The Interesting Strategy MSU's Tom Izzo has for New Players
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EAST LANSING --- It's not possible to make it for 31 years as a head coach at the same school without knowing how your players tick. Especially in the transfer portal era, where there is more roster turnover in college basketball than ever before, it's more difficult for coaches to have as deep a connection with their team compared to past times when it was more ensured that a player would stay at one school throughout college.
Michigan State's Tom Izzo has experienced and succeeded during both the past era of college sports and the new one. His program in East Lansing hasn't experienced the full effects of the transfer portal, but it's not completely insulated from it. The Spartans have six players on the roster that weren't last year --- four incoming transfers and two freshmen.
Senior center and team captain Carson Cooper is not one of those newbies. His story is more akin to the old style of college sports: an in-state guy who stayed at the school he signed to out of high school. Still, Cooper has seen guys come and go, graduate and transfer in or out, and he's noticed something Izzo likes to do with players in their first year with the team.
The Strategy
It's not something that needs to be focus-grouped with a bunch of assistant coaches. Izzo has adapted where he's needed to with the new generation of athletes and the new rules, but the strategy Cooper outlined is out of school: just be as hard as possible on one player during a practice to see how he reacts.
- "He's told us straight up, he's said, 'Out of these new guys, I'm going to pick practices where I'm going to go at you, because I'm gonna see exactly how much you can take and I've got to know how much I can coach you,'" Cooper said while outlining Izzo's method. "Certain days are for certain people. Today, it might be one guy, and the next day, it might be one guy.
- "He's just trying to figure out how they respond and if some guys can be a little more tougher mentally and bounce back quicker, and if it's somebody that we could trust later in the game when it's getting tougher or it's crunch time or something like that. If someone's a little softer mentally, then we've got to know how to approach that, too."
Cooper's Experience as a Freshman
Cooper has now appeared in 102 games as a Spartan and has gone through a near-immeasurable number of practices where the concept of Izzo yelling at somebody is as inevitable as the sun rising the next morning. Back when he was a freshman just trying to crack the rotation, he went through the same thing that he's seeing now.
- "Yeah, like every day," Cooper said with a laugh when asked about if he got picked on when he first got to East Lansing. "But I was pretty strong mentally. I didn't have a big ego coming in. I was humble and I was just kind of able to take everything with a grain of salt and kind of understand that --- especially coming in under-recruited, I was blessed to be here and I wasn't entitled to anything.
- "I think nowadays that's kind of rare. So I think for me as a captain to the younger guys and to the new guys, making sure they feel the same way is huge."
Why It Works
This probably also isn't something only for Izzo. It's important for him to know what methods work and don't work with certain players, but players need to know how their new teammates respond to the same types of adversity they go through.
It's not from a judgmental point of view either. People are going to respond to getting yelled at in different ways, especially when it's in front of many other people they respect, are friends with, or even room with.
Izzo's never going to be a "soft" coach. He'll probably retire if he's told to become that. That's why he tries the "hard" way --- his way --- before making that necessary adjustment. The expectation from Izzo and for Michigan State basketball is excellence, and this method helps make that clear to those who haven't experienced it first-hand yet.
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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