Why Michigan State's Tom Izzo May Be the Best Coach in College Basketball

Six Final Fours in 12 years. One national championship. Six Big 10 titles. Four national Coach of the Year awards.

“Dickie V! It’s Tom Izzo’s world—you’re just living in it, baby!!!”

I guess we all are.

Think about it: How would you feel if your team reached the Final Four at least every other year? Duke’s last trip was when it lost in the semis to UConn in 2004. DUKE. As required by some legal statute with the NCAA, UCLA made three trips from 2006 to 2008 and hasn’t sniffed relevance since.

Ask recent NIT invites Roy Williams or Jim Calhoun if this is an easy task. Or Bill Self. Billy Donovan. Rick Barnes’ lone trip in 2003 doesn’t even seem replicable.

Yet for Izzo, it’s nearly automatic.

And that’s the difference between Izzo and every other coach in basketball. He extracts max effort and execution out of his guys when it matters —not in December or even February—regardless of roster flux from graduation, early defections, and injuries.

It always comes together in March.

I get the feeling we’ve been here before …

So does every person born in Iron Mountain, Mich., exceed life expectations like this?

Apparently not. Steve Mariucci also lived there. Izzo is truly one of a kind.

Coaching is hard. So how does he do it?

We have a home-cooked theory that is light on research and heavy on Protestant instinct and Midwestern values:

1. Recruit tough inner city kids from Flint, Detroit, and Chicago. You know they’ll play defense. Scoring, offensive sets, free throws, etc? All that can be taught later. And they WILL learn it.

2. Go after the elite kids and complement them with glue guys to round out the roster like Mike Kebler, Austin Thornton, Jon Crandell, Chris Allen, Tom Herzog, and Anthony Ianni. But know who butters your bread.

3. If available for delivery via trans-ocean courier, complement these junkyard dogs with a large Balkan post. Or human. Either works as long as it takes up space and cleans glass. The latest model was Goran Suton and could not be replaced in time for this season. If No. 3 is not available, a heady, undersized, overachieving guard with Aryan roots must be on the roster (See Neitzel, Drew , or Kebler, Mike ).

4. Use a mid-season slump to lull future opponents into a false sense of confidence when scouting in March for potential weaknesses. Izzo plans these losses and then chastises his players to the media for not buying into the system. Again, perfectly scripted. All on the same page.

5. Round into form towards end of conference play and make a reasonably strong showing in the conference tourney to earn a competitive seed in the No. 2-to-5 range.

6. Win every game that matters in March by four points or fewer. As if you weren’t entirely in control of your opponent’s fate!

7. Cut down the regional nets and fly to the city that hosts the  Final Four every other year.

8. When they ask, “How do you do it, Tom!?” Smile. And give the kids all the credit.

Or maybe the guy is just really freakin' lucky?

Izzo’s latest accomplishment might be his most impressive.

After losing do-it-all point guard Kalin Lucas to yet another injury, Izzo plugs in off-guard Korie Lucious, who nailed the buzzer beater to oust a hot Maryland squad in the second round. Lucious had never played point guard in his career until spelling an injured Lucas earlier in the season, and the results were dismal.

Of course they were. It wasn’t March. This is when Izzo’s team’s shine. Hey Lucious—you’re the guy now. Play like it.

Forget about the five turnovers. Tennessee’s tenacious press D gets that out of most point guards. Lucious also had four assists, five steals, and eight points. He struggled controlling tempo but always kept in the game Raymar Morgan, Durrell Summers, and Draymond Green—the guys who had to be if Michigan State had any chance to win against Tennessee’s imposing headband lineup.

Morgan scored only 13 but went 5-for-6 from the line, nailing them when they counted. Summers has exploded in the tournament, going off for 21 points against the Vols after posting 26 against the Terps.

This is the same Michigan State team that lost to Texas (TEXAS!) by double digits back in December, and then dropped three in a row in Big 10 play to Wisconsin, Illinois, and Purdue. Then the loss to an upstart Minnesota team—IN MARCH, TOM, COME ON!—had everybody wondering if the magic would happen yet again.

Like you wouldn’t want an Izzo. Ha! Four tournament wins later, with an average margin of victory of only four points, look who is back in the Final Four.

Get more Sparty Flava Flav with our Lead Izzo-ite Adam Biggers at Sparty On!

This article originally appeared on Barking Carnival .

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