Tom Izzo addresses coaching future at Michigan State: 'I'm on the back nine, but not on the 18th hole'

Tom Izzo is Michigan State and vice versa. The Spartans basketball coach led his team to another Sweet 16 appearance this season, with a tipoff against Kansas State scheduled for Thursday.

But his future was in question, at least from Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd. Cowherd asked Izzo how much longer the coach could keep going.

Joining The Herd, Izzo put any potential questions to rest and said he did not envision retirement any time soon, so long as he feels good.

“I guess I’m on the back nine, but I’m not on the 18th hole,” Izzo said. “But what happens in Michigan is your body freezes. So it puts us in a freezer so we don’t age as much maybe but now, you know I love what I do. I am worried about where our profession is going. I think college athletics right now, it’s got some big hurdles to climb. But as far as where I’m at, I’m looking over at a football field. I love football. I have some ownership in this university. You know, I talked to Mike Krzyzewski, I talked to Jim Boeheim, I did talk to Jay Wright a lot. 

“Some of us have been at these institutions for 25, 30, 40 years and that’s pretty cool. It’s harder in a lot of ways, but you definitely have ownership and I come to work every day. I don’t go there as it’s my workplace. I go there like it’s my university and that’s pretty cool.”

Since 1995, Izzo has a 686-278 record in the only head coaching job he ever had at the Division 1 level. He was an assistant at Michigan State in 1983 before his promotion to head coach 12 years later.

To get back to the Sweet 16, the first time since 2019 when the team made the Final Four, the Spartans took down No. 2 seed Marquette.

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“I think we beat a damn good team,” Izzo said postgame. “They were tough. I mean, it started with that first one where they kind of stole the ball from him, and they came at him all day. To A.J.’s credit, that’s where I think he’s grown, because I said to him, he could have just died then. Then he made two great plays in a row. And I think he made some big steps and was the key. Joey, it’s so fun to hear people chanting.

“When people weren’t chanting a couple years ago. And I think he’s deserved every bit of it. The whole team did a lot of things but these three guys were special. And Tyson got his first collegiate dunk in the Big Ten.”