Michigan State's Tom Izzo is a constant in era of change
By John Fanta
FOX Sports College Basketball Writer
Roy Williams was sitting in Mother’s Restaurant in New Orleans this past April, smiling and enjoying his vantage point in retirement as a fan for North Carolina’s run to the national championship game.
Down the street at the Superdome, Mike Krzyzewski’s last dance was ongoing with Duke, while Jay Wright was quietly in his final days on the job at Villanova.
These college basketball greats have all said goodbye to the sidelines, and while they don’t publicly admit it, it’s not a coincidence that a time of rapid change in the sport has impacted their decision-making.
Those figures might be quiet. Tom Izzo isn’t.
"Stupidity? Well, maybe it’s insanity actually," the Michigan State head coach told FOX Sports with a chuckle when asked about why he’s still coaching. "Look, in all seriousness, I love what I do. The moment that I don’t enjoy this, I’m getting out of it. Getting the opportunity to impact the lives of young men is a beautiful thing that I don’t take for granted.
"I think in our game, we’ve made some mistakes in recent years. Some agree with me behind closed doors. When we lose coaches for some of the reasons that they left, it saddens me. You think about it, and we have to recruit our own kids from transferring. I’ve just made the decision to get on every board, and I’d like to fight my way through it."
While Izzo’s beliefs certainly have brought forth disagreement from others, there are two things that can’t be argued: He is candid in expressing his views, and he’s one of the all-time winners in college basketball. He's also, for the record, not against players profiting off their name, image and likeness.
"I absolutely believe that any player should be able to benefit off of their brand. I’m happy about that," he said. "What you don’t want to have is a situation where a player gets taken advantage of or steered in the wrong direction. I worry about that."
The transfer portal? That's his concern.
"It’s been a joke," he said. "When kids don’t even have to talk to their head coach before they leave, what are we teaching them? When everybody wants to transfer because of a little bit of adversity, what are we teaching them? We’ve missed out on the process lately, and that failure in life is a part of success.
"I’ll survive as a coach, but the question I always ask is if it’s good for the players. Anything that we do in this sport has to be about the kids."
The 2016 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame selection and winningest coach in Big Ten history enters his 28th year at the helm in East Lansing, and he doesn’t have plans to step away anytime soon. On Aug. 11, Michigan State University announced a five-year contract extension for Izzo worth approximately $6.2 million per year. The agreement is the latest update to what Izzo and the program have called his "Spartan for Life" commitment, locking him into the job as long as he would like it.
Since Izzo first arrived in East Lansing to serve as an assistant coach under Jed Heathcote in 1983, others have called, attempting to lure him away. Most notably, Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert tried to get the Hall of Famer to Cleveland as an effort to keep LeBron James there before "The Decision" in 2010.
Izzo declined, and a four-decade stay at Michigan State has become reality.
"I love the college. I love the Big Ten. I love football Saturdays around here," Izzo said. "We’ve gone through every step of life here. I started out as a graduate assistant. Maybe I was scared to leave, or maybe I was comfortable enough not to leave. Whatever people want to say, this place has been good to me. Jud Heathcote used to say, ‘A good deal is a good deal only when it’s a good deal for you and for me.’ Well, I think Michigan State is a good deal for me, and I think I’ve been a pretty good deal for them."
As for the current state of the Spartans, they've had a huge summer following an up-and-down 23-13 season that ended with a loss to Duke in the Round of 32.
While Izzo cannot comment on the actual players, Michigan State has reeled in a trio of four-star commitments for the 2023 class in just the last month — center Xavier Booker (July 30), wing Gehrig Normand (Aug. 2) and forward Coen Carr (Aug. 9). Those three commitments catapulted Michigan State up to the No. 2 spot in the 247 Sports recruiting rankings for 2023, behind only Duke.
"I have loved our summer," he said. "My assistants did a great job with recruiting, but the players did a hell of a job with it, too. One of the things I always try to hold our program to is this: a player-coached team is better than a coach-coached team. Throughout my time here, we’ve typically had a team that gets along well together and takes ownership of the program. For different reasons, that has not been exactly the case at times. Getting that back has been the goal, and our players have gotten back to that this summer. I feel like it’s created momentum for us."
Will this translate to results on the floor?
The Spartans have some questions to answer, having lost their top three scorers from last season: Gabe Brown, Max Christie and Marcus Bingham Jr. Beyond those departures, Michigan State is thin on frontcourt weapons. Izzo has typically gone traditional throughout his career by employing the classic center in the paint, but with such an unproven core at the position, playing small ball is going to be something the Spartans do this year.
"It’s definitely going to happen," Izzo said. "There’s no question that at center, it’s a weak spot for us. It’s also only weak because it’s so unknown. I like the different things we can do. We have to rely on someone else stepping up at some point, too."
The options in the paint? There’s junior Mady Sissoko, who averaged 5.5 minutes per game as a freshman and 4.5 minutes last season. Four-star freshman Jaxon Kohler, a 6-foot-11 recruit from California, is someone Izzo believes will get some chances.
