Tom Izzo compares path of 2000 championship team, 2025 Michigan State group

Tom Izzo has seen this movie before, as in, the 2025 Michigan State basketball squad has some similarities to the 2000 national champions.

Following back to back losses to UCLA and USC on the road, Michigan State knocked off Oregon in its return home. The only other losses this season were to No. 1 Kansas and Memphis back in November.

Izzo was asked, with the 2000 team in attendance and being honored, how his current squad compares.

“It’s funny, because Mateen (Cleaves’) year, that was a funny year because he was hurt, we lost to Wright State,” Izzo said postgame. “We had a lot of things that happened that year. We had dogfights with Penn State when they weren’t as good. We’ve blown more teams away this year than we did that year, by far. But he’s right, you find out about the character of individuals. You kind of find out about your fans. The second half, they got into that thing pretty quickly. Just coming off a Hail Mary 3 at the buzzer.

“Boy, I’ll tell you, if those people are on the internet (complaining), it ain’t the 15,000 that were here. And if it was, so be it. I appreciate our fan base. And if they were mad about California, they were just like the head coach. He was mad, too. Now, bailing? The head coach didn’t bail. I don’t think the fans bailed. It was an unbelievable half of basketball.”

Tom Izzo sees championship DNA in current team

Michigan State would lose three more times that regular season following a December loss to Wright State.

But, ranked No. 5 in the country and seeded No. 2 in the Big Ten Tournament, the Spartans won the conference with three straight wins. Then, as a No. 1 seed at NCAAs, the Spartans went on their run.

In fact, Izzo and Michigan State didn’t win by less than 11 points in all of their games, en route to a title.

“When I sat there and looked behind the bench and those guys were all sitting there, it was a memory-making moment, to say the least,” Izzo said. “As I said, those guys, people just don’t realize there’s times in your life where certain things happen. They made Tom Izzo. And if you ask me, they really did a lot to make Michigan State basketball. I mean, we’re just coming off visiting with Magic, that thing was some incredible couple of years, but these guys winning the four Big Ten championships and getting to three Final Fours and winning a national championship. And then not letting it die, they keep coming back. They always come back.”

Izzo and Michigan State are now 19-4 (10-2) and ranked No. 9 in the country going into Sunday. With eight games left, the Spartans could set up for another magical run.