Much of the talk for MSU head basketball coach Tom Izzo in the early going of the 2015-16 basketball season has centered around one thing — winning championships.
This weekend, Izzo and his No. 3 MSU Spartans (4-0) are going to get their first chance at doing so this season, at the 2015 Wooden Legacy Tournament in California. MSU will begin tournament play with a match up with Boston College (3-0) Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
Currently Izzo sits at 499 career victories at MSU, but when asked Monday following his team's 89-65 blowout victory against Eastern Michigan if win number 500 means anything to him, he immediately downplayed it.
"Yay, Izzo got 500, and he's only 600 behind (Duke men's head basketball coach Mike) Krzyzewski. ... What's the big deal?" Izzo joked. "It's probably more important than I give it but I'm still more worried about banners than I am about wins. What I like about wins is we're being consistent but ... it's not sexy to me, it's just another number ... but right now I'm more worried about going out and trying to win a tournament."
For MSU, the Wooden Legacy Tournament will begin with the match up against Boston College on Thursday. From there, win-or-lose, the Spartans will play another game on Friday against either UC Irvine or Boise State and if they keep winning, could be slated for a match up in Sunday's Championship game with No. 11 Arizona (4-0).
Thus far, MSU's season has included a trio of blowout victories and a gutsy 79-73 win against a then-No. 4 Kansas in the Champions Classic.
Throughout the first four games, MSU has shown its depth and the impressive start to the season has helped the Spartans skyrocket from No. 13 to No. 3 in the nation. But the team, much like its coach, also has similar goals.
And right now, that goal is the Wooden Legacy Tournament.
"We want to go down there and win a championship," sophomore point guard Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn Jr. said. "That's the most important thing. But most importantly we want to continue to get better each and every day."
Senior guard Denzel Valentine also realizes the unique opportunity the early season tournament presents the Spartans and is focused on bringing back the tournament's championship.
"We're going to keep working and try to win this tournament in California and see what we can do," Valentine said. "See if we can maintain a level of focus for these three games."
"We play Boston College first and they're going to be a tough team," Valentine added. "They've got talent. They're not just going to let us come in and beat them and it's going to be in a neutral sight out west, probably not going to be a lot of Spartan fans so we're going to have to come ready to play from the start and play for 40 minutes."
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