Michigan State Basketball: 5 potential eventual replacements for Tom Izzo

Before you read this headline and think “what the heck did I miss?”, the answer is no, Tom Izzo is not actually retiring. This is all a hypothetical list of coaches who could replace the Hall of Famer down the line when he does end up retiring.

Why am I even putting this together? Roy Williams’ sudden retirement showed that you can never truly be prepared for your all-time great coach hanging it up. Everyone expected him to be back for a few more years after a disappointing finish to the 2020-21 campaign, but Williams decided to call it a career at North Carolina and ride off into the sunset.

Izzo probably has a good 5-6 years in him, or more, because he’s only 66 years old and he has admitted that he’s gotten a second wind in recent years.

But it’s never too early to start looking at who could replace him somewhere down the line when he does decide to call it a career. The overwhelming belief is that he wants to win a second national title before retiring. Will that happen sooner rather than later? Hopefully but let’s just say that Izzo wins one within the next year or two, I doubt he’d call it a career that soon.

When he does retire, the list of potential suitors will be huge because Izzo has turned Michigan State from a pitstop into a destination in his two-plus decades in East Lansing?