Izzo to Cleveland?

The Cavaliers have reportedly offered their vacant head coaching job to Michigan State's Tom Izzo, one of the most successful college coaches out there since he took over the job in 1995. In Izzo's 15 seasons, the Spartans have won one NCAA championship (in 2000) and six Big Ten titles. They have reached the Final Four six times, including each of the last two years. In his first two years in East Lansing, Izzo took the Spartans to the NIT; they have not failed to secure an invitation to the NCAA Tournament in the 13 years since. He is the winningest coach in MSU history. This man has earned his stripes.

I should note at this point that the Cavs are in kind of a catch-22 situation right now, as they will likely have trouble hiring a top coach without signing LeBron James first, and they will likely have trouble signing LeBron James without hiring a top coach first. That said ...

I caught a little bit of talk about Izzo on "Mike & Mike in the Morning" on WKNR this morning, and the eponymous hosts disagreed about whether they wanted Izzo to test his skills in the NBA. Mike Greenberg really hopes he stays in the college ranks, where he's built up a great program and makes more of a difference to his team than he might in the NBA; and Mike Golic would like to see him at the top level of the sport, which is of course the NBA. (Both were careful to say that they're not presuming to tell Izzo what to do.)

Of course, Greenberg and Golic are not Cavaliers fans, so far as I know, and therefore are looking at this through the lens of the national sports media. But Greenberg made some good points. Izzo would be taking a great risk by jumping to the NBA. If he stays at Michigan State (my dad's alma mater, by the way, in the interest of full disclosure), he's basically guaranteed a job for as long as he wants it, and could eventually become East Lansing's version of Dean Smith or Jim Calhoun — or Woody Hayes or Bo Schembechler. They would someday name the court after him and such. If he goes to the NBA, even if he's very successful for a few years, he's probably gone the first time the team has a 50-win season when the team leaders were expecting 60 wins.

And the fact is, the track record for successful college coaches coming to the NBA is not very good. Look up P.J. Carlesimo, Rick Pitino, Tim Floyd, Lon Kruger, and John Calipari, just for starters. All were highly successful college coaches who bombed in the NBA. The only one of those who had any real success at all after going to the pros was Pitino, who won a division title with the Knicks in 1988-89 but lost in the second round of the playoffs; Pitino nonetheless has a losing record as an NBA coach, as that was his only plus-.500 record in six NBA seasons. There probably is a college coach who's come to the NBA and done very well, but off the top of my head, I'm not thinking of him.

Can Izzo break that mold? I don't know, but I kind of doubt it. He's a great coach in the college ranks, and I think he should stay there.