The Last Temptation of Izzo: Week 2, Favre-style

Without LeBron, the Cavs are a 30-win team, and Izzo will lose 10 more all by himself because of unfamiliarity with the league and the inevitable player rebellion the first time he tries his rah-rah football-helmet stuff in practice coming off a 10-day road trip.

College coaches cannot succeed in the NBA; that's an incontrovertible fact established over the last 40 years (the last successful one being John MacLeod in 1974. Larry Brown was, and is, a career pro coach).

The only faint hope Izzo might have to succeed would be if LeBron were completely, totally behind him, backing him up in any intramural player squabbles, a scenario made astronomically remote by Gilbert's dimwit press conference last week.

If LeBron returns and Izzo is the coach, LBJ has been served public notice that Gilbert specifically was not seeking his approval, thus it becomes pretty much imperative for LeBron to force Izzo to his knees very early in the relationship.

 

USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/2010-coaches-salary-database.htm

 

Donovan at 2? How's that working out for you, Florida?

And I think somebody already mentioned it, but Izzo should come out and say "Look, guys, let's not be stupid. I'll give you a decision .0001 seconds after LeBron signs."

 

And hen he re-signs all is forgiven and forgotten and the fans in Cleveland go back to kissing his feet.

 

The fans will BLAME IZZO for LeBron leaving.

The Cavs can offer LBJ more money than any other team, therefore if he leaves, there must be some overriding non-monetary consideration.

LeBron said a couple of weeks ago the Cavs "had the edge" to keep him (I forget which date, let's say June 2).

If the Cavs sign Izzo as coach on June 17 and on July 1 LBJ bolts, what non-monetary event will have taken place between June 2 and July 1 to change his mind?

Figure it out. Most of the fans will.

And Izzo better stock up on Kevlar vests and riot helmets.

 

Yeah, well, we'll see what happens on some cold snowy night in February when LeBron and the Clippers come to town and beat the Cavs 127-83 behind LBJ's 44-14-12, dropping Cleveland to 17-42 with their seventh straight loss.

 

"Can't succeed."
Pure drivel.
You know how many more NBA assistants have been fired than college coaches?
College coaches with crap teams can't succeed. So if Izzo were to take the job and LBJ stayed, they'd win a lot of games and Izzo would be fired for not winning the title, like Mike Brown. And everybody would say a college coach can't succeed. And if Izzo were to take the job and LBJ left, they'd lose 55 games a year and he'd get fired for that. And everybody would say a college coach can't succeed.
Pitino won 50-plus games and a division championship when he left Providence to coach the Knicks.
So he was a good pro coach, then a crappy one. So which is it?
Calipari made the playoffs in his second season with the freaking New Jersey Nets. So he was a good pro coach, then a crappy one.
A coach in the NBA is only good as his roster. And unless his name is Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan, Pat Riley or Gregg Popovich, he's getting fired eventually. Doesn't make him bad at his job.

 

Gotcha. FWIW, that list doesn't include Calipari, who makes significantly more than Izzo's 3.08M.

 

Fact of the matter, every single college coach who has taken an NBA job since 1974 has ended up getting fired (or resigning under pressure) by the team that hired him.

Every single one.

We can argue all night about the reasons, but them's the facts.

 

Pretty good bet Starman that 90% of all NBA coaches hired since 1974 have ended ujp getting fired.

 

Of course, but it's 100.000% of the college coaches.

 

Pitino left NYC for Kentucky of his own accord.
Gotta work on those facts.