Recently the big news of the NCAA Men’s Basketball and NBA has been around the Cleveland Cavaliers. Their owner, Dan Gilbert, recently relieved the team’s general manager of his duties. The head coach, Mike Brown, was also fired. During the shake-up in the organization their key player, Lebron James, entered into free agency and may not return.
Gilbert promoted Chris Grant, the assistant general manager, to take the general manager’s post. Around the same time rumors started swirling that the team had been in contact with Michigan State coach Tom Izzo about becoming the next Cavaliers head coach. Gilbert is an alumni of MSU, as am I.
Tom Izzo has the chance to be one of the best college basketball coaches of all time if he stays at MSU. Since 1995 the Spartans have been to six Final Fours, and won the National Championship once in that time. The Spartans have also made thirteen NCAA Tournament appearances and two NIT appearances in that time. With the current pace of active coaches Tom Izzo is already in the top three for performance in the NCAA Tournament.
There is also a difference in the way the team dynamic is created in the two levels. In college it is all about the coach and his reputation. If a coach has a winning reputation it becomes easier to recruit good players. In the NBA the team is about the one or two key players, like Lebron James. The NBA is less about the coach and more about what the star of the team is able to do. The coach has to deal with the star player and whatever ego that may entail.
Izzo has had key players over the years, but it has been a team focus even when those players were on the court. It has always been Izzo’s work ethic and strategy that has made those players the stars that they were in college. Many of those players have gone on to the NBA and been good, but none of them have really stood out above as names like Michael Jordan or Shaquille O’Neil.
There is also the record of coaches who have attempted to make the jump from NCAA coaching to the NBA. There has not been much success in NCAA coaches making it in the NBA. Izzo is unproven in the NBA and only a jump to the NBA would show his capabilities, but he already has success at MSU, as well as the setup for future success.
I do not think that the decision to leave MSU is a financial one for coach Izzo. I believe that the decision Izzo is battling with is if this is the right team and the right time for him to jump to the NBA and be successful in the short amount of time that NBA coaches are allotted. As an MSU alumni I do not want to see Coach Izzo leave, but if he does I wish him all the best. I think the best decision overall though is to stay with MSU and his proven track record.
