Tom Izzo was originally scheduled to return to Lansing at 7:20 p.m. tonight. Instead he ended up staying in Cleveland for a few more hours to reportedly have dinner with Dan Gilbert and other officials from the Cavaliers organization. Now, though, he is finally in the air and on a flight back to Lansing.
According to the FlightAware activity logs for the plane he initially went down to Cleveland in, Izzo departed Cuyahoga County Airport at 10:33 p.m. and is set to land at Capital Region International Airport in Lansing at 11:14 p.m. A few hours ago there were apparently quite a few members of the media at the airport waiting for Izzo, but only three people now remain. Remember, Izzo's original flight to Cleveland was diverted to another airport in order to avoid the media, but dealing with only three people shouldn't be too big of a deal, especially since Izzo probably won't comment on anything anyways.
In all, Izzo spent about nine hours in Cleveland visiting with the Cavaliers today. His family was reportedly with him, showing just how serious of a meeting this was. It makes sense since this would be a life-changing decision for Izzo and his family, and the fact that he spent so much time shows that he is definitely considering taking the Cavs job.
The question now obviously focuses in on if Izzo will actually take the job. On the one hand, you don't just spend nine hours visiting with a team for nothing, but on the other hand, if Izzo was absolutely sure he wanted to make the move to Cleveland, would he have left without an agreement in place? I suppose we will find out soon enough, but my belief is that Izzo is still on the fence and is unsure of what to do. Although nine hours is plenty of time to take in all aspects of the Cavs organization, he probably will need at least tonight to think it over some more before deciding once and for all to stay at MSU or leave for Cleveland.
Just to weigh in with my opinion on all of this, I think Izzo's head is probably telling him to go to the NBA, where he would be presented with a new challenge and a nice pay raise. His heart, on the flip side, is likely telling him to stay at Michigan State. That will especially be the case after he hears about the rally MSU fans had for him outside of the Breslin Center earlier tonight. I'm sure it will be emotional for Izzo to see all of the support he has, and ultimately I think his Spartan family will keep him in East Lansing. A week ago at this time I would have said you're crazy if you think Izzo is going to leave for the NBA, and although it definitely looks like it's possible, I would still be pretty surprised if he actually went through with it and took the Cavs job.