From afar, you have to feel terrible for Tom Izzo and the rest of the Michigan State Spartans. A board of trustees, forever stuck in the old way of doing things, has led them to this point. After only one year, athletic director J Batt is on his way to Kentucky. University president Kevin Guskiewicz is in the process of leaving for Clemson after only two years in East Lansing. These are trying times for MSU.
Meanwhile, Duke is thriving under the leadership of Dr. Vincent Edward Price and Nina King. Price has been in Durham for a decade, and King for nearly two. When her former boss Kevin White retired in Sept. 2021, King took over for him to be the athletic director Duke University deserved. Over this past academic year, Duke has won ACC Championships in football and in men's and women's basketball.
Concurrently, Izzo and company have been presented with problems and offered no solutions in East Lansing. The iconic men's basketball coach has just about had it with more of the same nonsense. These "self-inflicted" problems, including members of the board of trustees having big issues with Batt's creation of Spartan Ventures to help in the NIL, are just not going away. He is beyond frustrated.
With Guskiewicz running into similar problems in his outgoing post, Izzo is speaking for everyone.
"There's other dominoes that get affected when things go wrong like that," Izzo said. "I'm very upset about it, and I'm sick of it."
Let's be frank. Trying to build anything without any stability is a losing proposition. People are coming and going on the regular out of Michigan State. Conversely, Duke is reaping the benefits of having the right people in key roles at its prestigious university. Price focuses on academia while simultaneously empowering King to make a difference in her field of athletics. Duke has the right recipe for success.
It just goes to show how Duke is living it up, while Michigan State continues to let down its fanbase.
Nina King and Dr. Vincent Edward Price have the Blue Devils set up to win
Leadership comes in different forms. For the time being, Duke has it in droves, while Michigan State seems to be mostly bereft of that. Duke may have stringent academic standards, but Price understands the importance of brand-building. He allows King to do her job to the best of her abilities. It is no surprise that under her guidance, Duke athletics have taken a major step forward.
Duke has always been a basketball behemoth, or at least since Mike Krzyzewski came over from Army in 1980. While the women's team has its own history to be proud about, what Duke has become on the college football gridiron over the last four years is astonishing. Mike Elko rebuilt Duke football from the ashes of what used to be good under David Cutcliffe and ran with it. Manny Diaz is sprinting.
Right now, Duke is showing everyone in major college athletics that you can have your cake and eat it, too. Academics always come first in Durham, but people are most familiar with Duke from its basketball team. To be at the top of a conference like the Blue Devils have been for the most part is impressive. There are lessons to be had from Price and King, as well as from Michigan State's board of trustees.
Michigan State fans may bleed green, but the grass is truly greener in Durham, North Carolina today.
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