The Athletic has live coverage of the Men’s Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament games
Tom Izzo has become an archetype in men’s college basketball. An old-school coach in a changing sport. A relic of an increasingly bygone era, still fighting the good fight on this new frontier.
A number of his most prominent coaching peers — Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim — have retired in recent years, saddling Izzo with this designation. This burden.
Tom Izzo: Winner of a National Championship, Reacher of Final Fours, Leader of Big Ten Wins, Last of His Kind.
At age 70, nearing the end of his 30th season at Michigan State and on the eve of his 16th Sweet 16 in his 27th straight NCAA Tournament appearance, every milestone and accomplishment can begin to feel derivative, an echo of the past. That was the case last week when the Spartans arrived in Cleveland for the tournament’s opening weekend as a No. 2 seed and Big Ten regular season champs.
It’s the same city where Izzo’s 1999-2000 team started its run to a national championship, led by seniors Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson. Jason Richardson, a star freshman on that roster, is the father of current Michigan State star freshman Jase Richardson. In the stands, a dad watches his son play for the same school and the same coach. It’s the kind of serendipity that evokes questions and predictions about another title run, 25 years later.
“I got the same socks, underwear and hat on, but other than that,” Izzo quipped last week. “I just wish it worked that way, but I’m not sure that’s God’s plan. It’s great. It brings back good memories. But the sad part is, none of my (current players) were born then.”
It’s true, but the Spartans still looked like a vintage Izzo team through the first two rounds last weekend, taking out Bryant and New Mexico — two opponents coached by Phil Martelli Jr. and Richard Pitino, respectively, sons of more Izzo peers. Michigan State won with defense, rebounding and physicality, buoyed by a balanced rotation that runs nine deep and knows how to get to the foul line. It’s not always pretty, or the barrage of pace-and-space 3-point offense that has become pervasive in the sport. But it’s often hell for the other team — on both ends of the floor.
“That’s kind of what we are: We defend, rebound and run,” Izzo said. “Our margin for error is not great. We’re not going to walk up and out-talent anybody. That’s not insulting; that’s a fact of life.”
It’s been an effective one, too, good enough for 29 wins and counting. Michigan State didn’t enter this season with obvious aspirations of a Big Ten title or a deep tournament run. In fact, since the program’s most recent Final Four trip in 2019 — the eighth of Izzo’s career — and the canceled tournament in 2020, the Spartans had hovered around .500 in league play and reached the second weekend just once over the previous four seasons, all while the transfer portal and name, image, and likeness (NIL) upended the sport.
But this year’s team, which went 17-3 in the Big Ten and secured its highest bracket seed since 2019, arrived here, at least in part, because of the foundational adjustments Izzo has made. It was a nostalgic season in which Izzo returned to his roots, choosing to let go of the things he can no longer control.
“Winning helps everybody enjoy something. But I’ve made it pretty well known that I was disappointed in the direction (the sport) was going,” Izzo said. “I let it bother me, and I don’t think I did as good a job. Just like I ask (my players) to look in the mirror once in a while, I had to look in the mirror, too. I’ve spent a little more time just worrying about my team.”
That approach was underscored this week when Izzo was asked about the impact of the transfer portal window opening on Monday, and having to balance next year’s roster planning in the midst of an ongoing Tournament run.
Izzo left no doubt where he’s directing his attention.
“I’m going to worry today about the guys I got in this program that have done an incredible job this year, and that’s it,” he said. “If that costs me later, then so be it. But Tom Izzo isn’t cheating the people that have been loyal to him for this chaos that is going on out there.
“These guys that gave me everything they could give me are going to have a chance, and I’m not gonna screw it up by spending any other time on other stuff.”
Have seen this clip from our live stream making its rounds on social media so I thought I would get it out there as well.
Here was Tom Izzo earlier today on the transfer portal and it being open while teams are preparing for the Sweet 16. @wilxTV pic.twitter.com/pjQ4PhfexF
— Seth Wells (@SethWellsTV) March 25, 2025
This fiery focus is nothing new. Asked last week to offer a one-word description of their head coach, a handful of MSU players painted a clear and familiar portrait.
Jeremy Fears Jr.: “Furious.”
Jaden Akins: “Experienced.”
Tre Holloman: “Winner.”
Jase Richardson: “Motivated.”
It’s the same Izzo basketball fans have grown accustomed to over 30 years on the sideline — eyes piercing, smoke steaming out of his ears. But there’s something else behind that passion this season, a motivating force both old and new.
“Yeah, I feel like he’s been having a lot of joy with us,” Akins, a senior guard and the team’s leading scorer in his fourth season with the program, said. “We’re winning, so that definitely plays a part in it. I just feel like we’re a good group to be around.”
Those close to Izzo have noticed it as well.
“Despite his snarling on the sidelines, I think Izzo is coaching with joy, because he really likes his guys. He’s really enjoying it,” said Phil Martelli Sr., the longtime coach at Saint Joseph’s and, more recently, an assistant at Michigan who has been a close friend of Izzo for decades.
“At 3:30 in the afternoon, every college basketball coach gets to wear sneakers to work. Then at 6:30, you decide: are you a general manager, a fundraiser, a contract negotiator, or is that someone else’s responsibility?” Martelli said.
“Tom Izzo decided he still wants to be a basketball coach. He is not giving into the transactional nature. He’s continuing to make it transformational.”
Another memory bubbled to the surface during Michigan State’s trip to Cleveland last weekend. In the summer of 2010, the Cleveland Cavaliers offered their head coaching job to Izzo. He had turned down an offer from the Hawks in Atlanta years earlier, but this was an opportunity to stay close to his home state of Michigan and, at the time, potentially coach LeBron James, who ended up joining the Miami Heat a few weeks later.
Izzo elected to stay with the Spartans, stating then, “I am going to be a lifer (at Michigan State). This is what I’m going to be, and I’m damn proud of it.”
He acknowledged he thought back on that decision when the team arrived last Thursday at Rocket Arena, home of the Cavs, for the first round. But not with any second thoughts.
“You wonder, but I don’t regret. Everybody has a choice to make, and I made my choices,” Izzo said. “I was lucky enough to work for people at Michigan State that kept me around, and it’s worked out pretty good. I’m cool with that.”
Izzo’s past decade in East Lansing hasn’t hit the same heights as his first 20 years. As so many of his counterparts have moved on, even younger coaches like Jay Wright and Tony Bennett, it was natural to consider whether this new iteration of the sport was passing him by. But this season — in which Izzo surpassed Bob Knight as the Big Ten’s all-time wins leader and re-established a largely homegrown roster at the top of the conference and near the top of the sport, all while getting back to basics and remaining true to himself — has been a welcome reminder. Of the coach he was and is. Of what he means to Michigan State. And of what it means to him.
“My old boss, (former Michigan State head coach) Jud Heathcote, once said that a good deal is a good deal for you and a good deal for me,” Izzo said. “If it’s a one-sided deal, it’s not a good deal. This has been a good deal for me and a good deal, I think, for (Michigan State).”
A lot of ink has been spilled about the Big Ten’s championship drought in men’s basketball, which dates to MSU’s 2000 title team. Of the league’s four remaining teams in an SEC-heavy Sweet 16, the Spartans may very well have the best chance at snapping that streak.
Izzo may be right when he says that serendipity and convenient timelines don’t guarantee success. History doesn’t win championships. Yet the way the past has hovered over Izzo and Michigan State this season, it could prove to be a good omen after all.