"Jaxon is a kid who reminds me of Zach Randolph in some ways," he said. "Jaxon lives 15 minutes from Zach. He moves like him and has a lot of the same offensive skills as him. The question is whether or not he can guard people. But I love his attitude and his shooting ability. He’s really got a chance. We’re having a reunion soon and Zach’s coming in for it. I’m going to have those two talk with each other."
As for what the smaller lineup could look like, fifth-year senior Joey Hauser (7.3 PPG) may very well take on the starting five slot, while returning leading scorer and senior Malik Hall (8.9 PPG) could be at power forward.
Part of Izzo’s strategy for implementing such a different style can be traced to one of the men involved in the Golden State Warriors’ renaissance, Michigan State great Draymond Green.
"In honor of Draymond and the Warriors, we’ll be watching a lot of film on what they do, and I’ve been watching how they do it. Now I’ve just got to figure out how to find a Steph Curry," Izzo said with a chuckle. "One big takeaway with going smaller is that it’s harder to exploit a mismatch with a 24-second shot clock as opposed to a 30-second one. We have to deal with that. When our guys get going back on campus, Draymond will talk to them. There’s no one better to hear from than him, and there’s no better organization to watch than Golden State."
Tom Izzo discusses Draymond Green's evolution
As for the backcourt, Izzo said senior guard Tyson Walker has had the best summer of any player on the team. Walker transferred into the Spartans program from Northeastern and after some initial obstacles, finished strong, averaging 10.3 points and 4.3 assists over his last 11 games.
"I think Tyson showed why sometimes it’s okay for a transfer if he sits out a year, because you can get so much from that gap season," Izzo said. "While that’s not really in place anymore, he grew a lot as the year went on, and we think he could carry that into this season."
Junior guard AJ Hoggard, who led Michigan State with 174 assists last season, is the man Izzo believes could be the team’s leader this season.
"AJ really has the potential to be that guy for us," said Izzo. "I really don’t believe in having multiple leaders. If there’s a negative to our group right now, that’s it. You need one guy to step up. The question for AJ is, when he comes back to school, does he remain in the best shape? Does he do the things that a leader must do? He needs to gather everybody together and make the others around him better."
Even with this core of players back, Michigan State’s season could come down to how well a couple of returning players will perform with an increased role this season.
Sophomore guard Jaden Akins, whose role was limited in a crowded backcourt last season, has breakout potential. Izzo raved about him.
"He could be monumental for us," Izzo said of the former four-star recruit out of Sunrise Christian Academy. "Last year, he paid his dues behind Max [Christie]. Right now, he’s my hardest worker. He’s my best grade point average at over 3.8. He’s put on about 12 pounds of muscle. He can play both ends of the floor like Gary Harris did for us. Jaden just has to keep working on the shooting aspect, but his growth has been tremendous. He’s a quiet kid, but I’ve been trying to get him to understand that he has to be more vocal. He will play a lot more minutes this season alongside Tyson and AJ. Jaden is the best-conditioned guy on the team."
With Brown and Christie gone, another area Izzo is focused on is the wing positions — 6-foot-6 sophomore Pierre Brooks will have an opportunity to contribute, as Izzo thinks he could also help in the Spartans’ rebound-by-committee approach.
While there are multiple key questions for Michigan State to answer, it’s not like they are going to have chances to try things out against weaker teams. The Spartans are playing a slate as challenging as any in the country, with at least six high-major opponents on the schedule.
After a Nov. 11 game against Gonzaga on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in San Diego, Michigan State will head to Indianapolis to meet Kentucky at the Champions Classic. That could very well be back-to-back games against top-five teams in the first eight days of the season.
The Spartans follow that up by hosting Villanova in the Gavitt Games before visiting Notre Dame in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. If that wasn’t already enough, a trip to Portland comes Thanksgiving Week for the PK85 Tournament celebrating Nike founder Phil Knight’s birthday. The Spartans will get Alabama in the opener, then either UConn or Oregon.
"Did I bite off more than I could chew? Probably, yes," Izzo said. "But, this is why guys come here. Our scheduling is unbelievable. That’s what you sign up for at Michigan State. What I have to do is convince fans and people on Twitter that if you lose some games during that stretch, the world does not end. In 2003-04, we started the season at 5-7. We ended up at 12-4 in the Big Ten and finished in second place. If you play a cupcake schedule, people kiss your behind. That’s one thing you’ll never have happen here. The schedule takes care of cockiness. In December, when we get a bridge to get better, we know what strengths and weaknesses are. Some people don’t."
What are those weaknesses that Izzo wants to work on from now until November?
"We’ve got to improve turnovers and manage through defensive pressure," he said.
The Spartans committed the most turnovers in the Big Ten last season with 459 and finished second-to-last in the league in turnover margin at -2.39.
Tom Izzo discusses the role of parity and social media
Beyond anything about his team specifically or the state of the game, one thing Izzo has spent time reflecting on this offseason is social media. Just how important is the topic for the Michigan State head coach? He discussed it with LeBron James at Draymond Green’s wedding a few weeks ago.
"LeBron and I talked about the fact that when the playoffs start, he goes off Twitter," Izzo said. "Why does he do that? Because he knows it’s a distraction. I can say what I want, but when an average college student spends eight to nine hours per day on his or her phone, you’re not going to win the battle."
John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him on Twitter @John_Fanta.
