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 by optimizing a predetermined probability, and analytically generating at least one parameter to output, which at least one parameter corresponds to at least one predicted best leaf node candidate for the given channel realization. The leaf-node predictor may generate, in real-time and without using a look-up table, at least one parameter directly from a given channel metric. Some embodiments analytically generate at least one parameter value for use by a MIMO detector corresponding to a channel metric and store the generated at least one parameter value and corresponding channel metric in a look-up table.