Tom Izzo on rumors he's leaving for NBA: 'I'm going to be at Michigan State'

Tom Izzo has been head coach of the Spartans for nearly 20 years. (Hartford Courant/Getty Images)

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo refuted rumors on Wednesday that he might be leaving the Spartans program he's coached for nearly 20 years to take a position in the NBA with either the Minnesota Timberwolves or Detroit Pistons.

Speaking on ESPNU's College Basketball podcast, the 59-year-old Izzo said emphatically that he's remaining with the university:

"First of all, I'm going to be at Michigan State...If somebody made me an offer to be the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers that was so good that it would impress everybody, does that mean I would never say never? I'm not doing that anymore. I've seen too many people get stung that way. Put it this way: I've got a big-time recruit coming in an hour and if I was leaving I wouldn't be recruiting."

In his near two decades of head coaching with the Spartans -- plus another 12 years prior as an assistant -- Izzo has compiled a 468-187 record (.715), leading his team to the Final Four six times, winning the national championship in 2000 and making it back to the title game in 2009. This past season, Michigan State lost in the Elite Eight to a UConn Huskies team that went on to win the title.

Wednesday's comments are just the latest occasion on which the head coach has denied interest in the NBA. In March, he was quoted as saying amid reports that the Pistons might be in talks with him that he's in fact in a "pretty good place" right now with Michigan State, adding that it "ain’t broke, so why fix it?"

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