Big Ten basketball: Tom Izzo passes Bob
Knight; here’s the Top 5
MSU’s Tom Izzo stands alone atop the Big Ten in conference wins. Here’s who rounds out the Top 5
EAST LANSING — Tom Izzo took the moments before Michigan State basketball’s first practice to make a few declarations. But not until the Hall of Fame coach delivered a jarring jest – followed by an eye-opening admission.
“(Mark) Dantonio’s in my office. I tried to get him to come in, because I figured since everybody’s resigning that you’d be the first to know I’m resigning today,” Izzo joked Monday, Sept. 22. “How’s that? … Coach Dantonio just told me he’d take over for me.”
No, Izzo continued, he would not be stepping away, like Auburn’s Bruce Pearl did about an hour earlier. Or like Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Jay Wright and so many of his peers have done in recent years. The 70-year-old remains too consumed with winning an elusive second national championship to go with the one he won 25 years ago in 2000.
“I gotta figure out who I can beat so I can quit,” Izzo said, “because everybody that beats me quits or resigns.”
When a reporter chimed in, “Win the last one and you can,” Izzo gave a glimpse into his thinking for his future leading the program he built into a college basketball power.
“If I win the last one?” Izzo said. “It’d be a cold day in hell before I quit then. So don’t worry about that.”
To say Izzo is jovial and rejuvenated at the outset of his 31st season-opening practice as the head coach is an understatement. And to clarify, he added that it’s a great day for him “because I’m NOT resigning,” among myriad other reasons.
He became a grandfather for the second time Monday morning with the birth of granddaughter, Sophie. The new addition to Rocky Izzo McDonald’s growing family joins her sister, 2-year-old Isabelle.
His team recently picked four captains – seniors Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper, junior Coen Carr and third-year sophomore Jeremy Fears Jr. This is just the fifth time (1998-99, 2004-05, 2005-06), and the first since 2009-10, that the Spartans will have four captains in Izzo’s 31 seasons at the helm of the MSU program. It’s a core leadership corps that last season helped take Izzo to his record-tying 11th Big Ten regular-season title and 11th Elite Eight (where the Spartans lost to Pearl and Auburn).
He’s still feeling the energy from MSU’s annual Grind Week reunion and workouts earlier this month. More than 60 of Izzo’s former players returned to play against and alongside his current team. In their company, Izzo looked around and glowed proudly as he saw the past, present and future of his program.
The roster included Izzo high school recruits who played one year at MSU (Jace Richardson and Jaren Jackson Jr.), two years (Miles Bridges and Gary Harris) to four-year stars (Draymond Green and Kalin Lucas). It included short-term portal additions (Brandon Wood and Eron Harris) as well as those who left the program via transfer (Chris Allen and Korie Luscious).
“I had some (former) players calling out my guys for some of the strangest things. One of them was losing a game to the pros,” Izzo said. “And I just sat back and watched them, in their own language, tell them what they thought. And I watched our guys respond. …
“I think that those (former) guys are seeing what is turning into the problems that we’re all gonna have. And it’s the new four-letter word, except it’s not four letters – and that’s entitlement. I think they’re seeing it at their level, and they don’t like it, either. ‘So don’t be entitled, guys, because it ain’t gonna make it.’”
Izzo said those former players sent him “tear-jerking” text messages and phone calls in the days after Grind Week ended. Those left him feeling “more motivated” and stoked an eternal fire burning in Izzo to push forward as the sport both evolves and devolves around him – and he plans to continue to do it his own way. As he did his first 30 years on the job.
“I don’t care if I last 10 more years or 10 more days,” Izzo said, “nobody in the country will ever have what we have. Nobody. They never had it, and they’ll never have it. Because who’s gonna state long enough to even enjoy it?”
Jeremy Fears Jr. flourishing
Fears, a point guard Izzo has likened to Mateen Cleaves for years, was named a captain for the first time. After getting shot in December 2023 and receiving a medical redshirt as he recovered, Fears had a full summer of workouts this year. Last season, after being limited during the summer, he still played all but one game as MSU went 30-7 last season and won the Big Ten title by three games.
Izzo said Fears’ vertical leap has increased by about 5 inches as his left upper thigh has fully healed. He’s also shooting the ball better and in better shape, but it’s Fears’ leadership that Izzo sees as the most important thing for the Spartans to repeat or surpass last year’s success.
“He’s as stubborn as I am on some things, he’s as competitive as I am on some things,” Izzo said. “But it did take me last year to realize if you miss a summer, you miss a lot in this sport.”
Big visions
Izzo had high praise for his two new swingmen, likening 6-foot-7 Jordan Scott to one-and-done perimeter threat Max Christie while gushing that 6-8 low-block presence Cam Ward “might be the strongest, toughest freshman I’ve had in a while.”
When’s Midnight Madness?
MSU will hold its first public unveiling with its annual “Midnight Madness” open practice Friday, Oct. 3. Breslin Center doors open at 8 p.m.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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