Analysis: Izzo shows he's still got it, as Spartans claim another Big Ten title

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Tom Izzo slouched back in his chair in the Carver-Hawkeye Arena media room. His Michigan State team had just claimed the Big Ten title outright with a 91-84 win over Iowa. Someone had asked him about Fran McCaffery, the 15-year and 500-game Iowa coach whose future has been called into question amid a losing season for the Hawkeyes.

Izzo tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling, trying to find the right words. The Spartans' coach of the last 30 years heartily endorsed a peer he believes coaches the right way. It hit close to home for a coach who’s been in those shoes, even just six short months ago.

“I look at some of the players he’s had and what they’ve done. You know, you get lucky and unlucky,” Izzo said. “I mean, I just went through a three-year period where everybody wants to ship me out. I mean, it's just the way it is.”

Because of this year’s miracle Spartans, most will forget the three down years when some called an aging Izzo into question. Izzo has coached Michigan State to its first Big Ten championship in five years and first outright title in seven, all without the star power he’s had on any of his 11 title teams. He’s managed a roster that sees 10 players with regular minutes in the lineup, one whose top scorer (Jaden Akins) ranks 34th in the conference. By committee, by luck and by a whole lot of brute force, Michigan State sits atop a conference in which it was predicted to finish fifth at the start of the year.

It’s a remarkable turnaround.

This 11th title adds to a laundry list of records for the Hall of Fame coach. He’s tied with Indiana’s Bob Knight and Purdue’s Ward “Piggy” Lambert for the most titles in Big Ten history, and he leads the conference with 359 wins and counting. For a coach nicknamed Mr. March, and for a team that has proven time and time again it can rise from the mat just like it did Thursday, there’s a chance these Spartans keep on winning.

“Our consistency has been unbelievable, if you ask me,” Izzo said. “I mean, that's a great credit to my staff.”

There’s space to say Izzo grew, adjusted, listened to all the critiques heading into this season — and he did, to some extent, dropping from NCAA committees and focusing his efforts on this team. Izzo listened when former players told him he coached differently than he used to. And yet this team is, in Izzo stubbornness, one big throwback. The mantra to defend, rebound and run has Michigan State tied for its most conference wins in school history, with a chance to break the record on Sunday against Michigan. This team dunks as much as it makes threes. And with dogged determination and physicality, it defends.

And it works, just like so many other years. Who’d have seen this coming, back in October?

“It's hard man, like battling everybody else in competition, but also battling your own people,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said Feb. 18, comparing Izzo’s longevity to Joe DiMaggio’s famed 56-game hit streak. “I think people don't understand that the people that support you, you battle also, because when you raise your expectations and you go to eight Final Fours and 10 Big Ten championships, people expect that.

“As a coach, what people expect from you is your best year. So if he doesn't win the national championship, win the Big Ten, he's s---, right? And we all know he's really good.”

It’s a refrain the coaching fraternity has stuck to all season when reflecting on Izzo’s career — many among the old guard of Big Ten bosses — especially as he logs his name atop various record books that come with coaching for three decades. Not only can he still coach players tactically (hiccups against the zone notwithstanding), but his style of coaching — the tough-to-please but caring leader — is a big reason why this year’s Spartans are surging.

Look at Jaden Akins, the senior captain who has weathered a poor shooting season while being one of the conference’s best defensive players in marquee matchups. How about Jeremy Fears Jr., who Izzo has stuck by since a shooting last Christmas threatened both his life and his basketball career. Whether it's Xavier Booker’s slow growth or Frankie Fidler’s transfer acclimation, go down the roster and there’s a fingerprint of Izzo’s coaching on nearly every player.

Even in the highs, Izzo’s tough love gets the best from his team. Like when Jase Richardson got a little selfish in the second half of Thursday’s win, opting to stretch around a defender instead of passing the ball. You didn’t have to hear exact words to get the gist of what Izzo told Richardson on the sideline, and Michigan State’s offense was better for it. Even with the glow of a championship around his team, Izzo still spent more time calling out the struggles of an ugly win instead of gloating in the spotlight.

“Tom and I come from a generation where that's why we got into this business — it wasn't always about winning,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said Feb. 15, when Izzo broke Knight’s record for Big Ten wins. “Yes, we're competitive, but it was about seeing young people grow. … I have so much respect for the longevity of that and the fact that he's (70 years old), and still wanting to do that speaks volumes.”

It was never a question that Izzo would be around for Michigan State — they’re inseparable. What Thursday’s championship-clinching win proved is that he can still coach the Spartans to the top. That the coach who said, “I’m getting back to a deeper run in this tournament, or I'm going to die trying” at the end of last season has still got it. And as March unfolds in front of him, he’ll have a chance to prove how far he can take this team. For now, the Big Ten title is a reminder.

“I don’t have that many years left,” Izzo said, “so I'm going to just kind of say the Big Ten still matters to me, and it's going to matter to me until I walk out the door.”

Having proven himself all season, don't expect that any time soon.

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