MSU Coach Tom Izzo Talks Women's College Basketball

Michigan State men's basketball coach Tom Izzo discussed the growth of women's college basketball when he recently joined "The Dan Patrick Show."

The 2023-24 women's college basketball season concluded on Sunday when South Carolina finished its perfect season with a national championship victory over back-to-back Associated Press Player of the Year Caitlin Clark and her Iowa team.

Sunday's title game capped off a monumental season for women's college hoops, as the sport grew tremendously in popularity.

Michigan State men's basketball coach Tom Izzo applauded a couple of the sport's icons -- Clark and UConn head coach Geno Auriemma -- for helping build women's college basketball's climb in recent years when he joined "The Dan Patrick Show" on Friday.

"The explosion of it has been incredible and deserving, and it is exciting," Izzo said. "Now, I get a little confused when they bring up ticket prices for the women's games -- I mean, they're placed in an arena of 17,000, where ours are 60, 70,000. But I do think -- I'm a big fan of women's basketball, been [a] fan of the women coaches here -- but this had been an exciting few years.

"And a lot of it [is] because of Caitlin [Clark], but a lot of it because [of] what South Carolina's done, what Geno [Auriemma] has done -- he gets taken for granted; he might be one of the best all-time coaches in any sport, and including this year, Dan, when he had all those injuries and he stuck the Final Four."

Michigan State women's basketball had an exciting season of its own, finishing the year with a 22-9 overall record under first-year Spartans coach Robyn Fralick, who previously served as head coach of the Bowling Green women's basketball team. Fralick and her Spartans' season ended with a narrow 59-56 loss to 8th-seeded North Carolina in the first round.

Izzo's former fellow basketball head coach Suzy Merchant had many years of success at the helm of the Michigan State women's basketball program, having led the Spartans to two Big Ten regular-season titles (2011 and 2014) and 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, including six straight trips in her first six seasons with the program. Merchant stepped down last June, having cited health concerns.

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