Greg Kampe gets emotional when describing Tom Izzo's impact on his career

If coaching is a fraternity, two of the closest coaches in college basketball have proven to be Oakland‘s Greg Kampe and Michigan State‘s Tom Izzo. At the very least, it’s a relationship that has been monumental to Kampe in his career.

Michigan State recently beat Oakland 79-70. After the game, Kampe and Izzo held a joint press conference. It was there when they were asked about sharing a state and being able to lean on one another amid changes in college athletics. There, Kampe quickly jumped on the opportunity to praise Izzo, explaining he would’ve been out of coaching without Izzo.

“I’ll go first,” Greg Kampe said. “I would not be here today still if it was not for him. I mean, what he’s done for me and our program, I’m getting choked up because it’s true. He’s helped me raise — I got really good players because I was able to pay some, and he’s the one to help me do that. You know, he on his own, came down and did an event twice now for me that I’ve raised close to half a million dollars.”

Greg Kampe is an Ohio native who got the opportunity to become Oakland’s head coach in 1984. It’s a role he’s held ever since. During that time, he’s gone 715-555 and made the NCAA Tournament four times and transitioned the program from Division II to Division I.

Tom Izzo, meanwhile, has been at a much larger program in Michigan State since 1983, though he wouldn’t become the head coach there until 1995. Still, in that time, he’d become a legend, going 748–303 and won a national championship.

“Having someone who I respect — you’ve heard me say often he’s the best coach in the game,” Kampe said. “And I say that and I mean it. But having someone who is from the same path, we believe in the same things. To be able to talk to. What you guys don’t know is about five hours from now he’s gonna call me and he’s gonna tell me what we have to do to win. I can’t wait for that call because I want to know what he thinks. When you have that, in this day and age, and you both believe in a state and school, and we’re kind of the spokespeople for our school.”

Sitting next to Kampe, Izzo smiled and nodded along. Both coaches are now 70 years old and likely have been coaches longer than they will be coaches moving forward. The connection the two have, as they sat together wearing matching Christmas sweaters, was clear in that moment.

“I mean, everybody says, ‘You’ve got him by 10 years.’ I don’t got him by 10 years. He was at State as long as I’ve been at Oakland. Jud just wouldn’t go away for a while, right?” Kampe said. “But to have that, this relationship to me is the single most important relationship I’ve had in my professional career. I’m lucky.”

From here, the two will move on to the next challenge this season. In Oakland’s case, that’s Horizon League play while Michigan State takes on the Big Ten. All the while, Kampe and Izzo will undoubtedly be there to help one another.