Blue Devils Enter Saturday’s Matchup With Great Respect For Tom Izzo and his Spartans
Blue Devils Enter Saturday’s Matchup With Great Respect For Tom Izzo and his Spartans
Lucas Oil Stadium
Indianapolis, IN
Duke Head coach Mike Krzyzewski understands that his longtime friend Tom Izzo isn’t an overnight sensation. His team may not be as talented as the other three, but as long as the Spartans are coached by Tom Izzo they are deadly.
He took time today to reflect on his relationship with Izzo. “Tom is a guy's guy. He's on a staff where I respected Jud Heathcote, always loved Jud. Respected Michigan State when Jud was the coach and obviously when Tom has been the coach. Basically, there were no errors about him. He's genuine, a genuine guy. He wasn't trying to manipulate or anything like that. Then he gives back, the coaching fraternity, whether it be on the board of the NABC. He's a team player. You get to know the guys who are team players better who are in your profession. I mean, I'm sure you do in your own profession. He's the ultimate guy for that. I don't think there's a guy out there who would say something even the slightest negative about Tom.â€
As respectful as the two are you can’t argue with results. Those heavily favor Duke. Coach K is 8-1 all-time against Izzo. In fact Izzo was asked why that is and his answer was plain U.P. straight talk. “You know, I think they've had some good teams, to be very honest. We've had some good teams. I'm not sure the two of our best teams have played a lot. So I don't think it's style of play. I think they have just done a better job. Most of those games, a lot of them have been somewhat close, they've been dogfights. There's been a couple that weren't. Some of them were back in the day when we weren't as good. I think you have to give them credit. They've just been a little better. I don't think it's something where I fixated. You're playing the name on the front, all that. We're way beyond that part of our program. But, hey, I just happened to play them more often in the NCAA tournament. He's beaten a lot of people. Their teams have beaten a lot of people over the years. There's always goals, there's always objectives, there's always landmarks that you've got to step beyond as your program builds. This is one of ours that we still haven't conquered, but we're working on it, I promise you that. “
Coach K wants none of the national narrative taking shots at the Spartans and their record. None of it. “The record, I'm not a big guy on records on Mondays, Tuesdays, coaches, when you were 18. You know, stats are unbelievable, man. That doesn't make a difference at all. They're going to be ready. You know what, they don't lack talent. C'mon. I mean, Trice has been as good a player as there's been in this tournament. Branden Dawson is as good an athlete. Valentine is a versatile a player. I mean, Michigan State is a championship-level team. They probably should have beaten Wisconsin. They had it if they called an out of bounds. A guy out of bounds at the end of the game, they had the Big Ten championship won. It's a championship-level program and team. Are you trying to butter us up here or what? I just told these guys, we just watched them, they looked pretty good, didn't they, on tape? Anyway, that's mine.â€
Spartan fans certainly remember the ref missing the Wisconsin player being out of bounds in the Big Ten tournament. Just like Coach K did, but don’t think the respect stops with the head coach.
Blue Devils senior guard Quinn Cook thinks the Spartans will give his team all they can handle on Saturday. “They're very talented. You know, obviously Michigan State is an elite program, so they are there for a reason. Coach Izzo does a great job. They're here for a reason. They've had an underdog mentality all March. People counting them out because they had a couple losses. They had eight overtime games. They've had the underdog mentality. It's going to be a tough, tough game. They're here for a reason. They're a championship-level team. We have our hands full.â€
Coach K put the Spartans season into succinct fact. Plainly stating, “They're six possessions away from having 30-something wins or being a number one or number two seed. That's how crazy our game is, because they've been in so many close games.â€
As 6:09 PM ET inches closer the Spartans will have the sport’s biggest stage to continue this amazing dance. They may not have the national media or Vegas picking them, but they have the respect of Coach K and the Duke Blue Devils.
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