What Tom Izzo said about why he didn't bring in a transfer, living up to living room promises, Mady Sissoko, Pierre Brooks, etc.
Graham Couch
Late in his press conference Tuesday, Tom Izzo explained why he didn't go hard after a transfer this past offseason, especially a center, the importance of living up to living room promises to his players and his philosophy moving forward in dealing with the transfer portal and when it's time to move on a player.
Here's most of what he said — edited to remove most of his rant about Twitter, which we've all heard — all prompted by a question from the Detroit News' Matt Charboneau:
“We go into a home and you tell the person what you're gonna do and then all of a sudden … There is a process. Now, if they don't abide by the process and someone doesn't get better, I told you this, what's going to happen and will happen here. There will be more pressure on kids. That's why I don't think it was good for kids. …
There will be more situations where the kids have a three-year window. Now this is the third year to do whatever they want, and kind of not care about the coach, the school or their teammates. Just leave whenever they want.
Then there's going to come a window, where coaches are going to say, ‘OK, I thought you'd go from C, (when you) come in as a freshman, I thought (by your) sophomore year, you'd be a good B player, which B players are very valuable. Well, you didn't get to that. I'll see you later.’ You're right. We haven't done that. I haven't done that to kids. I didn't do it the kids last year.
But I also … if you bring in guys, those guys aren’t transferring here to sit. So now you got team things. And most people don't care about that. And I do. If it's the doom of me, then it is. But you can't prepare for injuries. You can say, ‘Well, it’s good to have some depth.’ Who has depth now? And some of these teams that brought in four or five (transfers) … there’s been more ups and downs in college basketball than you've ever seen.
And if I could have gone and got the world's greatest center, maybe I would have done something different. Maybe. As far as other players, it's easier to get other players. But, you know what? I believe in Pierre Brooks. Now, he's got to do the things that make me believe in him.
If we reacted to all that’s (on Twitter), I would give up on my best commodity. You know what that is: My players. And the day that they lose faith that I don't believe in them, your team changes. And if that's the way it's going to be, we're a totally transitional thing, I'm cool with that. I just join (the retired coaches). … Because we are not going to treat a kid like that. We’re not going to do that. Where it changes, and this will change, kids will be on a shorter rope now. We've been on a shorter rope (with kids saying), ’I didn't play today, I'm transferring.’ Now kids will be on a shorter rope: ‘Did you do everything you can do to be good enough? Because I need you to be good enough. And if you didn't, then I’ve got to replace you.’
There's got to be change. There will be change here. I hope I don't get to the point where it's change at the expense of not giving a kid an opportunity, a fair shot and I promised him that in his living room. If I do that, that's when you should go at me on Twitter. Because someday that might be your kid. That's the way I look at it. And I'm not gonna let this program go downhill because I'm not going to pick up somebody (a transfer). But I'm not going to throw somebody under the bus until he's proven he doesn't want to do his thing. Is that window gonna be shorter? Is that leash going to be shorter? 100%. The system created that. But am I just gonna do it for no reason? No, I'm not. So blame me. People are mad at me. That's the way it is. But you know what I get to do, I get up in the morning and feel damn good.
We took Tyson Walker, you know, he moved up and we're fine with that. There's a difference between taking a player and taking ... we've got a lot of places taking five or six players, seven or eight players. We've got places where five or six guys are leaving. Could happen here. When those things happen, I just say it's bad for the kid. And if anybody doesn't believe me, please believe me, it's ... this is a pain in the butt for me. But I'm gonna get players. You know, I've either got years left or I had years to do it. I've gone through my stuff, everything's good. They get two, three and four years. And I keep saying, where are these guys that are transferred four times? Where are they going to go back to to get a job? Who's going to help them? What fan base is going to embrace them?
I’ve got schools right now on my radar that did certain things one way or the other. And don't think because something works for a year, it's good. Consistency is the name of the game in this profession, for me. Not for the Twitter people. They want something every year. They want it the same. That's unrealistic.”
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.