Michigan State's Tom Izzo Reveals Surprising Potential Replacements For His Job
Michigan State Spartans head coach Tom Izzo is one of the longest-tenured coaches in the country. In fact, only Oakland's Greg Kampe is the only Division I coach with a longer active run.
Izzo took the Michigan State job for the 1995-96 campaign and has been patrolling the sidelines ever since, establishing himself as one of the most legendary names in the sport.
But is Izzo's time coming to a close?
While the 69-year-old says he is not yet ready to hang it up, he does have some potential replacements in mind for the day when he does decide to finally step away.
“I got no interest in getting out of it,” Izzo told FanDuel's Jon Rothstein on the College Hoops Today Podcast. “When I’m done, I’m going to talk to Mateen Cleaves, Steve Smith, Magic Johnson, and Draymond Green. I don’t want to lose the culture that I’ve seen for 40 years as a GA on up. I think it’s being lost somewhat now in college sports. Not just for me, but the players who come back and are a part of things. At least here at Michigan State, it’s important. It may not be that way at other places.”
A couple of those names are definitely surprising.
Let's start with Green. Can you seriously imagine Green coaching a college basketball team? Considering how emotional Green can be, it doesn't exactly sound like a recipe for success, and Green himself has already said he doesn't have any interest in coaching the Spartans.
As for Johnson, it seems difficult to envision the NBA legend taking a head-coaching job at this stage of his life. He briefly coached the Los Angeles Lakers for 16 games during the 1993-94 campaign but hasn't done any coaching since.
Today, Johnson is more of a businessman than anything else, and it doesn't seem like he would want to coach Michigan State (or anywhere). Then again, stranger things have happened.
Cleaves and Smith certainly seem like more realistic possibilities.
All of that being said, this is all a moot point until Izzo actually retires from coaching. Based on his recent comments, that may not be for a while.
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