It's Monday afternoon, and Tom Izzo is late. His weekly press conference was supposed to begin 15 minutes ago. Reporters huddle around circular tables in the press room of Breslin Center chatting about hotels and flight fares to Seattle, where Izzo's Spartans play today in the NCAA Tournament.
Then, in jogs Izzo. He makes a sarcastic joke to the media, explaining his tardiness, and begins to discuss Nevada, MSU's opponent in the first round of the tournament. Only he isn't wearing the usual designer dress shirt and slacks customary for the occasion. Today, he's fitted in a Nike sweatsuit and sneakers.
That's because the night before was no ordinary night. Sunday evening, Izzo, known for his tireless work ethic and a burning desire for perfection that never seems to flicker, found out MSU's tournament foe. The preparations began. The hours of film study began. His undying quest to establish MSU as an elite basketball program continued.
Izzo, now in his ninth season as head coach, has achieved more than most college coaches do in a lifetime. He has led the Spartans to four Big Ten Championships, three Final Four appearances, two Big Ten Tournament titles and the 2000 NCAA National Championship.
Those accomplishments, coupled with Izzo's reputation as a coach who does it the right way, has propelled MSU from a program with occasional success - best known for the national title it won with Earvin "Magic" Johnson in 1979 - to one of the country's best, one that transcended memories of the past. But don't think the championships have given Izzo a reason to ease off the gas pedal.
"I fear getting fired every day; I fear the program dropping," Izzo said. "First of all, I love the university. It's been a big part of my life. Second of all, I love the guys that have been here in the past, that built the thing. I think it's my job to make sure that I don't let that drop."
Relentless
During one of the most important games of Paul Davis' career - a game in which Davis was performing masterfully - the sophomore center's legs were seized with cramps, sending him hobbling to the bench midway through the second half of MSU's 68-64 overtime loss to Wisconsin on March 2. Despite the injury, Davis insisted on returning to the game.
Davis said it was Izzo's influence that inspired him to fight through the pain.
"Last year, I don't think I could've done that. I think I would've been out earlier," Davis said. "But him just being there, sticking with me and getting on me and making me tougher, things like that, not only helping me just in that game, but helping me in the whole season, too.
"I think every player, in order to be successful, has to find something or someone to play for, and he's definitely someone that I want to play for."
To Izzo, the incident was a testament to his demanding coaching style, which has been criticized in the past.
"Should I have been critical of Paul Davis because I know what he wants to do? Yes. Did I love ? him sitting there in pain saying to me, 'I'm playing'? He didn't ask me; he told me," Izzo said. "To me, that meant that it works. It works."
During Izzo's tenure, the Spartans have become known as a program built on toughness. Tongue-lashings during practices and on the sidelines during games come with the territory. But those brow-beatings are given for a reason - to get the most out of players - and they are not without merit. To his players, Izzo is part demanding coach, part caring friend and father figure.
Izzo maintains an open-door policy and invites his players to discuss any topic of concern, basketball or otherwise.
"I don't think you can ask things of guys that are superhuman if you're not giving them a lot of love off the court," he said. "I spend time with my players. When you do that, I think they take things differently than if you don't spend time with them."
Izzo's reputation as a coach who builds strong relationships with his players has contributed to the hiring of high-profile assistant coaches.
Last summer, Doug Wojcik was hired as an assistant coach after two of MSU's assistants left to take head-coaching positions at other schools. Before the hire, Wojcik was named a "Head Coach In Waiting" by Athlon Sports in 2001 and spent three seasons at North Carolina as an assistant.
Wojcik said the program's family -style atmosphere helped him decide MSU was right for him.
"That's something that was really important to me because if you're close with your team, you're going to have a chance to be pretty successful," Wojcik said.
At North Carolina, Wojcik worked under Matt Doherty, who resigned as head coach in April 2003. Since then, Doherty has observed a number of college and professional basketball programs, including MSU, Michigan, the Detroit Pistons, the Indiana Pacers and the Dallas Mavericks. He said he wanted to "view programs that I really respect."
During his visit, Doherty said he was able to see firsthand how Izzo interacted with his players.
"I think the thing that really comes through is his passion and how much he cares about Michigan State basketball and the kids there," Doherty said. "He doesn't forget where he comes from. He's not going to forget his roots. He's still a guy from the U.P.; that's very refreshing to see."
Spartan roots
When Tom Izzo took over as head coach before the 1995-96 season, he already had Spartans blood flowing in his veins. He became a part-time assistant in 1983 under former head coach Jud Heathcote, whose legacy remains as the coach of the 1979 championship team.
Season after season, as Heathcote patrolled the sidelines with Izzo in the background, he could see his potential growing.
"Tom grew as a coach every year he was there," Heathcote said. "Each year, I could see him doing more, understanding what it took."
When Heathcote retired after the 1994-95 season, he decided Izzo was ready to take on his toughest assignment yet: head coach at MSU.
