Tom Izzo’s 25th season as Michigan State’s basketball coach clearly places him in rarified air. Among one-school identity coaches winning an NCAA title, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim is the only other club member at 44 and counting.
Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski is in his 40th Blue Devils season with five NCAA titles, but he spent five at Army. Jay Wright’s 19th at Villanova (two titles) was preceded by seven at Hofstra. North Carolina’s Roy Williams (three titles) is in his 17th Chapel Hill season that has followed 15 at Kansas. Ol Roy’s departure from Lawrence opened the door to a 17-year run for Bill Self (one title) following stops at Oral Roberts, Tulsa and Illinois.
When Final Fours are factored in, there’s only Coach K (12), Williams (nine), Izzo (eight) and Boeheim (five). Wright has only two and Self three.
“Everything about Tom and Michigan State says stability,” said Dave Odom, who is best known for his 13 seasons at Wake Forest. “That’s important to a recruit. They know if they go to Michigan State they can be confident he will be there four years later.”
Izzo has publicly flirted with NBA offers from the Atlanta Hawks in 2000 and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2010 while turning away other unknown overtures. He also is believed to have been Kentucky’s first choice in 2009 before John Calipari was hired. But he never pulled the trigger.
“He has been true to his university,” Odom said. “He has been true to his players and they have been true to him. Tom does as good a job as anybody staying in contact with his former players.”
GROWING YOUNGER
Izzo’s East Lansing tenure, which included 12 as an assistant, totals 37. He was 28 when he joined Jud Heathcote’s staff and eventually succeeded his mentor.
Izzo turns 65 on Jan. 30, but stability in college basketball has created a new kind of coaching threshold. Older coaches grow younger remaining with one school. Turning 65 used to mean retirement. John Wooden was 65 (and looked it) when he retired after his 10th NCAA title in 1975.
Now, though, an older coach is viewed as younger to his employer than he is to a school seeking a proven candidate to rebuild a program.
Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun won his third NCAA title at age 69 before he retired a year later at the end of the 2012 season. Boeheim turned 75 last week. He says he thinks about retirement less now than when he was in his 60s.
Krzyzewski turns 73 in February. Williams is 69, but North Carolina signed him to an eight-year extension.
Odom says program stability has aided Izzo developing talent, allowing him to keep up with schools that typically land more 5-star recruits than the Spartans.
“Now, how does that stability transfer to the court?” Odom said. “Well, most of his teams play with experience. They’ve been coached two years going into their third year. Cassius Winston is a great example. He was good last year because of his freshman and sophomore seasons.
“This year he is a preseason All-American and Player of the Year candidate. He played himself into this by listening to Tom’s coaching and Tom’s stability of staying there. He didn’t come in as a 5-star player, but he will graduate and have a great pro career, of that I’m sure.”
Winston was a reason Michigan State beat Duke, which featured three NBA one-and-done players drafted among the top 10 picks, in the last year NCAA Tournament Elite Eight round. Another reason was the development of fifth-year senior Kenny Goins, who had the green light to hit the game-winning shot as a secondary option against the Blue Devils.
VETERANS AND THE FINAL FOUR
Izzo’s first of eight Final Four teams in 1999 was led by a senior, Antonio Smith, and two juniors, Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson.
Cleaves and Peterson were back for the 2000 national championship season along with another senior starter, A.J. Granger. Charlie Bell and Andre Hutson were juniors.
Bell, Hutson and David Thomas were seniors on the third straight Final Four team in 2001, although Jason Richardson was a two-and-done sophomore and Zach Randolph a one-and-done freshman.
Alan Anderson and Chris Hill were seniors on the 2005 Final Four trip along with juniors Paul Davis and Maurice Ager.
Veterans remained an Izzo staple following the NBA’s implementation of the “one-and-done” rule in 2006.
The 2009 team played in the national championship game with seniors Goran Suton and Travis Walton and junior Raymar Morgan.
Morgan was a senior for the repeat trip in 2010, although it was one of Izzo’s younger Final Four teams. Draymond Green and Delvon Roe were sophomores along with juniors Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers
The 2015 Final Four run was led by seniors Travis Trice and Brendan Dawson and juniors Denzell Valentine, Matt Costello and Bryn Forbes.
Last year’s Final Four with Winston and Goins included senior Matt McQuaid and juniors Nick Ward and Winston.
Winston is now a senior trying to lead the Spartans back to the Final Four with senior Kyle Ahrens and junior Xavier Tillman. The Spartans also hope senior Josh Langford, who was a 5-star in the Class of 2016 along with Winston as a 4-star, is healthy for the second half of the season.
The Final Four chances for 2019-20 roster resembles 2009 with big seasons needed from younger players. The X-factors are five 4-star sophomores, Aaron Henry, Thomas Kithier, Gabe Brown, Marcus Bingham and Foster Loyer, and three freshmen, Rocket Watts (4-stars), Malik Hall (4-stars) and Julius Marble (3-stars).
The 5-stars in this year’s Maui field are Georgia freshman shooting guard Anthony Edwards, Kansas sophomore point guard Devon Dotson, Kansas junior power forward Silvio De Sousa
WHERE ARE 5-STARS NOW?
