“It is Derrick Nix and Russell Byrd,” he said. “And personally, I think the players did a good job.”
There’s good reason that Izzo, now in his 18th year as MSU’s men’s basketball head coach, thought the choices would be surprising.

Byrd, a sophomore guard, saw limited playing time last year and had redshirted his freshman year with a broken left foot. And Nix’s position on the team was in limbo this past spring when the senior center was arrested for and pleaded guilty to impaired driving.

However, this year, Izzo decided to put the voting for captains in the hands of his players, and the response was unanimously for Nix.

“He’s been a pain in my butt in some ways, but he could be the ultimate Spartan in another way,” he said.

For Nix, he knows he’s been given a second chance with the team, and has been working hard not to squander the opportunity.

And he’s grateful to his head coach for stepping up to the plate for him.

“The program, I feel, didn’t save me,” he said. “I felt Tom Izzo, as a person, saved me.”

Nix said he’d use his experience to help lead the younger players to ensure they don’t make the same mistakes he did.

“With the dumb stuff we do, we put (Izzo’s) job in jeopardy,” he said. “My job as a senior leader is to make sure nobody on this team does ignorant stuff that I did or that players in the past did.”

As for Byrd, he said he’ll draw from last year’s captain, Draymond Green, handling his own business and leading by example.

In fact, Byrd plans to use his own hardships to help the team.

Sophomore guard Branden Dawson said Byrd already has helped him through the process of recovering from an injury, and has faith the Fort Wayne, Ind., native will lead this team in the right direction.

“Maybe the injury was a blessing in disguise,” Byrd said. “I learned how to communicate and handle different situations (and) different guys and bring guys together, and I’m just really excited about it.”

Izzo said for the most part, this team will have several leaders, and he’ll also look to his group of four incoming freshman to step into those roles.

But freshman guard Gary Harris said he has no problem with that. In fact, he said one of the things that drew him to MSU was the camaraderie among teammates.

“Anybody can say one thing to another, and we all listen to each other,” he said.
“It’s like a group of leaders, and we all just hold each other accountable.”