Monday has been a hectic day for anyone emotionally invested in the Michigan vs. Michigan State rivalry. Dusty May left suddenly for the NBA which forced Michigan to promote an interim head coach with the season just four months away. He couldn’t have left at a worse time.
Now, Michigan’s players will have an opportunity to enter the transfer portal because of the coaching change and they’ll have some big decisions to make in the coming weeks and months.
This uncertainty entering the 2026-27 season is the trade-off for winning a national title and I don’t think any Michigan fan would trade that championship for another few years of Dusty but it puts a damper on the offseason that was going swimmingly prior to the sudden departure for the NBA.
Michigan State fans just watched as Michigan football was gutted by the departure of Jim Harbaugh following a national title and a cheating scandal which left the program in a rough spot just a couple of years before Dusty left for the NBA months after winning a title.
Losing coaches to the professional ranks is something that Michigan State fans had to come to terms with when it looked like Tom Izzo might leave for the NBA a couple of times.
For Izzo, it’s happened now three times — two times have been very public.
The fact that Izzo has never followed through with any of the offers is proof that Michigan State fans are lucky that they haven’t quite been gutted on the basketball coaching front like Michigan fans have been recently.
Michigan State fans have been lucky.
The two times that Tom Izzo nearly left Michigan State
Although it hasn’t been a regular occurrence, the two times that Izzo has nearly left for the NBA had Spartan fans on the ledge ready to jump.
The first such instance, per Justin Spiro, was back in 2000 when the Atlanta Hawks pursued Izzo to become their next head coach just one month after winning his first national title. The Hawks’ GM at the time said that Izzo was their guy and they pursued him heavily but he just wouldn’t leave Michigan State. Izzo went on to make a third straight Final Four the next season.
The second public near-departure was back in 2010 when Dan Gilbert and the Cleveland Cavaliers nearly persuaded him to leave East Lansing to have a chance to coach LeBron James. Izzo ultimately made the wise decision to turn the offer down to become a “Spartan for life” in front of his players because LeBron eventually signed with the Miami Heat.
And the least public instance was last year when Izzo was apparently considering taking the Phoenix Suns job with his former player, Mat Ishbia.
Izzo turned all those down to stay at Michigan State and continue building the program up. Spartan fans, players, and alumni are incredibly lucky and Dusty May’s departure proves that.
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