Fans launch Izzo support campaign
Communication senior Alexandra Nicola hangs a sign supporting MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo on Sunday in the window of Menna’s Joint, 115 Albert Ave.
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Despite a rally last week at Breslin Center, Spartans fans are not done showing support for MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo.
Late last week, the website weloveizzo.com was put up as a place at which fans can gather and post brief messages about how much they care about the MSU coach.
Quickly becoming more than just a website, the “We Love Izzo” campaign is allowing the MSU community to reenforce its affection toward Izzo as he continues to mull over a possible departure from the university to coach the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.
More than 750 yard signs have been placed throughout Lansing and East Lansing with the help of more than 400 volunteers, said Jason Keusch, executive chef at Troppo, 101 S. Washington Square, in Lansing, and an organizer of the “We Love Izzo” campaign.
“We’re really lucky we got lots of help,” he said. “Everyone was worrying and complaining about (Izzo) needing to know how much MSU loves him. The right thing to do is show him we love him.”
In addition to the yard signs, all the digital signs around East Lansing on Monday will show the “We Love Izzo” logo. Also, mobile billboards will drive throughout Lansing and East Lansing, and banners will be placed throughout the towns, Keusch said.
He also said the Michael Patrick Shiels’ “The Big Show” on WJIM AM 1240 is scheduled to be entirely dedicated to the “We Love Izzo” campaign.
The “We Love Izzo” website domain was purchased last week by Cam Gnass, owner of Lansing-based advertising firm Traction, 617 E. Michigan Ave., to show Izzo the extent of the MSU community’s support.
“I was sick of everyone saying why he shouldn’t take the job,” he said. “Is that really the message we should be sending him? This is just to let him know we love him and (we’re) letting him make his own decision.”
Gnass said the website has received more than 1,500 messages as of Sunday afternoon, and is receiving three or four new messages per minute.
Although university officials likely have exhausted their efforts to show Izzo support, fans of the coach can continue to shower him with love and care, said Scott Westerman, associate vice president and executive director of the MSU Alumni Association, who is not officially involved with the campaign.
Westerman said university administrators have no official involvement with the campaign, although they will do as much as they can to help out.
“The thing that is so great about it is it’s totally grass-roots,” he said. “It’s fantastic that the community is showing how much they care.”
Last week, Westerman used Twitter to generate supportive notes from fans. He has received more than 500 tweets and 120 e-mails from supporters, all of which will be placed on Izzo’s desk Monday.
“There is not one that is from a typical sports fan,” Westerman said. “They all say, ‘Do what’s best for your family,’ or ‘You can make a bigger difference at MSU than in the NBA.’ No one is saying, ‘Go for the money.’ That tells me MSU is much more classy than you would expect from your average college.”
The basic nature of the project helps to note the honesty behind the messages, Gnass said.
“It’s so unmanufactured, so organic,” he said. “It’s the most simplistic way, but that’s the best way.”
Students are quick to become involved in the project, communication senior Alexandra Nicola said. Nicola has been volunteering with the campaign since Saturday.
“Izzo is very important to me and the community,” she said. “He is somebody we all can look up to.”
Commentary
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KJ Green
(06/14/10 3:08am)Report
To be sung to the music of Baby, Please Don’t Go by blues great Muddy Waters:
Izzo, please don’t go
Izzo, please don’t go
Izzo, please don’t go, to the NBA
You know we love you so
Before you make your choice
Before you make your choice
Before you make your choice
Know that if you go, our hearts will break in two
You’re the king right here
You’re the king right here
You’re the king right here
I beg you all night long, Izzo please don’t go
You brought us to the top
You brought us to the top
You brought us to the top
In college basketball, and in even more
Izzo please don’t go
Izzo please don’t go
Izzo please don’t go, to the NBA
You know we love you so
There’s more to do at State
There’s more to do at State
There’s more to do at State
Building more young men and adding to your name
You’re more than State b-ball
You’re more than State b-ball
You’re more than State b-ball
You’re the ambassador of all things M.S.U.
Lucy
(06/14/10 10:03am)Report
If you were offered 25million you would leave in a heartbeat…leave him alone to make the best decision for him and his family
izzo
(06/14/10 10:30am)Report
Wouldn’t it be great if he makes the jump and is fired in a year, then realizes it was not so bad in college ball.
