Tom Izzo reacts to becoming oldest Big Ten Coach of the Year: ‘Is that a compliment or an insult?’

After an excellent regular season for Michigan State, which saw the Spartans win the Big Ten and head coach Tom Izzo become the winningest coach in program history, the honors continued to roll in. Izzo would also be named the Big Ten Coach of the Year for his efforts.

Ahead of the Big Ten Tournament, Izzo was asked about the award. In particular, he was surprised to learn he was both the oldest coach to win the award and the coach who had the longest gap between times winning it. It presented him an opportunity that he couldn’t miss to joke with the reporter who asked him to reflect on that honor.

“Damn,” Tom Izzo said, cutting off the question. “Is that a compliment or an insult?” Izzo, at this point, smiled with his joke.

Tom Izzo is now a legend in coaching. He first got to Michigan State in 1983 as an assistant coach. In 1995, he was promoted to head coach and since then he’s been to eight Final Fours and won a national championship. On top of that, he’s also a four-time Big Ten Coach of the Year, having last won the award in 2012.

Despite his success as a coach, Izzo wanted to make sure to emphasize that he couldn’t have won the award without those around him. That includes both the assistants and the players themselves.

“Well, number one, not with humility, but you don’t win these without your staff and your players. I mean, they won the award. They do the brunt of the work, I just manage it. So, number one, I want to thank them all publicly,” Izzo said. “Because we preach to our players all the time, ‘If the team has success, the individuals within the team will have success.’ I’m a recipient of the success our team had.”

Tom Izzo made the argument that it’s hard to tell who is going to win the award. That’s because there’s different ways to measure the best coaching job. That could be in wins. It could also be in performance compared to expectations or challenges that presented themselves during the season.

“If you look at the true value of what is a Coach of the Year. I mean, yeah, we weren’t picked as high. Wisconsin was another team that wasn’t picked as high that had a hell of a year. And yet, I think Northwestern, which has gone through so many injuries and the job he [Chris Collins] has done, if you look at the true meaning – and that’s maybe what happened some of those years when we were pretty good, there were other guys who did a better job. I think what was neat about this, for our team, is that everybody had to be on the same page for us to win,” Izzo said.

“And then consequently for me to win an award like this. Doug Wojcik won the Assistant Coach of the Year Award, and I think very deserving of that. We were talked about not having anybody on the first, second, or third team at one point. People didn’t think we’d have anybody, and then some guys really came on at the end.”

Now, the goal for Tom Izzo and Michigan State is to continue this success into the postseason. That starts with the Big Ten Tournament. After that, it’s going to be attempting to make a deep run into the NCAA Tournament.

“I am pleased, I don’t know if it has the same meaning now that I found out I’m the oldest and it’s the oldest in between,” Izzo said. “But at the same time, I think it serves to what I say all the time. You can adjust and change, but the basics of what you do in these jobs and what is needed to do to win championships hasn’t changed in 100 years, much less 20.”