"I used my influence to make sure he got the job," Heathcote said.
The Spartans hovered around .500 during Izzo's first two years, compiling a 33-28 record. But the Iron Mountain native was instilled with a strong work ethic, and he wouldn't let his vision of transforming MSU's basketball program into a perennial winner fade into mediocrity.
Brian Gregory served as an assistant under both Heathcote and Izzo from 1990-95 and 1999-2003, respectively. He left the program last summer to accept a head-coaching position at Dayton, which also earned an NCAA Tournament berth this season.
Gregory recalls the difficulty of building MSU from a Top 30 program in the country into a Top 10 program.
"The biggest (obstacle) was the perception that, could Michigan State get there?" Gregory said. "Tom's whole thing was, 'Why not?' His assistants and his team bought into it."
But there was one player who understood Izzo more than most. He was a gritty, loud and talented point guard from Flint. Plus, he played football, which, according to Izzo, was the common bond between the two that sparked a lifelong relationship that would change both of their lives.
"There's no question that we wouldn't be the program we are if Mateen Cleaves didn't come here," Izzo said. "He had the same mentality I did: Winning was the most important thing. He was tough as nails, and he wasn't afraid to hear his voice."
Cleaves was heavily recruited in high school by colleges with more successful basketball programs than MSU had at the time. When Izzo visited Cleaves and his family in Flint, he told Cleaves he could win a national championship and be an All-American at MSU. But all those accomplishments were predicated on hard work.
While other schools made promises to Cleaves about the success he would have, Izzo made sure Cleaves knew he'd have to work to win at MSU.
"When he left, you could just tell that he was genuine," Cleaves said. "Everything he told me came true."
Cleaves was the third Flint-bred player Izzo brought to MSU. Before Cleaves, Morris Peterson and Antonio Smith played for the Spartans. With the arrival of Cleaves and other "Flintstones" such as Charlie Bell, MSU became a team known for suffocating defense and relentless rebounding.
In his senior year, Cleaves led the Spartans to the 2000 national championship. After he left MSU, he went down as one of the greatest leaders in Big Ten history. This season, he was named as the point guard for the Big Ten silver anniversary team.
"I wanted to be an extension of Coach Izzo on the floor and in the locker room," Cleaves said. "We set one goal, and we didn't let anything get in between us."
These days, Cleaves plays for the Huntsville Flight of the NBDL, the NBA's developmental league. It's been nearly four years since he left MSU, but he still remembers the trust he had in Izzo.
"If he wanted me to run through a brick wall, I would've sure tried to," Cleaves said. "We had one common goal, and that was to win. People can respect that. Sometimes they might not like it, but at the end, they can respect it."
"I'll give in to a banner"
In some ways, this season has been typical for Izzo and MSU basketball. The Spartans contended for a Big Ten Championship, they got significant contributions from talented freshmen, they fought through adversity and played well late in the season, and now they're playing in the NCAA Tournament for a national championship.
But there have been unexpected bumps along the way, too. The nonconference schedule Izzo assembled was as unprecedented as it was merciless. Izzo scheduled a slew of college basketball powerhouses for his team to play even before the rigors of a Big Ten season.
The results were disastrous. MSU went 0-6 in the toughest part of the nonconference schedule, losing to teams such as Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Syracuse, sometimes in an embarrassing fashion.
"I took on something, and I'm not going to blame my players for this, that was big, and I think if we played that same schedule a million times, I don't think we'd ever go 0-6 again," Izzo said.
After failing to win any of its high-profile nonconference games, MSU lost its conference opener at Wisconsin. The team's confidence was down, but Izzo and his players refused to give up.
Their perseverance paid off, and the Spartans got back on track, winning 12 of their next 14 games. Their conference success earned them a shot at the Big Ten Championship in their regular-season finale against the Badgers of Wisconsin. A win, and Izzo would clinch a share of his fifth conference title in seven seasons.
On March 2, as a referee tossed the game ball into the air, signaling the start of the game, a rolled-up banner hung from the rafters of Breslin. The banner was placed in anticipation of a Spartans victory and the ensuing celebration of a Big Ten title.
There would be no celebration. The Spartans lost to Wisconsin in overtime, and the banner never dropped. That night and the following day, newspapers and TV media reported the premature celebration.
Izzo called the negative attention given to the rolled-up banner an "insult to my program."
"I don't understand it; it blows me away," he said. "If things are done with good intent and with positive intent, it's mind-boggling to me how people can rip that apart."
The week after the Wisconsin loss, Izzo said he would not pre-plan another celebration in the same manner. He related the criticism he felt from the banner incident to some of the criticism he's heard for his demanding coaching style.
"I am not embarrassed; I do not feel at all disappointed in one way that I've handled one player that's been here," he said.
"So I'll never give in to a player. I'll give in to a banner, I won't give in to a player. Never."
Joe Guillen can be reached at guillenj@msu.edu.