Michele
(06/14/10 11:53am)Report
@Izzo
I don’t think it would be great if he leaves and fails. He’s been great to MSU throughout his career, so we should be supportive of whatever choice he makes. If he leaves (which I hope he doesn’t) I wish him all the luck in the NBA
Ron Yogman '64
(06/14/10 12:42pm)Report
Coach Tom/Coach Izzo:
Here is but a sneak preview direct from the Cleveland
“Plain” (Crooked) Dealer
from a typical Cavalier fan,
as opposed to the love we feel for you in East Lansing.
This SHOULD SEAL THE DEAL.
Stay and “Go Right Through for
MSU and keep those championship banners unfurling…”
In response to the story Tom Izzo text messages he’s “still gathering” toward making decision whether to accept Cavaliers’ coaching offer, cleveland.com reader Lowenbrau just wants Izzo to make a decision already. This reader writes,
0 0 0
Share “This is getting ridiculous. I still think Izzo is a better candidate than Byron Scott, but the longer this drags on the more I’m starting to sour on the guy. The offer is what it is. It’s a great offer and it would make little sense for him to turn it down, but if he chooses to do so, so be it. Hopefully he’ll soon stop this little game and make a choice already so we can all move on.”
To respond to Lowenbrau’s comment, go here.
Ron Yogman '64
(06/14/10 12:48pm)Report
It’s NOT about the Obama/monopoly money.
Those extra millions will hardly be worth anything soon.
It’s about legacy in the
Woodenesque tradition.
The man just died at 99
and he is still revered.
He would never have left UCLA
for NBA, and his legacy shall live on. If Tom Izzo leaves MSU it will be like LeBron
James skipping a college education. He’s chasing the dollars, but what does he do after he squander them all and can’t play anymore an doesn’t have an MSU caliber education?! Tom, we’ve come too far together to part now.
Follow your heart and stay put. You know you belong here.
You are the face of MSU!
Ron Yogman '64
(06/14/10 1:09pm)Report
Coach Izzo,
Let’s talk fan base for a moment: there are some half-milllion Spartan alums, not to mention the 10,000 or – grads each and every year…
Contrast that if you will with a documented declining
population of Cleveland OH,
a trend likely to contine.
What’s more, you can be sure
they are not all Cavalier fans. At best, maybe you’d have 100,000 hard core fans compared with Spartan Nation,
Big Ten TV and one of the most amazing campuses in the U.S. in terms of aesethics, academics, atheletics and school spirit.
There is no Contest!
Spartans could probably beat
Cavaliers at Breslin.
Why not schedule an exhibition game, then you can
coach one half on each side and then make your decision.
How is that for thinking outside the box?!
Please do yourself and your family a favor and stay put.
Moving is a real B***h!!!
It’s just half-time at MSU in both your career, legacy and
W’s and I don’t mean George W.
Don’t dilute a stellar career.
You will go out just another
came-close NBA coach and folks who have short memories will all too soon forget your collegiate prowess.
You da man….you belong in EL
Ted
(06/14/10 3:33pm)Report
Izzo should take the Cavs deal, ‘cause there’s no downside for him: If he succeeds, he has a lucrative career as an NBA coach; if he fails, he comes back to MSU a returning hero with $30 mil in his pocket.
Seems like a no-brainer …
BP
(06/14/10 4:42pm)Report
ALWAYS put money over all other concerns…
Brad Stevens Next MSU Basketball Coach
(06/14/10 4:52pm)Report
In his first year, Stevens led Butler to 30 wins, becoming the third-youngest head coach in NCAA Division I history to have a 30-win season. In 2010, his third year as head coach, Stevens broke the NCAA record for most wins in a coach’s first three years, exceeding the previous record by eight. The 2009–10 team finished undefeated in conference play, becoming the first Horizon League team to do so. In the postseason, Stevens coached Butler to the first Final Four in school history. At 33 years old, Stevens became the second–youngest head coach to coach in the NCAA National Championship game, losing 61-59 to Duke. Shortly after the season ended, he signed a contract extension with Butler through the 2021–22 season.
Stevens is known for a calm, focused coaching style. He spends a lot of time analyzing opponents using statistical analysis, adding new wrinkles to his team’s play each game. He puts a strong emphasis on defensive and team oriented basketball. Butler’s success against teams with superior athletes has been attributed to Stevens’ coaching style and calm demeanor. Stevens has twice been named the Horizon League Coach of the Year and won collegeinsider.com’s Hugh Durham Award mid-season honors in January 2009. He has also been both a Hugh Durham Award and Jim Phelan Award finalist all three years of his career. He has been called a coaching prodigy and compared to John Wooden.
