With three Final Four appearances, five Big Ten regular season titles and plenty of stand-out players to pass through his program over the decade, Michigan State men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo claimed another title on Tuesday, this one being the Big Ten basketball coach of the decade.
“I’m greatly humbled and appreciative because I know how many good coaches there are,” Izzo said in an interview with Big Ten Network’s Dave Revsine. “I think the collection (of coaches) we got is about as good as we’ve ever had, and I think our league has showed … just how tough the Big Ten is in basketball."
A voting panel of 24 members granted Izzo the honor. In the announcement video that was debuted via Twitter, Revsine and other panelists noted Izzo’s consistency as playing a large factor into why he received their vote.
“In the 10 years of the decade, they (MSU) won 27 or more games 8 times, that’s a pretty remarkable number,” Revsine said in the BTN video.
BTN reporter Andy Katz said, “Every season starts with Michigan State.”
In total, the Spartans went 264-95 on the decade.
“It makes me feel like I had a lot of good players," Izzo said in the interview. "I always tell the players ‘you help me, I’ll help you,’ and I think I’ve helped some of them. A lot of them have helped me, and that’s why I got this great award.”
Draymond Green and Denzel Valentine were amongst players selected to the All-Decade first team. Cassius Winston was selected to All-Decade second team.
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