Based on the Class of 2016 forward, both Kansas and UCLA signed others 5-stars players, but they have moved on before this season.
Kansas: Quentin Grimes, Class of 2018, transferred home to Houston; Billy Preston, Class of 2017, left school without playing in a game due NCAA investigation sidelining him; and Josh Jackson, Class of 2016, was a one-and-done now playing in NBA G-League.
None of them played in a Final Four.
UCLA: Moses Brown, Class of 2018, undrafted one-and-done playing in NBA G-League; Kris Wilkes, Class of 2017, undrafted after two college seasons and isn’t with a team; Jaylen Hands, Class of 2017, played college two seasons and is now in NBA G-League; Lonzo Ball, Class of 2016, played one UCLA season, was a bust with the Los Angeles Lakers – not to mention a headache with his father Lamar — and is now with his second NBA team, the New Orleans Pelicans; T.J. Leaf, Class of 2016, played one Bruins season and started only one game his first two NBA seasons in Indiana.
None of them played in a Final Four.
That prompts a comparison to the post-college careers of Izzo’s 5-stars in the past four-year cycle.
Mile Bridges, Class of 2016, played two Michigan State seasons and is in his second year with the Charlotte Hornets, starting 25 games last and starting every game to date this season. Jaren Jackson, Class of 2017, is in his second season with the Memphis Grizzlies, starting all but two games last year and every game this season.
Although Bridges and Jackson missed out on a Final Four, Winston enjoyed one. How will Winston be remembered at Michigan State compared to 2016 alums Josh Jackson at Kansas or Lonzo Ball at UCLA?
“What a player gets at Michigan State is he feels supported,” Odom said. “Tom has had some players leave early, but I think, consciously or unconsciously, he has recruited players who need him as a coach.
“Maybe the players don’t know it coming in, but they quickly learn it. They need him more than he needs them. It’s been a good marriage. You rarely see one of his players leave early. You rarely see one transfer out. They transfer in, but they don’t transfer out. The ground isn’t shaking around Tom Izzo in East Lansing.”
SINGULAR IDENTITY
Izzo covets a second NCAA title, but with or without a second crown his one-school identity has lifted him to a lofty plateau that other coaches have abandoned in a move to cash in on an NCAA title or Final Four trip.
Consider Izzo’s legacy compared those that diluted their identities.
— Rick Pitino won titles at Kentucky and Louisville, but who is he now? He was once the coach that left Providence for the New York Knicks. He failed and landed at Kentucky. He jumped to the Boston Celtics. He failed and landed at Louisville, alienating his Kentucky fans. Ultimately, Louisville pushed Pitino out the door for failing to cover up one scandal too many – this time the FBI shoe company/agent investigation.
— John Calipari has a Kentucky, but he’s also was the head coach at two schools forced to vacate Final Four appearances (Massachusetts and Memphis). He left UMass for the NBA, failed with the old New Jersey Nets, bounced back to college at Memphis and bailed on the school that got him in back in the college game for Kentucky money and fame and the Wildcats’ irrational fan base.
— Billy Donovan has two NCAA titles at Florida, but he left for the NBA. He has watched James Harden, Kevin Durant, Paul George and Bryant Westbrook leave Oklahoma City. Now he’s stuck with a sub.-500 team.
— Lon Kruger is the Oklahoma coach that took the Sooners to the 2016 Final Four. Or is he the former coach at Kansas State? Florida? Illinois? UNLV? Or is he the coach that took the Atlanta Hawks job that Izzo turned down in 2000 and was fired three years later?
— Brad Stevens is the coach that took giant-killer Butler to back-to-back Final Fours in 2010 and 2011 (the former at Izzo’s expense in the semifinals). He’s also Boston Celtics coach that had an NBA title opportunity undermined by injuries and the selfish play of Kyrie Irving. Maybe he’ll still win a title; maybe not.
They all saw greener grass. Izzo settled for Michigan State’s green and white, a one-school legacy that is rare in college basketball.
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I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055
Tom Shanahan, Author: Raye of Light http://tinyurl.com/knsqtqu
— Book on Michigan State’s leading role in the integration of college football. It explains Duffy Daugherty’s untold pioneering role and debunks myths that steered recognition away from him to Bear Bryant.
http://shanahan.report/a/the-case-for-duffy-and-medal-of-freedom
Don’t believe the myths at Duffy Daugherty’s expense about Bear Bryant’s motivation to play the 1970 USC-Alabama game or myths about the Charlie Thornhill-for-Joe Namath trade. Bear Bryant knew nothing about black talent in the South while he dragged his feet on segregation.
http://www.shanahan.report/a/forty-four-underground-railroad-legacy-facts
http://shanahan.report/a/myths-that-grew-out-of-1970-alabama-game-with-usc
http://shanahan.report/a/mystery-solved-in-thornhill-and-namath-myth
David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and biographer; “History writes people out of the story. It’s our job to write them back in.”
https://www.augustpublications.com/
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