Tom Izzo: Deyonta Davis wasn't one-and-done from the start
ROSEMONT, Ill. - Deyonta Davis declared last week that he always planned to leave Michigan State for the NBA after one season, surprising Spartans basketball coach Tom Izzo.
"That's not true," Izzo said. "I don't think that's the way he meant it. I sit down with my guys: 'What's your goals for the year?' Every kid. My manager's goal is to be one-and-done. My wife's goal is to be one-and-done. Everybody's goal is to be one-and-done. If so, why didn't he decide at the end of the year? That's where these kids, you've got to give them a break. He also said we didn't let him shoot threes. Well, there is a reason. I don't think it was meant in that context at all, because it was a very amicable deal.
"Did I think he was going pro? Did anybody think he was going pro? ... No, not even close."
Davis made his comments at the NBA combine.
Izzo said Davis said before last season that he would like to be one-and-done, but he framed it more as a goal than an expectation.
Davis announced his plan to enter the draft and sign with an agent April 12, three weeks after MSU's stunning first-round loss to Middle Tennessee in the NCAA tournament. And Davis' decision apparently will pay off. He's ranked No. 16 on the espn.com "big board" of prospects, and analyst Chad Ford said he should be drafted between No. 10 and No. 20 next month.
Davis is the first Michigan State player to leave for the NBA after his freshman year since Zach Randolph in 2001 -- Erazem Lorbek left for Europe after one year in 2003. Davis is the sixth player to leave early for the NBA draft under Izzo and the first since Gary Harris in 2014.
"I just think there’s so much more out there now," Izzo said. "Every year, I talk to them about what their goals are. And when I recruit them, you talk to them. … I’m not going to tell you who, but I’m going to tell you I had a kid I wanted to redshirt, but his goal was to be out in two years. And he didn’t play much. This is every kid we recruit now. Every kid has that as a goal. Every kid thinks that. So it’s a little more difficult."
The media has magnified it. He noted that speculation about Davis began in January, and that was something that the player had to combat away from the floor.
Izzo told him to push it aside and focus on the season, but that's easier said than done. Especially when Izzo doesn't believe in the veracity of the projections.
"Some of those guys are clueless. They’re sitting in the basement writing their NBA thing," he said. "But if it comes out that he’s 10th, eighth, like one had him, then somebody asks me about him, what am I supposed to say? Well, if he’s the eighth pick, he should go. Who says he’s the eighth pick? Like somebody says he’s got a guarantee he’s in the top 12, or that a team’s going to take him 11 or 12, this is what I get over the years. I talked to one of my GM buddies, ‘Well, how could they guarantee him that, when we don’t drop the (lottery) balls until tonight? We don’t even know who they're going to be.’ That’s how ridiculous it gets."