MSU's Izzo Proved He's Still the Best in Big Ten

Michigan State men's basketball had started to fall into the shadows of the Big Ten spotlight in recent seasons as it struggled to even make The Big Dance while programs like Purdue rose to the top.

Matt Painter had seemed to become the consensus face of coaches in the Big Ten when he led the Boilermakers to a national championship appearance in 2024. Even after losing Zach Edey, his program was riding high, and meanwhile, the Spartans were concerned about replacing their top three scorers.

Tom Izzo finally added some pieces from the transfer portal in Frankie Fidler and Szymon Zapala, the Spartans' first incoming transfers since Tyson Walker in 2021. Even so, fans questioned if it was enough, hesitant to give in to hope after their team failed to advance past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years.

The Big Ten seemingly got better around Michigan State, and the popular take was that the Spartans had remained mediocre, at best.

Michigan State went into the 2024-25 season unranked, set to rely on just one returning senior, Jaden Akins, who had struggled shooting the ball in the preseason and was being asked to step into a role he had been familiar with.

Despite all of that, Izzo and his Spartans won the Big Ten by three games, taking down ranked teams like Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maryland and Illinois along the way. And they did so without a single player making first- or second-team all-conference.

Say what you want, but when a team greatly exceeds expectations in such a dominating manner, with a group of under-the-radar individuals who came together to achieve something greater than themselves, much of that is a result of coaching.

Perhaps you thought it was a fluke and that the Spartans were going to go no further than they had since losing generational star Cassius Winston. Such doubts were probably strengthened when Michigan State was down 3 with three-quarters of a way through the first half of its first-round meeting with 15-seeded Bryant.

But Izzo ultimately proved what many didn't believe he would ever do again -- he led the Spartans to another deep tournament run. Michigan State lost by just two possessions to the No. 1 overall seed, Auburn, proving that it could go toe to toe with anyone in the nation.

And it was the only Big Ten team among the final eight teams standing.

Tom Izzo is still the best coach in the Big Ten. It may be a much closer debate than what it once was, but at 70 years old and in his 30th season at the helm, he defied the odds, and his team prevailed as the best in an 18-team conference, the largest it had ever been.

Maybe he won't win it all again. Maybe he won't make it back to an Elite Eight. But you can always feel assured that you have a shot while he's still in charge.

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