Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo wins Big Ten coach of the year; two players earn postseason recognition

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo has been named the 2024-25 Big Ten coach of the year, the conference announced Tuesday. It’s his fourth time winning the award in 30 years as head coach. Izzo previously won the award in 1998, 2009 and 2012.

“Number one, not with humility, but you don’t win these without your staff and your players,” Izzo said. “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 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.”

Izzo, 70, led Michigan State from unranked in the preseason AP Top 25 to its 17th Big Ten championship – Izzo’s 11th – this season. The Spartans won the league by three games, clinching the title outright with a win over Iowa on March 6. 

Michigan State was picked to finish fifth in the Big Ten heading into the season, and it received just one first-place vote. The Spartans finished 26-5 (17-3 in the Big Ten) and seventh in the final AP Top 25 poll. 

“If you look at the true value of what is a coach of the year, I mean, yeah, we weren’t picked as high,” Izzo said. “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, and then consequently for me to win an award like this. 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. 

“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.”

Izzo’s 11th Big Ten championship tied him with Indiana’s Bob Knight and Purdue’s Ward “Piggy” Lambert for the most all-time. Izzo also broke Knight’s record for the most conference wins with a victory over Illinois on Feb. 15.

Last offseason, Izzo had to replace his top three scorers from a 2023-24 team that lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament to North Carolina. The Spartans relied mostly on their returning core of players, with Izzo adding just two transfers in Frankie Fidler and Szymon Zapala, and one rotational freshman in Jase Richardson. 

They went on to win 13 games in a row from Nov. 27 to Jan. 28. Michigan State started 9-0 in conference play before losing three of four in early February. The Spartans finished the season on a seven-game winning streak, all against quadrant one opponents. 

In his interview with the Big Ten Network on Tuesday, Izzo mentioned that it’s good to know the game hasn’t “passed him by,” but he also isn’t out to prove anything.

“I don’t look at it vindictively like that, where you have to prove it,” Izzo said. “What happens when you’ve been around a long time and you’ve been in the same conference – I mean, when I started, in the conference there was Bobby Knight and Gene Keady and Clem Haskins and Tom Davis, guys who have won big for a long time – 20 years or more. And then I’m in this conference and George Perles is here, Bo Schembechler down there, Woody Hayes had come from Ohio State, and you saw what those guys all went through. All of them were told that the game passed them by, too, a few times. ‘Is it three yards and a cloud of dust? You have to change.’ 

“But the basics of it are still the basics. You have to be able to block and tackle in football, you have to be able to not turn the ball over. The same thing happens in basketball, except maybe because of the changing landscape like it’s never changed (before), with the NIL and the transfer portal. There are so many other things you have to consider: How do people get along? Does the team get jealous of each other? Does the team have to have a bunch of new people? Do they fit in together? There are so many other factors now. 

“But I don’t look at it like that because I don’t think I’ve done anything that much different. I’ve adjusted. I’ve spent a little more time with the players. I’ve always spent a lot of time, but I made sure this summer and this fall that we did things together. We went to baseball, football and basketball games. We went to the U.P., we went to Spain. We just did as many things we could do together to try to build camaraderie, and I’d say that if coach of the year is given for the reason it should be, it should be given for what’s done off the court, not on the court. 

“That’s what I think people sometimes don’t appreciate about here, is spending time with players pays dividends. You get to know them better, you get to understand them better, they get to know you better, they get to understand you better. When you’re in a foxhole with somebody and you have to win a game or you have to fight a fight, it’s good to know everything you can know about the guy next to you, and that’s what I think we’ve done a better job of than maybe we’ve done in a long, long time. We were forced into it in some ways, but it was a good thing.

“So no, it’s not, ‘Hey look at me I’m still alive.’ It’s, ‘Hey, I have a good staff, I have good players and I have guys who have sacrificed, bought in and did everything they could do for winning.’ 

“I think it was Nick Saban, a couple of those coaches, they said the same thing: Is winning as important as it used to be? I think, with this team, winning was important and they showed it. They showed it not by winning. They showed it by the sacrifices they made for each other to win. And I think that was very impressive and a good life lesson for all of us.”

Michigan State also had two players earn postseason recognition. Richardson was named to the Big Ten all-freshman team, while senior guard Jaden Akins was named to the conference’s all-defensive team. Richardson also earned third team honors from the coaches and the media. Akins earned third team honors from the coaches.

Richardson averaged 11.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists on 52.4 percent shooting (38.8 percent from three) this season. Izzo elevated Richardson into the starting lineup on Feb. 8 against Oregon, and Richardson never looked back. Richardson scored a season-high 29 points against the Ducks, and proceeded to score in double-figures in his final eight games of the season.

Akins averaged a team-best 12.9 points on 39.9 percent shooting (29.6 percent from three), to go along with 3.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.3 blocks. Even amid a streaky offensive season, Akins has consistently guarded the opposing teams’ best perimeter player this year.

Michigan State is the first team since 1995-96 Purdue to not have a first- or second-team all-conference selection. 

Michigan State associate head coach Doug Wojcik won the Big Ten assistant of the year. Spartan walk-on guard Nick Sanders was named a Big Ten sportsmanship award honoree.

“Doug was here with me before, and then he went out and became a head coach,” Izzo said. “I talked to DJ (Stephens) the other day, and when DJ and Monty (Mark Montgomery) left, I made Doug the associate head coach because I had a newer staff coming in, and I thought we all needed somebody when I’m not around or when I’m at press conferences that can – so he really took over that role, too.

“He’s been great. He’s done a great job with the defensive part of it, but he’s more than that to me because he’s been a head coach, so I can run things off of him that I think he understands better, like any (former head coach) would. I’ll never forget DJ last year, he called me and did the same thing I did with Jud (Heathcote): ‘Now I see why you thought this way’ or ‘Now I see why you wanted that,’ or whatever the situation is.

“So it’s always good to have somebody on your staff who has that, and he’s had that. He’s been with some big programs. He’s still a guy worthy of getting a head job, so maybe this will be the year for him, maybe not. But he’s done a great job for me and I feel like he’s helped the other guys a lot.”