Tom Izzo almost left Michigan State for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Spartan basketball will be better off because of it

Tom Izzo almost left Michigan State for an opportunity to coach LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Many sports writers have looked at Izzo's interest in that job over the past two weeks as a having a negative impact on Michigan State's basketball program. In actuality it will only make the Spartans better.

While Izzo may not have gotten the commitment to stay in in Cleveland from LeBron that he needed in order to leave the banks of the Red Cedar for the shores of Lake Erie, he didn't get shot down either. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a "high-level source" said James would "100 percent" endorse Izzo being hired as head coach for the Cavs. LeBron has previously stated that he would have played for Izzo at Michigan State had he gone to college instead of going directly from high school to the NBA.

To put frankly, Tom Izzo is the state of Michigan's version of a regular Joe, and our regular Joe just spent a couple weeks flirting with the NBA's equivalent of Angelina Jolie. When you walk arm and arm with Angelina Jolie, other girls are going to notice, and when I say other girls, I mean college recruits.

To date Izzo has won a National Championship and guided the Spartans to 6 Final Fours in the last 12 years. He accomplished those feats with recruits from primarily from Michigan and border states like Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Now that Izzo has been linked with LeBron James for the past two weeks in US Weekly...I mean ESPN and the national sports media, top college recruits from all over the country are going to start seeking out Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans.

It's no secret that Izzo hates the recruiting process and some of the dirty deals that some schools make in order to procure commitments from top high school players. While Izzo has had the Spartan basketball program on the verge of being elite for several years, he still had to chase after the girl. Now that he has been linked to the hottest girl in school, the rest just might start chasing after him.