Ron Yogman '64
(06/14/10 4:56pm)Report
For those foolish enough to contemplate Izzo makes his millions in Cleveland, then gets summarily fired or decides to leave and head back for East Lansing, you are missing the point:
You cannot go/come back home!
There would be this ugly gap
in his college career coaching record, not to mention one of his disciples will have earned the right by then to have our loyalty, which Izzo commands now.
I am not an attorney, but I rest my case, Coach Izzo, with this: will you have a chance to impact THE NEXT GENERATION of young basketball players as coach of the Cavs. Photos of you today at Breslin showed you in YOUR ELEMENT. You have touched generations which preceded you and now are touching generations which will follow you — GREEN AND WHITE. Do you even know what the Cavs colors are. They probably resemble some other Big Ten school. Yikes!
Tom, keep coaching the kids
and say it isn’t so. Thanks but no thanks to Cleveland
the sooner the better — this
week before both venues get
turned off on your lack of decision. Lupe will be lost in the crowd at any Cavs games at home or on the road.
In East Lansing, she too is a folk hero. Don’t let a few extra million ruin your family life in a city that is going no where fast. You are the face of one of the nation’s top universities.
Do not end this mutual love affair. Mark my words: you will have DEPARTERS’ remorse.
Others have tried and failed; and even if you were to succeed, no one can hold a candle in the pros to the great all-time collegiate coaching greats, of which you are one. We want you to rise to the TOP, not quit just when you are on the nation’s radar screen. Don’t turn in your amazing Green and Whites
for the Black and Blue of pro
basketball. There may be money, but there is no glory.
March Madness is the greatest sporting event there is, by far eclipsing even the current
Celtics/Lakers showdown.
Who REALLY cares who wins?
Just folks in Boston or L.A.
You, on the other hand, have
a growing NATIONAL following
right here at MSU.
Call this alum. Give me
five minutes of your time.
I do not have Dan Gilbert’s money but I can match his business acumen, as well as
journalistic, PR and community relations “skills.”
All indicators are pointing
GREEN of MSU not the green
of Gilbert’s tainted cash.
You want a challenge:
Bring another national championship home to East Lansing in 2011. We have space to hang the banner from the rafters at Bresline
(should be Izzo) Center!!!!!!!!
WHEREISHOLLIS?
(06/14/10 11:39pm)Report
I am glad to see the students, alumni, and fans are all rallying to support Izzo, and do whatever they can to keep him from leaving………but why isn’t the AD doing it? Why haven’t they offered him a raise, a lifelong contract, or at least something to keep him here????????? I don’t expect them to match that offer from that greaseball scumbag, but they haven’t even offered a raise or anything! He deserves a raise after what he has done, and what he will do if he stays. I think its a mistake to leave, even though the money is good. Its not long-term. It could be over really quick, and he can spend the rest of his life wondering if he could have won another championship at MSU. Maybe he wants to retire soon? I don’t know. I just think this is a really crappy way to go out. Kalin Lucas could have easily left after the loss to UNC, he stayed. All the recruits he has worked so hard to get might lose complete interest in being here. This is gonna be a devastating, lethal blow to the program. I’m sorry, but don’t kid yourselves. The names I have heard brought up as a replacement are laughable. Izzo is one in a million. There is no one that can replace him, or bring that level of success, with the level of players we get. And with all due respect, we lose Izzo, we have nothing left. Our football program is mediocre, and the basketball program will crumble without him. Watch and see. Mark Hollis better make an offer, so at least we can all say there was nothing that could be done to keep him here. Good Luck telling Lebron what to do, or even having any power at all. You’re gonna need that private jet to escape when Cleveland turns on you. Dan “greasy” Gilbert will too. Izzo should stay and go down in history as the most legendary coach since John Wooden. Lebron will not show his hand yet. He will wait to entertain offers from every team that wants him. Izzo would be rolling the dice if Cleveland doesn’t have a signed contract with Lebron.
AD has LD
(06/14/10 11:46pm)Report
@TED
There is no way that will ever happen. If Izzo leaves, it will be forever. Izzo knows that the program will disintegrate after his departure too. Thats got to be part of his dilemma. If he got a raise to 4 million a year, an extension to stay as long as he wants, etc, then at least we could all know its about money. If he wants an extra 2 million a year, and a shot at the NBA that bad, then he will take it, but they haven’t even sweetened his deal at MSU. Its messed up.