Having recently completed his 15th year directing the Spartan program, head coach Tom Izzo has compiled an impressive list of accomplishments, including the 2000 NCAA National Championship, six regular-season Big Ten Championships, two Big Ten Tournament titles, six Final Four appearances, four National Coach of the Year awards and a Big Ten-best 13 straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
These accomplishments, however, are not what make Izzo one of the best in the game, but rather it is his insatiable desire to accomplish more.
With a career record of 364-146, it’s easy to see that Izzo knows how to win, but he also knows how to win the right way. In his 14 full years directing the Spartan program, 84 percent of his players who completed their eligibility also left with a degree. In the last 10 years, 31 Spartans have received their undergraduate degrees, including five each in 2001, 2003 and 2007.
In 15 seasons, Izzo has returned Michigan State to national prominence, placed his name in the NCAA record books and become a leader among college basketball coaches. Izzo’s 364 wins are the fourth most by any coach in his first 15 seasons in the history of college basketball. In late November 2009, he passed his mentor Jud Heathcote (340 wins) to become MSU’s all-time winningest coach. In the NCAA Tournament, Izzo is at his best, winning at a clip of .745 to rank third among all active coaches with at least 10 tournament games coached.
Izzo has led MSU to six Final Four appearances in the last 12 seasons, becoming the only team to accomplish that feat between 1999 and 2010 and just the fourth school in college basketball history to do it in any 12-year span, including just the third since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Izzo also became just the second coach in NCAA history to reach four Final Fours in his first 10 years of coaching, joining Ohio State’s Fred Taylor, and is just the third coach in NCAA history to appear in six Final Fours in a 12-year span, and just the second since the tournament expanded to 64 teams. His six Final Four appearances rank tied for fifth all-time, third among active coaches and first all-time among Big Ten coaches, having most recently passed former Indiana head coach Bob Knight.