Couch: Dan Gilbert could be crucial to MSU beyond Izzo, Dantonio
DETROIT – Dan Gilbert nearly took Tom Izzo away from Michigan State University. Six years later, Gilbert is playing an important role in sustaining Izzo’s MSU basketball program, perhaps beyond Izzo.
MSU announced a $15 million gift from its favorite Detroit billionaire and famed alum Wednesday afternoon at one of Gilbert’s buildings in Detroit. The donation is earmarked for the completion of the ongoing $20 million Breslin Center renovation, for MSU’s Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities, and to fund the Detroit Scholars Program, which supports first-generation college students from Detroit at MSU.
But the business of basketball was why a dozen or so reporters were in the audience at One Woodward Avenue. It’s why Izzo, MSU women’s basketball coach Suzy Merchant, athletic director Mark Hollis and trustee Joel Ferguson were among those on stage with Gilbert Wednesday in front of audience of donors and friends.
Having Gilbert and Izzo together at the same press conference was once MSU’s nightmare — six years ago when Gilbert tried to hire Izzo to coach his Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I think Tom made the absolutely right decision to stay at the university,” said Gilbert, who bought the Cavs in 2005 and tried to lure Izzo in 2010. “That was a real hard time because I was very, very torn, as you could imagine.”
“Part of the (donation) contract was a no-recruitment (of Izzo) clause for the next 19 years,” he continued, joking.
Gilbert came through for MSU big time with this donation. It’s unclear how much of the money is budgeted for Breslin — Hollis declined to discuss the specifics — but his contribution helps MSU’s 27-year-old basketball facility become something Izzo can use to sell his program to recruits and families. And something Izzo’s eventual replacement can use. And, before that, something MSU can use to recruit Izzo’s replacement. What MSU is doing with its facilities in its two surging revenue sports, this football season notwithstanding, is essential to both basketball and football becoming more than one-coach programs.
The enhancements at Breslin include the Tom Izzo Hall of History, a new box office, and a Draymond Green strength and conditioning center, a product of Green’s $3.1 million gift last year. The entire renovation is scheduled to be completed in time for next season.
“I’ve always compared it to a girl going on a blind date, and if two guys drove up, one in a Corvette, one in a Chevette,” Izzo said, talking about appealing to recruits. “Eighteen-, 17-year-old kids, that is part of it. But it really isn’t just the facility. For me, the whole thing we’re doing there is about making sure that all the players that played here, all the students that went there, have something to feel proud about.
“Having something to show the history you have is special. It means the world to me, because, in all honesty, we’re going to be able to tell a recruit (about) a guy (Gilbert) that’s been successful. These are the kinds of people, when they leave, they still give back. I think that helps us leaps and bounds.”
When asked Wednesday how MSU appealed to Gilbert, Izzo jokingly — I think — got on his knees to grovel. Gilbert shared a story about Hollis pulling up to the Gilbert family vacation home in Northern Michigan on a Jet Ski and staying until the deal was done. Gilbert, the 54-year-old chairman of Quicken Loans and champion for Detroit is reportedly worth $4.7 billion. He can be a godsend for MSU athletics and beyond over the next couple decades. It’s an important relationship.
“I watch what he’s done in Cleveland, I watch what he’s done in Detroit, it’s not the building that you’re going to help us build, but the people in it and what it stands for, gives me a reason to gloat a little bit,” Izzo said, then turning to Gilbert.
“You’re in my recruiting speech, I want you to know, as one of our biggest alums. Because you’re an (NBA) owner, it helps my recruiting. Just your image has been important to me.”
MSU president Lou Anna K. Simon talked about how Gilbert’s approach to business and creating opportunities within Detroit fits MSU’s core principles. She wasn’t talking about athletics specifically, but she could have been.
“How do you leverage that talent on behalf of others? You do that with really big dreams and really big ideas. Outrageous ideas at times,” she said.
The same could be said about MSU basketball and football — each middling programs not so long ago, each having tasted and sustained improbable success (again, ignoring this football season) under two coaches who dreamed almost bigger than their fan base.
MSU might stay there beyond Izzo and Mark Dantonio, in part, with the help of Gilbert. Ironic because six years ago Gilbert almost ripped his alma mater’s heart out.
“When I called him and told him my decision (to stay at MSU), I cried,” Izzo said of that 2010 summer. “He was so good, he was so good. The first night I met him, I told my wife, after I really spent a little time with him, I said, ‘He’s crazy, and I could work for that guy.’
“Now I think he’s still crazy. I think I could still work for him. But hopefully the work I’m doing up there makes him proud. I’m proud of what he’s done. You know, our paths are going to cross, because we’re going to get him up there as much as we can.”
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.