ATLANTA – Tom Izzo paced to the very end of the bench, almost to the tunnel at State Farm Arena, and drew a big breath as he watched Jaden Akins’ first free throw splash through the net. Then he whipped back to the edge of the coaches box near midcourt, spreading his legs and getting into as much of a defensive stance as a 70-year-old man can, pumping his right fist as the second one went down.
But not for his own sake.
Izzo wants another national championship, sure. He lives for the thrill of being there on the final weekend of the college basketball season, something he calls “one of the all-time great things in any basketball player’s life.”
But mostly, he just wants more time with this unique and resilient team. And after hanging on to beat No. 6 seed Ole Miss, 73-70, you can see why.
When you’ve been somewhere as long as Izzo has been at Michigan State, it’s dangerous to compare teams or players from different eras. As he joked Thursday, he’ll have Mateen Cleaves or Draymond Green hunting him down if he talks too glowingly about how much he loves this particular group.
Can you blame him, though?
In a transactional college basketball era where no relationship seems permanent, where assistant coaches often make less money than players and where so many of the program-building skills that made Izzo a Hall of Famer aren’t as relevant as they once were, this Michigan State team is a throwback.
It’s not overly athletic nor particularly skilled and not even as old as most college coaches want their teams to be constructed these days. Ole Miss had Michigan State beat on all three counts Friday.
But not on the scoreboard.
Because goodness, does Sparty fight – just the way Izzo likes it.
“We’re not a team that can just go out and play and win,” Izzo said. “And boy, we did a helluva job in the second half.”
With 12 minutes left, it didn’t look like it was going to happen. The Spartans were struggling to break the paint against an opponent that Izzo called “the most physical defensive team we’ve played in years.” They were kind of getting bullied on the glass, too. Ole Miss had controlled the game from the opening tip and just looked like the more complete team, poised to make the Elite Eight for the first time in school history.
And then? Well, in the complete absence of any other plan that was going to work, Michigan State’s guards just put their heads down and attacked. If it wasn’t Jeremy Fears it was Akins. And if it wasn’t Akins it was freshman Jase Richardson, who showed on a very big stage why he’s going to be a first-round NBA draft pick in a few months if he wants to be.
Yes, Richardson was 4-of-6 from the 3-point line on a night when his teammates were 2-of-11. But for a 19-year-old who isn’t even close to reaching his peak physical development to play as under-control with the ball, to be as fearless in traffic and to even come up with a couple of clutch rebounds late showed why this version of Michigan State has just a little more juice than recent Izzo teams.
“We weren’t being as aggressive as we should have been,” said Richardson, whose father, Jason, played on Izzo’s only national title team in 2000. “I feel like they were kind of just punking us in the beginning. We couldn’t get to the paint. Shooting decent shots, but not great shots. I think second half it really opened up for us. We were being more aggressive, getting downhill and getting driving kicks. I felt like we were at our best in that second half.”
And little by little, Michigan State reeled Ole Miss in, got back on even terms and then made every key play down the stretch. Whether it was Izzo getting great looks for his guys out of timeouts, nailing every clutch free throw and then getting the toughest bucket of the night from Akins off a broken play with 1:23 remaining to break a 63-all tie, it was vintage Sparty.
“I love these guys because they kept grinding,” Izzo said. “They kept grinding. I’m proud and happy for them. They’ve earned it. They deserved it. They did it.”
There’s no reason to believe Izzo is walking away anytime soon, but he may never get another chance like this to reach the Final Four. He hates the transfer portal, loathes what the business of college basketball has become and isn’t going to compromise what’s important just to get a player.
He’s coached long enough now that more sons of Spartan greats may be in the pipeline, but that’s probably not a great recruiting strategy. For Michigan State to get Izzo to one more Final Four, it’s going to have to be like this, wringing every ounce of ability out of a roster nobody else could coach this well.
But now they’re just 40 minutes from going back. And betting against Izzo when he’s got this kind of opportunity in his sights rarely works out well.