Izzo officially staying put at MSU
From Yahoo!Sports, Izzo "here for life" at MSU.
In a statement released by the school on Tuesday Izzo says: “I’m pleased to say I am here for life at Michigan State.”
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ApsdaoKMRzkwiLvojs8E6qQ5nYcB?slug=ap-cavaliers-izzo
Cue sad Price Is Right music.
EEEEFFFFFFFFF UUUUUUUUUUUU
Wow; I am pretty shocked about the ‘for life’ part.
I thought for sure there would be a few more flirtations to come.
Does that mean he dies on the bench in forty years? I hope not--that would be really creepy.
Godfather Part IV
the Lakers come calling when Phil Jackson calls it a day or some other super juicy job knocks on his door.
My money says we would be in-line for a similar flirtation scenario.
The Spartans in my life believe completely that this was the last NBA offer Izzo would entertain. He was making the decision "for life" to either try the NBA, or stay a career college coach. That's their explanation for why he flirted with it so long, it was bigger than the Cavs job, it was "now or never."
Is that true? No idea. I wouldn't be surprised, though.
This had a lot to do with the security a MSU alum like Gilbert would provide. I don't think Izzo would expose himself (or his legacy) to an NBA owner and their whim shifts if he didn't have the level of security he could expect from a booster like Gilbert.
That said, I don't want to hear the Sparty's bullcrap about how loyal this guy is. The reality is, had he been able to get a better idea that LeBron would come back, he'd have grabbed that ring. He knows damn well that Cavs are an average to bad team without him and wouldn't want to risk tarnishing the legacy without full confidence LeBron would be playing for him.
We will be back! And when we start beating sparty, I don't want to hear any excuses. To be the best you have to beat the best. Tressel also falls in this category, and whatever the hell the Iowa wrestling coach's name is!!!
East Lansing burn couches to celebrate?
w/ appropriate memo note...didn't make it in time...
Props to Izzo though. Must have been an agonizing decision to make, and he didn't drag it out unnecessarily. As frustrating as it must have been for MSU fans, it would have been worse if he'd been making little comments here and there about it without anything definitive.
The whole "for life" thing wraps up any loose ends and questions recruits might have had after the weekend.
Looks like we'll need to beat them by getting better rather than them getting worse in the future.
That's probably because it wasn't, at least in the short term.
Well son of a bitch.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Tom Hammond
Am I the only one who doesn't buy this "for life" line? My money says the dude would have left MSU if LeBron promised him he was coming back to the Cavs, so this "for life" crap sounds like bullshit to please the Sparty fans he jerked around for two weeks.
He can't risk pissing them off. They might literally kill him.
I wonder if he just did a lousy job gathering intel on King James. To put it another way, he leaped before he looked.
That's because "life" ends with the next interesting offer.
He had to say something to soothe the fears of recruits that Izzo won't be there for much longer. If the Lakers come calling, "life" gets considerably shorter.
Exactly. I think he forgot to specify that he only meant his "life (as a college coach)"
Prima-Izzo: "It has always been my dream to coach the rest of my career at Michigan State. Indeed, I truly expected that I would do so. Of course, we each seek new adventures in our lives, and when Kobe Bryant returned my call - unlike that total dick, Lebron - I had to consider what is truly best for me and my family. When the press only slobbered at my feet for one week, I knew it was time to move on to that new challenge..."
Finally an end to a crazy period in sports:
Conference expansion.
Izzo to Cavs.
Galarraga Perfect game.
World Cup beginning.
etc, etc...
With my wife? I can dally with some much more attractive woman, but once I see that she will chew me up and spit me out, I can pretend like I never thought about leaving. Sparties are just a bunch of housewives scared of losing their man.
Is that not how marriage works? I may have to talk to my girlfriend...
Mike Valenti's response to Izzo staying...you have to use a little imagination but it works
C'mon, every philandering husband at some point makes a tearful return to his wife, promising eternal fidelity evermore.
The problem is, he sees the wife of thirty years in the morning putting on her face and doing the laundry wearing a frumpy pair of sweats, and eventually the pert little cashier half his age at the greasy spoon starts looking really unbearably hot.
I never thought he'd leave, but, like George Perles before him, he really likes flirting.
Not to mention coming into the bathroom to drop a deuce while you're trying to brush your teeth.
Someone at channel 7 WXYZ really love MSU. MSU schedules an odd 8:30pm presser and channel 7 cuts into their NBA Finals coverage to air the press conference. Every young basketball fan/player in the Metro-Detroit area was watching that. What a publicity stunt! And a smart one at that. I kinda of got a kick out of Bo Schembechler getting name droped twice. Once by Hollis and once by Izzo.
P.S.
IT'S PAT!
