Michigan State’s Tom Izzo insists his experience in NCAA Tournament’s Final Four won’t ‘make us a basket’
The Spartans' head coach said the fact that he has coached in five more Final Fours than the other three coaches combined is no great advantage. Other than Kenny Goins, who went to the Final Four as a freshman who was sitting out the season, no player has competed in a Final Four.
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MINNEAPOLIS – Tom Izzo has led Michigan State into a Final Four for the eighth time, or five more than the other three head coaches here combined. The logic dictates that he holds a decided edge in experience among the teams seeking to cut the nets late Monday night in U.S. Bank Stadium.
That, Izzo insists, would be a wrong assumption, however.
“My biggest advantage was tickets and hotels,” Izzo said Friday on the eve of the Spartans’ national semifinal game against Texas Tech. “Just getting my own family and their families … we did have a serious meeting Monday and I said ‘by Monday night, they’d better be done.’
“So if that’s to my advantage, wow. I don’t think it made us a basket. I don’t think it made us a free throw, definitely don’t think we took a charge because of it.
“Experience helps but at this stage, the experiences (are) that all those other coaches figured out how to win four games in a row under some incredible pressure. So they’ve done it before and they’ve already shown their colors. So I don’t think it’s as big. I wish it was. I wish it was really big; I’d feel a lot better when I sleep at night.”
Actually, the Spartans (32-6), whose last national championship came in 2000, have one player familiar with the Final Four. Fifth-year senior Kenny Goins took the team’s 2015 Final Four trip as a freshman who was sitting out his first season.
“I remember the whole experience like it was yesterday,” said Goins, who hit the game-winning three-point shot last Sunday in Michigan State’s 68-67 East Region championship victory over Duke.
“I have tried to give the guys an insight to how it’s going to be like, but I told them you’re not going to know what it’s like, I can say all I want to, but until you get there you won’t actually know what it’s actually like and now that they’re here they are beginning to get a feel for it.”
Junior point guard Cassius Winston, the Spartans’ best player during their NCAA run, said his young teammates have asked him questions about the experience that he can’t answer.
“It’s crazy because the freshmen sometimes ask me, ‘What do we do now?’ and I’m like, ‘This is my first time, too, you know,’” he said. “We’re doing this together. We’ve been enjoying it, taking it all in, and just embracing the opportunity.”
In its 17th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, Texas Tech (30-6) is playing in its first Final Four. The Red Raiders made its initial Elite Eight appearance last season but lost 71-59 to Villanova.
Texas Tech coach Chris Beard may not have Final Four experience but he has led his team to a 7-1 record in the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons. He’s done it with one of the top defensive teams in the nation.
And the way Michigan State plays defense has been one of the models he has used in establishing his program.
“On the basketball court, everybody has an idea kind of the way the game’s played,” Beard said, “and the way Michigan State plays is exactly how I kind of visualize the game – defense and toughness. They have an identity. (Izzo) coaches his guys hard but you can tell he loves his guys, and they love him. The relationship piece is there. I just have a lot of respect for their program.”
Beard also said that getting to know Izzo this week “has been pretty cool.” Izzo said the two men spoke over the phone on Monday, and he told Beard “to get your tickets and hotels done today.”