ESPN's Jay Bilas: "I would have loved to play" for Tom Izzo
Michigan State has played some of its best basketball of the season in the Big Ten Tournament, earning wins over Maryland and Wisconsin to reach a semifinal matchup with the Purdue Boilermakers.
Head coach Tom Izzo has a well-earned reputation for getting his teams to play their best basketball in the month of March, which has allowed him to rack up a lot of wins in the season’s final month.
Speaking on their podcast, ‘Bald Men On Campus’, ESPN’s Jay Bilas, Seth Greenberg and LaPhonso Ellis shared their thoughts on Izzo passing Bob Knight for the most wins at a Big Ten School.
“Tom Izzo surpassing Coach Knight in Big Ten wins…that’s a heck of an accomplishment,” Greenberg said. “From being a graduate assistant at Michigan State, grinding away, doing all the work, nothing was handed to him, continuing to grow on what Coach Heathcote was able to accomplish at Michigan State, the consistency in what they’ve been able to do, and doing it kind of his way.”
Bilas had high praise for Izzo as well.
“Tom Izzo is one of the greatest coaches in the history of American sport, not just basketball,” Bilas said. “And it goes way beyond his ability to coach a team. He is pure of heart.”
The former Duke Blue Devil played for a legend in Mike Krzyzewski, so Bilas knows a thing or two about good coaching.
“There is no person in the game that I respect more than Tom – nobody,” Bilas said. “And there is nobody – I obviously played for Coach K so I don’t have to wish about it – but there’s nobody I wish I had played for more than Tom Izzo. I would have loved to have played for him.”
College basketball has gone through a number of changes in recent years, whether it be the one-and-done rules, the transfer portal, etc. Bilas noted that Izzo has strong opinions on many things pertaining to the game, and how he coaches the game.
“Look, people can agree or disagree on your stance on a particular issue,” Bilas said. “He is old school, and I mean that in a good way. He is old school. So, maybe the changes that are going on in college sports right now he is not a fan of, and while he and I have differed over a few policy issues, one thing I have never questioned is the reasoning behind it. Because, when Tom differs with something, it’s not about, ‘This is how it should be for the game.’ He differs because he doesn’t think it’s in the best interest of the players and their development, and it is pure. There is no argument with that, and he would never get in an argument with me on the reasons why.”
Izzo is also known to coach his players hard. He’ll get in there faces, he’ll yell and holler, and more than a few times he’s been caught on camera having heated arguments with players. But several former Michigan State players have come to Izzo’s defense over those moments, and so did Greenberg.
“If you have a relationship with the players, you can coach them as hard as you want, and Tom coaches them probably to an excess,” Greenberg said. “But, seeing those kids and how excited they were for him, and seeing the growth of some of those guys that we’ve all watched kind of – because they mostly do it with four-year guys – kind of grow, whether it’s Marcus Bingham, whether it’s Gabe Brown, was kind of cool.”
After the win over Wisconsin, in which the Spartans were stellar on the defensive end all game and came to life on offense in the second half, Izzo said it was important for Michigan State “to win this way”. That’s because it was how Izzo has mostly gone about his business in East Lansing.
“When I think of Izzo, I think of his team’s toughness, defense, [and] rushing that basketball up the floor,” Ellis said. “I just love watching his team’s play, and for him to surpass Coach Knight is significant, and I’m really happy for him.”