I am watching the press conference and MSU and Izzo are ripping the media. Izzo is giving Lynn Henning a piece of his mind, it is pretty hilarious. He challenged Henning to a debate in his office later.
First the UM is now MSU article / recant, and then the Izzo can't go back article.
Henning is standing behind his article. Izzo is insinuating that Henning has not spent a lot of time covering MSU in ‘his building’ (which I assume is Breslin Center). Henning pushed back that he has been covering this state for 58 years.
Izzo says media did not allow him to look at this opportunity, but I really don’t understand that. Did he expect no one to cover the story or speculate at all?
Ego succesfully stroked, Then doing exactly what we knew he would.
I am actually pleased to hear he will remain. The neg arrow is right here. >>>>>>>>>>>>>
Believe or not, I agree. The schadenfreude will be that much sweeter when U of M beats Sparty with him still at the helm.
ugh!
for another... how old is Izzo?
He's only 55. He could be around for a looong time.
... I'm happy to say I called the outcome and the day:
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/ot-tom-izzo-sarah-bernhardt
This prima donna has the unmitigated gall to call out the press after he and the Cavs leaked the shit out this for their many and varied interests.
The guy takes his family on a private jet to Cleveland like he is making a pilgrimage to some basketball mecca.
He doesn't have the guts to coach in the NBA unless he can coach perhaps the best player in history. Even then, I think he'd rather hide out in East Lansing and beat up on inferior Big Ten competition. He is a great college coach, especially in the tournament; he's also the highest paid state employee in Michigan.
I am working on a conspiracy theory wherein Gilbert didn't expect Izzo to take the job, and Tom didn't really want it. But it looks good for Gilbert to try to pull one of the best coaches out of college, it helps Gilbert's alma mater MSU, and helps burnish Izzo's street cred.
Izzo returns to the recruiting trail, and looks each kid in the eye and says "I had a chance to coach LeBron, but I'd rather coach you."
That's all fine, but his sanctimonious act lashing out the press, the press that he courts incessantly, the press that nearly gives him a tongue bath each season, it makes me sick.
A great coach, a good spokesman for a cow college, and one supreme candy-ass, megalomaniac, utter Yooper douchebag for the ages. President Obama talks for 15 minutes about the oil spill, Izzo talks for 45 minutes about..... HIMSELF!
May I please have more money, Mark?
Teflon Tom has finally shown a weakness. He has stripped away his own aura of invincibility by demonstrating that he is no better or loyal than anyone else out there. Players won't buy into his spiel as much now, and neither will recruits. I can think of two examples where this turned out pretty badly.
Billy Donovan's team hasn't been the same since he dallied with the Magic job. He hasn't been able to have a recruiting class close to the one that won two championships for him. Another, much worse example is Mike Leach. He looked at another job, pissed off someone in his administration, and ended up set up and fired for doing the same things many coaches have done for years.
Rest assured that Izzo has pissed off a few people in the MSU administration. It is impossible for him not to have done so. After all, MSU is the school whose administration turned Nick Saban into a pastoral nomad. I am pretty sure he has pissed off some of his players, too. This cannot end up well for Izzo. I expect his teams to begin an inexorable slide into mediocrity. The only question is how quickly it will happen.
I expect at last four more close losses this season and an early exit in the NCAA Tournament. And that is only the beginning. I would have liked to see him go, but I started celebrating this weekend when I realized that he had badly misplayed his hand. Izzo's loss will be Michigan's gain. And that's good enough for me.
Billy Donovan actually has recruited pretty well since his brief stint as the Orlando coach. He's gotten at least a 5* a year, except 2008, when he got 4 4*s. Also, Donovan actually accepted the Orlando job, Izzo never did, and he did pretty much the same thing about 10 years ago after he won the championship (accepted the Hawks job, and backed out of it before it was made public), and it hasn't affected his standing. I think a better comparison might be Urban Meyer, and we'll see how both of their careers turn out.
You nailed it Sven the guy is a complete narcissist. Even though it's been in a constant negative tone, It had to be killing Izzo that Michigan was getting all the media attention over the last 6 months. How dare the mortals of Sparta not show their love for Izzo(Zeus). For Izzo(Zeus) will surely punish them.
Aw... Bron Bron said no.
I'm not at all surprised he's staying, for obvious reasons. But I have to say that the press conference was a little strange with its somber tone. You would think Izzo would be happy to put this decision behind him. Maybe he's not convinced that he made the right decision? Something tells me that deep down he wanted the NBA job, but didn't receive the reassurance that LeBron was staying in Cleveland.
So, he's headed back to East Lansing to surrender all coaching, recruiting, and playcalling duties to his assistants, whereupon he will spend his days posing for his new life sized statue and having minor health issues?