Report: Tom Izzo May Take Cavs Coaching Job Due To Being ‘Sick Of Recruiting’

The signs that Tom Izzo is on the verge of leaving Michigan State to coach the Cavs (and hopefully LeBron) continue to pile up. Indeed, according to Yahoo!‘s Adrian Wojnarowski, Izzo has told close friends that a major reason he’s considering leaving the college game is because he’s “sick of recruiting.”

If that sounds like a man who’s getting ready to get the hell out of dodge, that’s because it is. Confidants don’t leak those kind of quotes unless you’re already all but gone. It’s something you say to preemptively silence any detractors, because it’s such a believable reason to leave for the pros.

After all, the world of college recruiting is about as shady as it comes; as Kansas coach Bill Self said, it’s “cutthroat on a good day”. Why not go to the NBA where you can pay players over the table instead of whatever sleazy arrangement your boosters have set up? That’s not to say that Izzo is dirty -- if anyone is clean, he is -- but just that it’s damn near impossible to build an elite college program without at least looking the other way while your boosters do questionable things. Hell, even the beatific John Wooden was dogged by his own booster issues. And the nature of the college game, especially nowadays with so many one-and-dones, means that recruiting is non-stop. It’s certainly understandable and plausible if Izzo didn’t want to have to put up with that aspect of the game anymore.

Izzo was originally rumored to announce his decision to jump ship to the Cavs on Friday, which would coincide nicely with his visit to the team’s facilities on Thursday. Don’t be surprised if that original report turns out to be true.