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
cap deep feather guess happen mentally ride
I guess it could happen to us, but I look at it the other way. If we can go deep into this tournament, I think mentally it will be a big feather in our cap and then we can ride that a little bit.
few maybe mentally recent
I don't know why we haven't been consistent. I've said a few times that maybe we're not as tough, mentally or physically, as we have been in recent years.
difficult hard kids mentally playing proud wins
If you're always going 11-0 or 12-0 in the preseason, you can get 20 wins easier. If you're playing other people, it's a lot more difficult to do that. I'm proud that we did it the hard way. When you do that, your kids get mentally tougher.
anybody becomes carries far guys helps keeping mental mentally michigan state strain time
When you play that many (ranked teams) in a row, it becomes a mental strain as far as keeping your guys up. I think it helps that it's the Michigan game. I think our guys will be up for that. If there was going to be a time when they mentally let down a little bit, I don't see it being this week. Emotionally, it's Michigan-Michigan State and that carries more than anybody we play, let's be honest.
four happy men strange
This was a strange game. I was as happy as 10 men to only be down only four at halftime.
address mentally physically problem proves theory tough tried
I think it proves my theory that you just have to be physically and mentally tough as nails. That's been a problem for us. We've tried to address it, and we're going to address it from here on out.
basketball men player
We want men here, not just players. Players are a dime a dozen
fact five free gone guys last loved paul please shot throws whether
I loved the fact that they showed the grit. We went to different guys at different times. Whether it be Paul and Mo with the free throws or Shannon with the big shot and the step-back, I think each one of them did some different things. They can play better, but please don't underestimate what they've gone through in the last five days.
consistent guys trying understand
I'm trying to understand why we haven't been as consistent as we need to be. I'm only disappointed when guys don't play to their potential, and we haven't had enough guys do that together.
close few time tired
I'm tired of being close this year. It's time we got a few more things done.
believer goes ncaa schedule strength totally
I'm not a big believer that the NCAA goes totally on strength of schedule and things like that, so I think you still have to have wins.
advantage believer hurt ohio respect shipped state time winning won
I'm not a big believer in that. The one time it really hurt was when Ohio State won the thing (in 2002) and got shipped west. That was awful. In that respect it would be an advantage losing, but for the most part winning is more of an advantage.
good ncaa playing record seasons straight tournament turn win worthy year
I'm not a record guy. I don't need to win 700 games, I don't need to have 20 straight 20-win seasons ... and I don't need to get in the NCAA tournament every year if we're not worthy of being in it. If we're not playing good enough or we can't win a game, it just doesn't turn me on.
bit five happy ready six tapes ton tonight video work
I know a little bit about them. I can't say I know a ton about their team, but I'm happy to know that my video guy's got five or six tapes on them already, so tonight we should get a lot of work done and be ready to go by Friday.