Everyone on campus knows of MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo, but how much do they know about the man who has led the Spartans to six Final Four appearances?
Here are 10 facts about Izzo that your typical MSU sports fanatic might not know.
1) Izzo grew up in the Upper Peninsula and was raised in Iron Mountain, Michigan. He played basketball, football and track in high school with his best friend and former NFL head coach Steve Mariucci.
2) Izzo set the Northern Michigan men’s basketball school record for number of minutes played during his senior season in 1977. He was awarded the team’s MVP honor and selected as a NCAA Division II All-American.
3) Under Izzo, 13 Spartans have been drafted in the NBA Draft, including most recently Gary Harris and Adreian Payne.
4) The Spartans failed to make the NCAA Tournament in the first two years of Izzo’s tenure at MSU, competing in the National Invitation Tournament, or NIT, instead. However, Izzo’s teams haven’t missed the tournament since.
5) Izzo was one of the coaches who participated in Operation Hardwood in 2005 and 2006. Izzo, and other big name college coaches, went to Kuwait military camps and coached teams of American military servicemen. Izzo’s team won the tournament in 2005.
6) Izzo is married to his wife Lupe, and has a daughter, Raquel, and son, Steven. Raquel is a sophomore at MSU.
7) In 2009 Izzo was part of a play at Wharton Center called “Izzo Goes to Broadway.” The play featured his wife and members of the men’s basketball team, and raised money for the American Cancer Society through the Coaches vs. Cancer organization.
8) Izzo missed a front end of a one-and-one in the Upper Peninsula championship game in 1972 to cost his high school the game. From that point on he’s harped on the importance of free throws, shooting 100 free throws every day and carrying around the newspaper clipping.
9) Izzo said on ESPN First Take earlier this fall that he was close to accepting a defensive backs coaching spot at Cal State Fullerton with Mariucci before coming to MSU.
10) In 2009 during the Izzone Campout Izzo promised he would shave his head at the end of the season if MSU won the Big Ten championship outright. MSU went on to win the league by four games resulting in Izzo shaving his head. However, no photos have been found online.
