So he blew up your brackets. Get over it and root for Tom Izzo, anyway. His Michigan State Spartans are the only ones coming to the Final Four bearing gifts. A stimulus package, you might even say.
“I’m just hoping,” Izzo said after his team beat Louisville to punch its ticket to Detroit, “we’re a silver lining in what’s been kind of a cloudy year for us. I’m hoping that we’re the sunshine … something to embrace.”
Nothing against the other coaches and teams arriving in the Motor City later this week to decide college basketball’s champion. Jim Calhoun, Jay Wright and Roy Williams are good guys all, and their squads, Connecticut, Villanova and North Carolina, respectively, are better than Michigan State – on paper. Of course, so were the Louisville Cardinals.
Besides, none of them can do as much for the city, state and even the NCAA this year as Izzo and his kids already have.
ichigan State to the Final Four for the fifth time since 1999, mostly with recruits drawn from the upper Midwest. But he was doing his part to boost the state’s fortunes even before that.
Izzo grew up in a town of 15,000 that sits hard by the mines in the Upper Peninsula’s Menominee Iron Range. The place was about hard work, a habit Izzo comes by honestly. His great-grandfather was a miner, his grandfather a shoemaker and his father a handyman.
In high school his best friend was Steve Mariucci, who went on to coach the NFL’s 49ers and Lions and now works as a TV analyst. Together they took Iron Mountain High to a regional final as juniors, but with his team trailing by one point and no time on the clock, Izzo missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
Every day since, he shoots 100 free throws to remind himself not to let another opportunity slip through his fingers. The young men who play for him learn that lesson early.
“He probably wants more for me than I want for myself,” said senior Travis Walton, who’s borne the brunt of Izzo’s tough love for four years.
“I love him. I’m pretty sure he loves me the same. We’re going to hopefully continue to ride each other,” Walton added, “and ride this team.”
Truth be told, it’s mostly a one-way street, which is why Izzo seems perpetually gruff and his voice always hoarse. But he’s not afraid to ask for help, either.
ady back on campus after the win over Southern California, Izzo made the short walk from a conference room to the video library to return the Louisville game tape he had been studying. The Spartans had to beat Kansas in Friday’s Midwest Regional semifinal just to get a shot at the Cardinals, but Izzo believes in doing his homework early. When he ran into a visitor in the hallway, instead of being embarrassed by the prospect of looking too far ahead, he was uncharacteristically upbeat.
“I like our chances,” he said breezily about a possible matchup against Louisville, the overall No. 1 seed.
But it was more than a hunch. Izzo’s teams were a very impressive 29-10 overall in the NCAAs at that point, but downright scary – 13-2 – in the second game of every round. He revised the game plan for Louisville several times, including just ahead of Sunday’s tip, but had no problem selling it to his players.
“One thing coach does is stick to his promises,” Walton recalled. “He said, ‘You get me through Friday, I’ll do my best to get you through Sunday.”’
The Spartans cracked Louisville’s vaunted pressure and minimized turnovers with smart guard play, then sliced up the half-court defense by deploying Goran Suton in the high post as a shooter or passer, depending on where the Cardinals’ rotation broke down.
ttle bit better at that style. We couldn’t get out on a break as much as we wanted. The tempo was definitely in their favor.”
Pitino knew what he was getting into. Leading up to the game, he couldn’t have said more flattering things about Izzo if he tried. He praised him not just for doing things right on the court, but for the Michigan State program at every turn – subjects Pitino knows plenty about.
Louisville is his sixth head-coaching stop while Izzo, who’s had almost as many suitors from the NBA and other top-shelf colleges, is still at his first. Soon after taking over from Jud Heathcote, he convinced his first big-time recruit, Mateen Cleaves out of gritty Flint, Mich., to stay home and help him build something to rival Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina and Duke.
Izzo kept that promise, too. Every kid that stayed four years has made it to a Final Four. Michigan State can’t boast the tradition those programs have, but he’s making up ground in a hurry. After Sunday’s win, you only had to see him hugging Magic Johnson – who won the Spartans’ only pre-Izzo title 30 years ago – to know how much he appreciated East Lansing’s native son showing up to cheer the current crop on.
College basketball is a better place because Izzo is in it. For the week, Detroit might be, too.
partans made their reservations, predictions that crowds of 72,000 would fill up Ford Field for next weekend’s game sounded like wishful thinking.
Now, maybe not.
Another Michigan State title, even in front of a packed house, won’t begin to make a dent in Michigan’s decades-long slump. You can’t eat pride, after all. But if only for a short while, it would make everything else on a less-than-full plate taste just that little bit better.
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Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitkeap.org
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