The Cleveland Cavaliers very badly want to fill their head coaching vacancy with a home rum candidate and they’ve been going after home run names as a result. Cleveland hasn’t just been calling up big name college coaches to gauge their interest, rather they’ve been calling them up to pretty much offer the entire franchise to them.

That was the case with John Calipari, who reportedly got an offer in the neighborhood of $80 million plus complete team control. Coach Cal wasn’t the only name to have been offered a mammoth contract like that as another college coaching legend was seduced by the Cavs but managed to hold them off.

According to Jason Lloyd of the Beacon Journal, the Cleveland Cavalier also offered a to Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, but were given the same response that Calipari had he he was offered the deal.

Gilbert, meanwhile, continues to be infatuated with big names. He was rejected by Tom Izzo four years ago and pursued the Michigan State coach again a few months ago, offering full control of the organization. Izzo again declined.

Izzo is in a good place right now at Michigan State and it’s hard to ever see him leaving for another job. He’s an institution at the university and he’s in line with other great college coaches from both sports like Nick Saban and others who we can’t see leaving their schools for other jobs.

Let’s also not discount the fact that the Cavaliers aren’t what you’d define as a basketball destination for anyone, especially someone of Izzo’s stature, so his rejecting a lucrative job in Cleveland isn’t all that surprising.