Our first attempt at answering some of your questions
Hello TOC,
We would like to start off by thanking Izzo4POTUS for his contribution to this first edition of the TOC Mailbag. He is the only one who sent us questions. Now that you all see we are really doing this, please send your queries to theonlycolorseditors@gmail.com.
Now let’s get to I4P’s questions.
Izzo said: “We pay players – a lot more than most of you know and a lot less than what’s going on out there.” Most of us would really like to know what we pay in NIL and how it compares to other teams. Are we competitive or, like we fear, way behind the top teams? This also applies to football.
I think this is very difficult to find out exactly as NIL is not YET a centralized system. It is supposed to be if and when the House Settlement is finalized. We wrote about this earlier this month. Approval, however, appears to now be contingent on some sort of resolution on roster limits that were proposed as part of the settlement.
In addition to where, exactly, MSU stands in the NIL realm, other questions that we posed in the article earlier this month include:
- Will the proposed NIL regulation system actually work if and when House is approved?
- Will there actually be an enforcement mechanism and how much will teams test it?
As far as basketball NIL, CBS Sports released a list of supposed teams with $10 million and $8 million NIL budgets (MSU not listed in either):
~ $10 million: Arkansas, BYU, Duke, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan, North Carolina, St. John’s, Texas Tech
~ $8 million includes but is not exclusive to: Auburn, UConn, Florida, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Miami, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, USC, Villanova, Virginia
However, former Spartan Tre Holloman and hockey Captain Red Savage apparently made some top 10 list of NIL earners in February. Holloman made the list again in March and was joined by Jase Richardson.
Our best guess for basketball: while Michigan State is not in the top tier of NIL programs listed above and Izzo had to do “more with less” to get to the Elite 8 this year, MSU is not necessarily lagging way behind either.
Is there any plan of succession for basketball? Izzo is 70 and a phenomenal coach but as far as I can see he has no one in his coaching tree that I would want to take over the program. A lot of us are concerned MSU will fall off drastically in basketball like we have fallen off in football once Izzo retires.
A former athletic director once told me that any well-prepared AD is going to have a list of coaches stored somewhere in case they suddenly need to make a change. This applies to all sports, not just the marquee ones. Alan Haller was prepared earlier this year and quickly brought Kristen Kelsay back to East Lansing to coach the Volleyball team. He also had Jonathan Smith in place the day after the Spartans’ football season ended in 2023.
This case is pretty unique though, given Izzo’s long and remarkable tenure. Perhaps the second biggest question here, after “Who will replace Izzo?” is “How much influence will Izzo have in the decision?” Izzo did mention in a College Hoops Today podcast last year that he would consult with Spartan greats like Draymond Green, Mateen Cleaves, Steve Smith, and Magic Johnson regarding future program leadership, indicating that he will play a role in this decision.
There is no way of knowing, or at least we couldn’t find any evidence of, Izzo and Haller discussing a succession plan. However, it may be reasonable to assume that the most important thing to Izzo is maintaining the culture the program has developed over 30 years and Izzo might think that an internal hire, or someone from his coaching tree, is best equipped to do that.
Brian had an extensive article on Izzo’s coaching tree in December. We can’t run through the pros and cons of all the possibilities here but these might be among the most prominent names with ties to Izzo:
- Tom Crean. The 59 year old made a Final Four at Marquette in 2003 and later won two Big Ten championships at Indiana. He also went to three Sweet 16’s with the Hoosiers but ended his tenure in Bloomington with an 18-16 record in 2016. Crean spent four years at Georgia but was unable to gain much traction there. He’s been out of coaching since 2022 after a 6-26 year with the Bulldogs.
- Dwayne Stephens. The former Spartan player was on Izzo’s bench from 2003-2022 before taking over as the head coach at Western Michigan. So far, Stephens has managed a 32-63 (.337) record with the Broncos.
- Doug Wojcik. Wojcik, 61, is in his second stint as an assistant with Izzo. He was named the 2024-2025 Big Ten assistant coach of the year. Wojcik went 140-92 as head coach at Tulsa from 2005-2012.
- Mark Montgomery. The former Spartan player coached with Izzo from 2002-2011 and 2021-2024. He just completed his first year as head coach at Detroit Mercy with an 8-24 record. Montgomery went 124-170 (.422) as head coach at Northern Illinois from 2011-2021.
- Stan Heath. Heath was an assistant at MSU from 1996-2001. He’s the current head coach at Eastern Michigan where he just completed his fourth year with a 16-16 record (9-9 in the MAC). Overall, Heath is 255-285 (.472) as a college head coach. His best year was his first year as a head coach when he led Kent State to the 2003 Elite 8.
- Drew Valentine. Valentine, 33, has been the head coach at Loyola Chicago since 2021 where he has an 83-51 record. He was a Loyola assistant in 2017 when the Ramblers went on a historic run to the Final Four. Valentine was born in Lansing, played at Oakland, and was a GA at MSU for two seasons when his brother, Denzel, played for the Spartans.
Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
- Saddi Washington. Washington, 49, just completed his first year on the MSU bench. He has no head coaching experience but does have a solid track record as a recruiter and big man developer. Jaxon Kohler, Carson Cooper, and Szymon Zapala all saw improvements in Washington’s first year on staff. Washington was an assistant at Oakland and Michigan prior to coming to MSU.
Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
If Michigan State does decide to look beyond Izzo’s tree, that list might include Central Michigan head coach Andy Bronkema and Ohio State’s Jake Diebler.
Bronkema just took over at Central Michigan and has yet to coach a Division 1 game. He led Ferris State to a Division 2 national championship in 2018 and produced a .725 winning percentage over 12 years at Ferris. Bronkema’s background is somewhat similar to that of MSU women’s coach Robyn Fralick, who won a D2 national championship prior to moving to Bowling Green and then MSU.
Diebler, 38, was named interim head coach at OSU near the end of the 2024 season and went 6-2 in that capacity, which included a win over MSU. The Buckeyes went 17-15 this season (9-11 in conference) and missed the NCAA tournament.
Another name that’s come up, possibly because he ties to Michigan is Alabama’s Nate Oats. He has a nearly .700 winning percentage with the Tide, a 13-8 NCAA tournament record and took Alabama to the 2024 Final Four. Oats also coached at Romulus High for 11 seasons and won over 80% of his games. But there may be reasons to stay away from Oats as well.
Regardless of who succeeds Izzo’s, history shows mixed results when trying to follow a legend. Indiana has struggled to live up to the high standard of Bob Knight. More recently, Villanova has struggled post Jay Wright. However, Jon Scheyer seems to be doing just fine as Coach K’s successor at Duke. Matt Painter has had success at Purdue post Gene Keady. And, most importantly, Izzo has done pretty well following up Jud Heathcote.
Unfortunately, we just have a lot of speculation at this point. Izzo hasn’t indicated any sort of imminent end to his career and there do not seem to be any (publicly known) succession plans. So, let’s close with three educated guesses. Or at least hopefully they are educated.
- Izzo’s successor won’t be anyone on this list.
- If he is on this list, let’s go with Saddi Washington. It’s hard to see MSU going with someone with no head coaching experience and there may not be time for Washington to go someplace else to be a head coach for a while and then come back to MSU. However, there were a lot of reasons for MSU’s improvement this year, Jase Richardson of course among them, but Washington was also new to the team and probably had a hand in this resurgence. Maybe he takes on an increased role in the coming years to prepare for taking over. If not Washington, it seems reasonable to think Drew Valentine may be a strong contender.
- With what Izzo has done with the program, unless it is someone like Mark Few at Gonzaga or Scott Drew from Baylor, who still not be enough to please everyone, it may be tough for Haller to convince the fanbase that he got the right guy.
What has Nightingale done to turn the hockey program around so quickly from an after thought to the top ranked team for a lot of last year? Is he just a great coach or do we have more hockey NIL than most other programs?
This is a great question. It really comes down to a few things. Nightingale is an exceptional coach, strong character, good discipline and a really good human. His connections and involvement in hockey run pretty deep. He’s coached the USA National Development Team Under 17 which has clearly given him a look at incoming youth. This has aided in some of the players that have ended up at MSU. He’s now recently been named as a coach for Team USA in the World Championships. So, Nightingale being well connected and his strong coaching and development abilities are a big reason.
Hockey players are also wired different in comparison to football and basketball. Nightingale does a lot of stressing on the team and no individual is greater than the team. This is why the team comes out and stands in numeric order. He also stresses commitment and putting in the work and flat out tells players if you aren’t going to do those things, MSU is not the place for you. Having Augustine and Howard come back rather than turn pro for another season is just another testament to the team mentality.
MSU was also the first team to reach a full team partnership NIL deal with MuskOx. Every player is a part of the deal and gets in on the action. Again, stressing team, not an individual. Granted there may be more Augustine jerseys sold than others, there isn’t anyone left out without a piece of pie. It is unlikely that they are getting a lot but they do get something and whether MuskOx gets any ROI is another question. Speaking of ROI, hockey’s is much smaller than football and basketball and therefore do not eat up from other sports. This is just the first wave of something like this and MuskOx being owned by an MSU alum and hockey player themselves, it is partially to support something they love. I know I’ve seen the Instagram ad with Howard in it.
Ultimately I think Nightingale is the bigger reason but the fact that MSU has lawyers on board to negotiate NIL for hockey is something that I know other schools are playing catch up on. Once Nightingale brings a title in, really watch out. More players will want in with a chance to boost their NHL odds.
Hope you enjoyed the first edition of the TOC Mailbag. Don’t forget to email us your questions for next week at theonlycolorseditors@gmail.com.