Tom Izzo

Tom Izzo
Thomas Michael Izzois an American college basketball coach. Since 1995, he has been the head coach for the Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team, presiding over a prolonged period of success. On April 4, 2016, Izzo was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth30 January 1955
CityIron Mountain, MI
character program promise room tougher toughness weight work
We're going to get back in the weight room to work on toughness and character. I promise we'll be tougher and I promise we'll get this program back to where we all want it.
christmas coming door elves good gotten managers open room sparks stuff system
We've gotten such a good system down, my managers can get a lot of stuff done. It was unbelievable around here (Sunday) night. If you open the door in that room it was Santa's elves working on Christmas Day. They were going at it. There were sparks coming out of that room. They all take some ownership.
lockers rooms championship
Championships and great seasons are won in locker rooms.
biggest figure good great kept losing mind problem schedules team tough within
Our biggest problem was there was no spacing between those tough games. We kept losing and having to play another great team right away. I still think good schedules make you better in the long run. I don't mind losing because that's how you figure out what's wrong, but you have to do it within reason.
couple slip won
I thought we had it won a couple of times and let it slip away.
checked loose
I thought they were physical. I thought they checked us. I thought they got to loose balls.
time touched
I think we were too aggressive. Every time we touched a guy, there was a foul.
attraction chicago incredible job main maybe people
I think a lot of people like the Chicago thing because it's maybe more of a destination. But Indianapolis did an incredible job of making us feel like we were the main attraction in town.
biggest capable career coach few games good head lack last ncaa perform performance played season
I think it was the biggest disappointment of all the NCAA games we played in. We didn't have the season we wanted to have. We didn't perform to what I think our capabilities were. I think this is one of the few times in my career here as a head coach that we didn't get done what I think we were capable of getting done, culminating with the lack of a very good performance on that last night.
incredible
I think it was one of the most incredible performances I've seen.
drew expect far fatigue hard
I think it was more fatigue as far as Drew is concerned. It's hard to expect more (from him).
false games
I think it's really important, for two reasons. No. 1, for the games themselves, and No. 2, so that we don't get a false sense of where we are.
gave glad greatest including seemed troops
It had to go through a lot of channels, including the Pentagon, and there were times it seemed like it wasn't going to happen. But I'm glad it did because it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. The troops thanked us for being there, but they gave us more than we gave them.
focused incredible meeting national potential troops year
It has been an incredible year for me, ... When I got back, I had a meeting and told my team, 'If you can be as disciplined and focused as our troops over there, we could be a potential national champion.'