Tom Izzo isn’t thinking about retiring just yet, but he does have a shortlist of early candidates for when that time eventually comes.
The longtime Michigan State head coach Izzo appeared this week on the “College Hoops Today Podcast.” During the episode, Izzo said that he has no interest in retirement at the moment but did name four figures that he was eyeing to potentially succeed him down the road.
“I got no interest in getting out of it,” Izzo said, per Bleacher Report. “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 [graduate assistant] on up.
“I think it’s being lost somewhat now in college sports,” he added. “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.”
That is definitely an interesting group of Spartans alums that Izzo is looking at. But the problem is that none of those guys have any basketball coaching experience, save for Johnson’s disastrous 16-game stint as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers back in 1994 during which he went 5-11.
Nevertheless though, the 69-year-old Izzo, who has been the head coach at Michigan State since 1995 and has been with the program since 1983, seems to be placing a premium on familiarity with the team’s culture rather than direct experience. It also does not appear that Izzo will be stepping down any time soon, so there are probably plenty more sideline outbursts left in him before he passes on the torch.
