Spartans Coach Tom Izzo Talks Importance of Alumni
The Michigan State men's basketball team's NCAA Tournament journey was stopped short yet again this year, but Coach Tom Izzo's reputation in the month of March is still one one of the most highly regarded in the game.
With a national championship and eight Final Four appearances on his resume, Izzo has led some great Spartan teams with some of the best players to ever play in the annual tournament. That's why, no matter their projection, every March is interesting for Izzo and his Spartans.
That winning culture is a luxury Izzo and his team can rely each year as tournament time approaches.
"I don't know why I've had success; I've had success because of good players," Izzo said when he recently joined the "Pardon My Take" podcast. "I've had success because, when we started this whole thing out many many years ago with Mateen Cleaves, and Morris Peterson, and Jason [Richardson] -- that five-year stretch -- they were like you guys when you started your show; everybody's all in, you're this and that.
"And I've been lucky here. I've got alums like Magic Johnson and Greg Kelser, I got guys like the Vincent brothers, I got guys like Steve Smith, Shawn Respert -- those guys kind of caught fire with our group right away. And we started having reunions every year, and those reunions brought excitement, and what they did is -- Magic was about winning championships, Cleaves was about winning championships, Draymond [Green was about] winning championships -- and it just kind of grew.
"And so now, when March comes -- I mean, most people think I do nothing until March, and then I coach a little bit in March. This year, I did a lot before March, then I did nothing in March. But I think that what you do is you realize it's one-and-done, and when those players call back to our current players and say, 'You know what month it is? It's March, and it matters. And there's no my bads anymore, and there's no mistakes.'
"So, I get a help from a lot of my great alums. And I probably get too much credit for what I do; they deserve the credit for what they do and what they did when they were here."
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