It’s a familiar script- a traditional rite of passage each March. As flowers begin to blossom so does the Michigan State basketball team coached by Tom Izzo.
Maybe Izzo was right after all when he put the national networks on notice following his team’s win at Illinois on February 23rd. Izzo won a pivotal game that held huge consequences for both teams. Izzo then called out the national media that night for their depiction of the Big Ten as mediocre.
As Tom Izzo said, the Big Ten isn’t very top heavy, but they do have a bunch of solid, competitive teams. Most people would agree with that sentiment.
And we’re seeing that now as the league has two teams in the sweet sixteen, Izzo’s Spartans and Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin Badgers. Tom Izzo has once again shown that he is indeed “Mr. March,” winning big in the first few rounds of the NCAA Tournament consistently.
In 13 of his 19 NCAA Tournament appearances, Izzo has reached the sweet sixteen or better. Of those 13, he’s reached the Final Four six times (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2010) and the Elite Eight eight times (the six aforementioned seasons, plus 2007 and 2014). But while Izzo is Mr. March, he’s not exactly “Mr. April” by any means. Only one of six Final Fours had a happy ending (2000), and MSU reached the the title game in just two of the six. The Final Four record of Tom Izzo only is 3-5.
However, he has a great shot of returning this year. After upsetting the #2 Virginia Cavaliers this past Sunday, the #3 seed Oklahoma Sooners await on Friday night. Sparty is very fortunate that the other side of the bracket is busted, with #1 seed Villanova going down. So how come the Spartans always seem to find their way back into this position every year? How does Tom Izzo do it every season?
One word- scheduling.
Tom Izzo schedules hard every November and December. College basketball badly needs more relevance during the first three months of its season, and better, more competitive games is a driver towards that. Tom Izzo has certainly done his part. MSU will play anyone anytime anywhere. Having a more challenging non-conference schedule than most teams is what truly helps prepare them to excel in March. They’ll take those licks early on, and then some more in the Big Ten season too. And although it can look mediocre, or even bad at times, you know they’ll be alright in the end.
So each year the cycle continues- a Tom Izzo coached team suffers a bad loss in midseason (Texas Southern this year, Illinois last year among many others ), but they always do come correct when it counts.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. You can read Banks’ feature stories and op-eds in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and hear his regular guest spots on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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