At age 70, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo back in the title mix at another March Madness

By Canadian Press on March 27, 2025.

ATLANTA (AP) — For Tom Izzo, the blueprint for a career like few others was established in his very first year as a head coach.

His memory is a bit fuzzy — Izzo remembers his 1995 Michigan State team grabbing 26 offensive rebounds in a victory over a powerhouse Arkansas program, when it was actually 24 — but the message is clear.

Some keys to success never change.

“I always say you can win games in a lot of different ways, but to win championships, it’s pretty standard still,” Izzo said Thursday. “You’ve still got to be able to do things with some accountability and some discipline.”

Michigan State (29-6) is in the midst of its 27th straight NCAA Tournament appearance, the longest active streak in the country. At age 70, Izzo has the Spartans in the Sweet 16 for the 16th time in his three-decade-long career.

“He’s Mount Rushmore of this sport,” said Mississippi coach Chris Beard, whose team will meet the second-seeded Spartans on Friday night in the South Region.

“He’s coached in all these different eras of college basketball. He’s had different players, different coaches, different rules, different styles of the game. Now here we are in the name, image, and likeness and portal era, and Michigan State is here on the main stage. What’s the common ingredient? It’s coach Izzo.”

Izzo concedes that he’s been a bit of a chameleon over the years.

He had to be, if he wanted to stay relevant in a college landscape than looks far different than when he was just getting started in East Lansing.

“The fat tie goes out, the skinny tie comes in,” he said with a smile. “The bell bottoms, the straight leg, the miniskirts, the short and long skirts, the different hairstyles. I think that’s where you adapt.”

His players don’t look at him as a guy old enough to be their grandfather.

“I feel like he still has a really young spirit at heart,” senior guard Jaden Akins said. “Every day in practice, he always brings the energy. I don’t really think about his age that much.”

It’s been 25 years since Izzo won his lone national title.

He’s driven to add another to his resume.

“Once you win a national championship, winning a tournament game means nothing,” Izzo said. “To our fans, it doesn’t mean much. To me, it doesn’t mean as much.”

Quite a comeback season

Of all the teams to reach the Sweet 16, Michigan has come the farthest from a year ago.

The Wolverines finished 2024 with an 8-24 record — the most losses in program history, which led to the firing of coach Juwan Howard.

Enter Dusty May and a towering group of transfers, who have quickly restored Michigan to prominence. The fifth-seeded Wolverines (27-9) will meet top-seeded Auburn on Friday night.

“Expectations weren’t that high,” said Danny Wolf, part of Michigan’s imposing front court that features two 7-footers who played elsewhere last season. “As soon as we started playing and meshing, we knew we weren’t really underdogs at that point. We had such a high-level team and high-level locker room.”

Wolf is joined up front by 7-1 Vladislav Goldin, a duo that creates all sorts of matchup problems for opposing teams.

“It doesn’t happen in one day,” Goldin said. “Day by day, we’ve been getting better and better and better.”

Is Auburn a basketball school?

Football will always be king in the Southeastern Conference, but hoops has become quite an appealing way to spend some free time at Auburn.

The basketball program has flourished under coach Bruce Pearl at a time when the Tigers have struggled on the gridiron.

Sellout crowds and fans willing to camp out hours for tickets have become the norm on the Plains. Nothing less than the first national championship in school history will satisfy this group, which is 30-5 and the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

“We’re real proud, man,” fifth-year forward Chris Moore said. “We’re going to continue to build on that legacy.”

This could have the feel of a home game for Auburn, which is only about 110 miles from Atlanta. There should be plenty of orange and blue in the crowd at State Farm Arena.

“We love our fans,” freshman point guard Tahaad Pettiford said. “We wouldn’t be where we are without them.”

Ole Miss is a Sweet 16 neophyte

This is rarified territory for Ole Miss, which has reached the Sweet 16 for only the second time in school history.

The only other time the Rebels (24-11) got this far was 2001. If the No. 6 seed can knock off Michigan State, it would be the deepest tournament run in school history.

Beard, Ole Miss’ second-year coach, noted how important it was to have three of his top five scorers from a year ago return to the program.

“When you study our team and why we’ve been successful, why we’re here on this stage in the Sweet 16, our roster management, I think we did a good job,” Beard said. “The first building block has got to be returners.”

Showdown beyond the arc

One of the most intriguing matchups in Atlanta will be Ole Miss’ 3-point shooters, led by Sean Pedulla, taking on a Michigan State defense that is one of the nation’s stringiest outside the arc.

The Rebels combined to hit 19 of 39 (49%) from long range in their wins over North Carolina and Iowa State last weekend. Pedulla hit 5 of 10 from beyond the arc, scoring 20 points in each game.

In their first two tournament games, the Spartans allowed opponents to make 9 of 37 3-pointers (24%).

“You’ve still got to defend, rebound and run,” Izzo said, “Everybody wants to hear some fancy new phrase, but it’s still the meat and potatoes.”

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Paul Newberry, The Associated Press