For those of you who missed Rob’s post last week, this weekend I attended Derrick Williams’ first celebrity softball tournament in Royal Oak. While in attendance Saturday, I was able to speak with the President of the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association and current MSU men’s basketball announcer, Will Tieman. Tieman has worked over four decades calling Michigan State basketball and football games.
When I caught up with Will, I initially asked him how many times he had been asked about Izzo’s future throughout the day. He responded that he had discussed the topic at least a hundred times, but seemed eager to tackle it one more time. He explained to me that he truly thought there was about a 50/50 chance that Izzo will stay in East Lansing, as opposed to being lured away by a bigger contract and the chance at possibly coaching Lebron James. Tieman hadn’t personally spoken to Izzo in “a few weeks”, but said based on his last conversation with Tom, he’d be shocked to learn he was making the leap to the NBA. He also went on to say that the speculation coming from those closest to Izzo (his team and various MSU officials), remained divided. After speaking with his players late last week, many of them left the meeting assuming that Tom would indeed be packing his bags. Tieman had phoned home the day of our conversation to speak with some of the aforementioned MSU officials, all of whom seemed to think that their head coaching position wouldn’t be seeing a change.
I went on to ask him which coach he would like to see replace Izzo, if he does indeed move on to Cleveland. Tieman wasted no time in name dropping current University of Dayton head coach Brian Gregory. Gregory, who prior to taking his current position was an assitant at MSU under Izzo, would just seem like the “logical choice” according to Will.
Whether Tom Izzo stays or goes is anyones guess really. It was nice to get perspective from someone closer to the situation than most average sports fans, and I thank Mr. Tieman for taking the time to share his insight.
Stay tuned later today (Monday) for a full write up about the softball tournament.
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