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Tuesday, June 22, 2010
 Izzo has access to MSU's Mystery Machine
By Diamond Leung

 With Tom Izzo deciding to stay at Michigan State, the Lansing State Journal has a look into how the school has tried to make life easier for a coach who already gets pulled in so many different directions.

One way of helping out Izzo is by providing him with access to a van that's tricked out so he can watch film during recruiting trips and also make calls or relax while an assistant does the driving.

According to the report:
The van is really a moving office, wired with all the technology Tom Izzo needs to examine game film as he is driven across the state and upper Midwest to see prospective recruits for his Michigan State University men's basketball program.

It is provided by MSU corporate sponsor Joe Serra, owner of more than 20 auto dealerships across the United States including one in Grand Blanc. The price is "lots of love" for Serra including four MSU basketball season tickets, said MSU athletic director Mark Hollis, and the idea is to make life easier for Izzo.

Not that this is the life of luxury hitting the road to catch high school basketball games, but rolling around in a (green?) Mystery Machine-Air Force One hybrid must be nice.

Even better? When your boss wants you to use the private plane more often.
Hollis wants Izzo to use private planes more for recruiting, even though they cost $1,200 to $3,500 an hour.

"I have to push him a little bit to realize time is more valuable than his old-school thought process," said Hollis, who expects to report a balanced 2009-10 athletic department budget of $75 million in July after doing the same for the 2008-09 budget year.