Michigan State is on a roll. Tom Izzo likes his team, the Spartans are winning and it’s March. Now is no time to think about being 70 years old.
And apparently he isn’t. “He has the energy of a young coach,” freshman Jase Richardson was saying in the Michigan State locker room Friday, fresh off scoring 17 points to lead the Spartans over Oregon, 74-64, in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament. “Sometimes when you’re out there, you think he’s you’re age.”
Izzo was Richardson’s age in 1974, but never mind that. There is a bounce in Izzo’s step and this team has put it there, and we’re about to see how far that can go. The man has eight Final Fours, but the last one was six years ago and that feels like a long time in East Lansing. Throw out COVID and he has missed four consecutive Final Fours. He has never missed five.
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“You know, I am having fun,” Izzo said. “I think that’s hard to say at this time of year because you’re playing for so much, but these guys have been great for me. I think I’ve made some adjustments for them. It’s been good.”
You can tell by the results.
Michigan State won the Big Ten season title by three games, and the 27-5 record includes eight consecutive victories, all against quad 1 competition. Throttling Oregon, the Spartans didn’t look much like they were just here killing time until they get their NCAA tournament assignment Sunday. “We want hardware,” Tre Holloman said. “We’re not coming here to play around.” Jaden Akins seconded that. “This is where Michigan State basketball needs to be. We’re trying to carry that torch for everybody else that came before us.”
Those are old school words, and Izzo must love that. The me-first mentality of the NIL and transfer portal age aggravates him to his core. Just like he loves Richardson — an accomplished and mature freshman whose father Jason played for Izzo’s 2000 national champions — coming over to the bench during Friday’s game and admitting he had just taken some bad shots.
“Who in the hell says that this day and age?” Izzo said. “I don’t think there’s such a thing as a bad shot for most of these guys.
“They all feel like our motto’s been to be different, be different.”
These are good times, just when questions were starting to swirl around one of the nation’s soundest programs. The Spartans were a very pedestrian 43-38 in Big Ten games the past four seasons. Michigan State’s run of 26 consecutive NCAA tournament bids — the nation’s longest — barely stayed alive in 2021 when the Spartans were put in the First Four with a 15-12 record. Their seedings the past four tournaments have been 11, 7, 7 and 9, and they have made it past the first weekend once. “It’s just not our standards,” Izzo said Friday. “So I had to take a good look at myself first, my staff, we talked about it. The being different is, we’re going to play a lot of people . . . we’ll see how they end up. As it’s happening, some guys are playing a few more minutes, some guys a few less, but we’re still playing a lot of people. I think it’s one of the reasons we’ve been injury free all year, so there’s been some pluses to it.
“But they have to know there are some guys that are going to play more than others, especially as you get into this. They’ve embraced it. They’ve been selfless. They pull for one another. When I’m getting on somebody in the huddle, the other guys are pulling for him. Come to think of it, nobody’s pulling for me. But that’s what’s going on with this team, and it’s pretty cool.”
In this committee approach, nobody on the Michigan State team averages 13 points a game, but there are seven between 12.9 and 7.0. That’s how a champion wins the Big Ten by three games but gets nobody on the first or second all-conference teams,.
“We trust him,” Adkins said. “We trust what he’s trying to do.”
For this mini-revival, Izzo was named Big Ten coach of the year. Oldest winner ever. Then again, he’d be the oldest national championship coach, too. Just in case.
Next up, Wisconsin Saturday in the Big Ten semis, after the Badgers blew away UCLA 86-70 Friday. This league is one head-knocker after another. “With eight teams that are playing today, and I think any one of the eight can go somewhere in the NCAA tournament . . . this is as good a day of basketball as I’ve seen,” Izzo said of the Friday sessions. “And I’ve been in this thing for every one of the Big Ten tournaments.
“I’m glad I haven’t left, I love it in this league.”
It’s a heavily trampled-upon fact that the Big Ten has not won a national championship in 25 years, and Michigan State was the last team to do it. But it’s still true.
“It really hurts our league, it just hurts perception,” Izzo said. “And then it hurts me to think we’ve been there eight times and only won one. Like, what am I not doing, what am I doing?”
Maybe he has the team to ease the pain.
“I think Coach Izzo loves how together we are, how we are,” Holloman said. “We’re winning, too. Winning solves everything for us.”
Imagine what six wins starting next week could solve.
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