BEVERLY HILLS (MI) –- I write this Saturday morning as we all anxiously await…
the World Cup game between England and the US on ABC! No seriously, MSU Coach Tom Izzo is expected to announce (hopefully sometime soon!) whether he will stay a Spartan or become a Cav. Reports say that Izzo is agonizing over the decision and knowing his makeup, he probably didn’t sleep a wink.
Meanwhile “FTS” stayed awake all night thinking up the title for this column:
“Iz BG staying or will he zo?”
No, my spell-check feature isn’t disabled to help make the site run faster. If you ‘read between the lines’ it has BG in the middle of Izzo, which is exactly where UD fans find themselves in this whole mess. If TI says yes to MSU alum Dan Gilbert and takes over the perhaps soon-to-be LeBron-less Cavs, Flyer Coach
Brian Gregory will face the same choice as his mentor –- stay where he’s happy and has everything going for him or chase the elusive specter of his “dream job.”
Both guys are cut from the same cloth. They are teachers, first and foremost. If you ask me, UCLA coaching legend John Wooden could not have died at a more opportune time for Coach Izzo. All TI has to do is get out the articles about Coach Wooden’s life and his copy of “The Pyramid of Success” and he will ultimately make the right decision.
Let’s face it, what is Izzo going to teach the Cavs players, really? Will he be giving Delonte West lessons on tattoo artistry? Teach Big Z how to grow hair or be tall? Instruct Daniel “Boobie” Gibson on how to choose a better nickname.
I don’t think so.
Izzo reportedly told members of his Spartan team that he is “struggling with his decision.” Let’s face it, any time you have to “struggle” or “agonize” or any other painful verb, maybe the grass isn’t greener in the other fella’s yard, it’s just Astroturf.
Izzo and BG are all about building a sense of family and loyalty in their respective programs. What are you teaching your players if you think about yourself first without any regard to the impact your decision has on them and the team chemistry that you have built?
Make no mistake about it, if Izzo does go the NBA then the MSU job will be offered to BG in a heartbeat. And he will have to make the same gut-wrenching choice as his sensei, for all of the same reasons, just not 6 million of them. And BG will have to decide smack dab in the middle of his Basketball Camp held on the UD campus every summer.
This whole ‘BG in the middle of Izzo’ situation makes for a great teachable moment, don’t you think? How better to instruct your players, recruits, fans and university on the principles of team, family and loyalty than by displaying these virtues for everyone to see.
As a wise man once said:
“Nothing difficult is ever easy.”
That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at:
swampy@udpride.com