Tom Izzo
Tom Izzo
Thomas Michael Izzois an American college basketball coach. Since 1995, he has been the head coach for the Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team, presiding over a prolonged period of success. On April 4, 2016, Izzo was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth30 January 1955
CityIron Mountain, MI
anybody apples athlete certain creates fill guard guys inside player problems reason replace type versatile
The only reason I'd say no to that is because it's the type of player he is. We have other guys that can fill in in certain spots, but it's the athlete, it's the versatile 6-6, 6-7 athlete that can guard inside guys and guards, and that's where it creates some problems for us. It's not really replacing apples to apples. Anybody else that we replace him with is a completely different kind of athlete.
affect certain coaches eventually fired hired huge minus ncaa plus rule teams
It will never even out because you never know which years certain teams are good, and that's nobody's fault, not the Big Ten, not the coaches, not anyone. But when coaches are hired and fired on it, and when eventually you're going to be seeded in the NCAA Tournament, a real huge plus or a rule huge minus can affect a lot of teams.
certain continues looking maybe option stock telling
I don't think he's looking at that as maybe an option now. But if he does well, we make a run, his stock continues to rise, which I think it has all year, and he's a certain pick, I'm going to be telling him to go.
battle certain common cry teams
The common battle cry is that it all evens out. It will never even out because you never know which years certain teams are good.
character program promise room tougher toughness weight work
We're going to get back in the weight room to work on toughness and character. I promise we'll be tougher and I promise we'll get this program back to where we all want it.
bring melt people
We bring people from different areas, and they melt into one.
george hone michigan percent prepared second state time win
We're going to hone in 95 percent of our time on George Mason. If you don't win the first one, you don't get to the second one. But if you get to the second one and you're not prepared and you don't get out of the weekend, I don't feel like that's where Michigan State is right now.
body guard head matter point powerful system
Usually, if the head isn't working, the body dies. It doesn't matter how powerful the body is. And a point guard in our system is the head.
defense good played shot
We still played good defense and pretty good offense. We shot 50%, 40-something from three.
four happy men strange
This was a strange game. I was as happy as 10 men to only be down only four at halftime.
biggest figure good great kept losing mind problem schedules team tough within
Our biggest problem was there was no spacing between those tough games. We kept losing and having to play another great team right away. I still think good schedules make you better in the long run. I don't mind losing because that's how you figure out what's wrong, but you have to do it within reason.
Marquise did some better things and that was an encouraging sign.
dogs game madder maybe quite thinking worse
I was thinking about that as every game went by. I feel better in one way, but I feel worse that it kind of makes you madder (because of) where you could have gone. Maybe we're not quite the dogs we think we are up here.
execution guard maybe short
I was very disappointed in our execution and some of our guard play. Maybe we were a little fatigued. We were short on a lot of shots.