Systems and methods for providing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) detection, comprising a leaf node predictor for receiving a processed communications stream, computing at least one channel metric corresponding to the communications stream for a given channel realization, and generating at least one parameter corresponding to at least one predicted best leaf node candidate for the given channel realization. A MIMO engine receives the at least one parameter and enumerates at least one list of candidate vectors corresponding to the leaf nodes specified by the generated at least one parameter. Some embodiments simulate a MIMO detector over many channel realizations, track channel metric and parameter values used for each channel realization resulting from such simulating, and store, in a look-up table, best values of the tracked values used for a particular channel metric.