Michigan State coach Tom Izzo has been named Big Ten Coach of the Year. And at age 70, he became the oldest coach to be given the honor. Izzo also gets the distinction of being the coach with the longest gap between wins, having last won the award in 2012.
Izzo was informed of both facts ahead of the Big Ten Tournament, and the coach joked with the reporter who relayed the information.
“Damn, is that a compliment or an insult?” said Izzo.
After starting as an assistant coach in 1983, Tom Izzo has been the head coach of the Spartans since 1995. He has won the Big Ten Coach of the Year three times prior to his most recent achievement, but says he couldn’t have done so without his players and his fellow coaches.
“Well, number one, not with humility, but you don’t win these without your staff and your players,” Izzo said. “I mean, they won the award. They do the brunt of the work, I just manage it. So, number one, I want to thank them all publicly.”
The coach added, “Because we preach to our players all the time, ‘If the team has success, the individuals within the team will have success.’ I’m a recipient of the success our team had.”
A look at Tom Izzo’s successful season
Michigan head coach Tom Izzo has led the seventh-ranked Spartans to massive success this season. The team finished the regular season 26-5 and entered the Big Ten Tournament as the top seed.
This season marks the first time since 2020 that the Spartans have been regular-season conference champions. It will be their first time since 2019 if they win the Big Ten Tournament.
Michigan State finished the regular season with seven consecutive victories and is expected to be the second seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Spartans fell to top-seeded UNC in the Round of 32 last season, and they will look to run a longer March Madness campaign this time around.
It has been a quarter of a century since Michigan State won the national championship, winning their second title in 2000 under Izzo. The team looks to win their third one this year.
“I am pleased, I don’t know if it has the same meaning now that I found out I’m the oldest and it’s the oldest in between,” Izzo said. “But at the same time, I think it serves to what I say all the time. You can adjust and change, but the basics of what you do in these jobs and what is needed to do to win championships hasn’t changed in 100 years, much less 20.”
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
