But much like many other aspects of MSU’s success as a program, Izzo doesn’t like to take credit. Still, Izzo is 16-3 in one-day prep in the NCAA Tournament.

“We just have a system, we tweak it here and there,” he said. “I don’t know, March has been good to me, I love March. I just know the staff has really bought in. That is the neat part of here and what we build, it’s not me, it’s the system, it’s the guys, they have everything down.”

But a lot of the success lies in film work, a tactic Izzo picked up before a lot of teams because of his love of football.

And that’s likely because film used to rely on film exchange with other teams, but the satellite age has made it so a coach can have thousands of hours of film.

“It’s not whether you have the stuff, it’s how you use it,” Izzo said. “It’s more about the tendencies you can see. I think everybody has it now, I’m 90 percent sure, it’s just how you use it. I’m sure a lot of them use it, I don’t know.”

Now, in a region of up-tempo teams, the Spartans have less than 48 hours to prepare for a slow-it down team in No. 9-seed St. Louis. Back at the hotel following the 89-67 win against No. 16-seed LIU Brooklyn, the Spartans already had a walk through.

But Izzo said that was just to keep them thinking about Sunday’s game.

Senior guard Brandon Wood said Izzo was up into the wee hours of Saturday morning studying St. Louis on film.

“With coach, he’s gonna give all he’s got,” Wood said. “I was talking to him earlier, and he told me he was up until 5 (a.m.) watching film and just studying. That speaks to what type of person he is, and what’s why he’s so successful”

Senior forward Draymond Green said that’s normal, and the assistant coaches buy into the system too.

“He don’t sleep, and if he’s not sleeping, his assistants aren’t sleeping,” Green said. “They have us well prepared, have the teams well scouted out and put us in the best position to win.

“He’ll annoy us so much through the day that when you get to playing the next team, you want to beat them anyway because he made you watch so much films, he made you go through so many walkthroughs.”

And although there are a lot of walkthroughs for the Spartans to go through, Izzo said they’re only about 20 minutes each, short enough to keep the players’ attention.

And Green said that’s the edge, where other teams likely take the time to rest.

“It’s just some people take the time out to get out with your families, do things with your families, as opposed to focusing on what you came here for,” he said. “I think coach does a great job of really enforcing in us what’s important while we’re here.”

The system can be hard for freshmen and first time participants in the prep time, especially against two different offenses like Saint Louis and LIU Brooklyn, junior center Derrick Nix said.

“During the season we get time off before practice,” Nix said. “Now, immediately in the tournament, we get an hour off, then we have to be down in the ballroom and have the court laid out and we go through the plays.”

Still early in this year’s tournament, but Izzo seems to have St. Louis figured out. But his prep on the Billikens isn’t over until about 2:45 p.m. Sunday.