Michigan State's Tom Izzo on Importance of a Player-Led Team
Having been at the helm for three decades now, Michigan State men's basketball coach Tom Izzo knows even his role as head coach only goes so far when it comes to leading a team.
At the end of the day, it's the players who are on the floor together, and it ultimately comes down to them when the going gets tough or the game is on the line.
The Spartans have lacked a leadership presence these last few years, a big reason the program has fallen away from the standard that Michigan State basketball is expected to reach year in and year out.
This offseason, Izzo tried to re-establish a player-led culture in his locker room.
"I've always believed in a player-coached team is better than a coach-coached team," Izzo said at Big Ten Basketball Media Days on Thursday. "Always is. Why? Because the players are with the players when they're eating, they're in the locker room with each other, if they go to the movies, if they go out to a party. No matter what they do, players are with players. "So, players got to be able to control players. Coaches get them during the practice, they get them during the meeting. But anything that really matters, even though people think we know everything, we don't know everything. So, player-coached team means that they can they know what's going on.
"No. 2, players pushing players is looked on differently than a coach pushing a player, especially this day and age. It's almost like you start to read articles where nobody feels they can push a player. I do feel I can, because I don't give a damn about -- if a kid wants to leave, he leaves. But you still got to treat a kid right. But what these kids are trying to do -- and not one of them you talk to, it's not trying to win a championship and go to the NBA. And 1% make it. And probably less than that win a championship. So, if you don't think that's hard, if you think that's going to be easy and there's going to be no roadkill, you're crazy. Because there's going to be."
This year, Izzo has several leaders. Not just because they're experienced, but because they have faced hardship.
"What I like about Jaden [Akins], Book [Xavier Booker] and Tre [Holloman] -- that are here [at Big Ten Basketball Media Days] -- and Jaxon Kohler, these are guys that have been around a little bit but maybe have failed a little bit," Izzo said. "And instead of bolting like half of America is doing right now, they stuck to what they had to do. I tell my players all the time, 'The hardest thing for a human being to do is self-evaluate.' It's easy for you to look at him and say, 'You did this wrong, this wrong.' How many times do we look in the mirror and say, 'What did we do wrong?'"
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