okafor spotted Izzo at an AAU tournament.

"I told my AAU coach (Mike Irvin) that I was gonna go holla at Coach Izzo and he stopped me," Okafor told the USA Today. "Coach Irvin told me that was illegal, and I couldn't believe it."

When Izzo and Okafor spoke on the phone later, Izzo explained the NCAA rule and suggested an acceptable method of communication.

"He told me to just give him a wink during the game instead," Okafor said in the USA Today story. "So that's what I started doing and he'd nod or smile. So that's OK to do, I believe."

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