Tom Izzo passionate reflecting on 2000 national championship team, comeback win

The Michigan State Spartans welcomed the 2000 national championship team back to campus for their win over the Oregon Ducks. For head coach Tom Izzo, having them there was more than just honoring the program’s history, it was a memory he’s going to hold onto.

Izzo led that team to a national championship and against Oregon he led the Spartans to a come-from-behind win. That, as Izzo would explain after the game, was special for him.

“No, you know when I sat there and looked behind the bench and those guys were all sitting there, it was memory-making moment, to say the least,” Tom Izzo said. “As I said, those guys, people just don’t realize there’s times in your life where certain things happen and they made Tom Izzo. If you ask me, they really did a lot to make Michigan State Basketball.”

The 2000 national championship team went 32-7, winning the Big Ten Tournament and the Big Ten regular season. That earned them a one-seed in the NCAA Tournament, where they went on a dominant run, winning every single game by double-digits. It was the only national title for Izzo during his time at Michigan State.

“I mean, we’re just coming off of visiting with Magic [Johnson] and that thing was something incredible those 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 and they will always come back.”

In the win over Oregon, the Spartans went into halftime down by 14 at the half, dealing with illnesses throughout the roster. However, they rallied in the second half to comeback to win by 12 points.

“It was probably just because we had some guys sick, and Jaden [Akins] not feeling well during the game. I just talked to UCLA and they have six people sick and that was our biggest fear. We got up one morning and [Xavier Booker] was out and the next morning Jeremy [Fears Jr.] was out and I woke up this morning and I called my trainer, and I said ‘You say one word to me, I’m firing you,’ and so he didn’t until later on when he told me that Jaden wasn’t really doing real well,” Izzo said.

“So, you talk about an ultimate team effort. The team was players on the floor, players on the bench, the players behind the bench, and the fans in the stands. That was a team, it was about an 18-16,000 team victory tonight and for me, it just doesn’t get any better than that. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, except that first half made it a little tough but we found a way to fight through it, which says a lot about the character of our guys with some people down.”

For Tom Izzo, the win was a good one for the Michigan State program. He even shared that former player Mateen Cleaves reminded the players that they’ll always remember this win.

“Mateen was in the locker room after the whole team was, and I asked them because some of them have been here from the start and they’ve been here all during it because they all come. I mean, I don’t know, you tell me those of you who follow us, it was one of the great comebacks, the great wins, and the crowd was electric. It was one of the best wins at home, it’s a top fiver and what he told the team after in the locker room is you’ll have memories of this that will last a whole lifetime. You won’t remember every game, but you’ll never forget this game and I think he was right,” Izzo said.

“Again, I can’t tell you how much I appreciated our fans. Some of you asked me a great question the other day. You asked if our fans were bailing on us because we lost two games. Well, I didn’t see them. I didn’t see anybody bailing, I didn’t see a coach bail and I didn’t see a player bail and I definitely didn’t see the fans bail. That’s why this place is special and it’ll remain special until I’m done and then hopefully it’ll move on to remain special until the next guy’s done. That’s what great programs do.”

Michigan State will now turn its attention to Indiana on Tuesday night. From there, this year’s team will look to make its own deep run.