VIDEO: Michigan State's Tom Izzo says this Sweet 16 ranks among his sweetest

Columbus, Ohio – Tom Izzo has taken so many Michigan State teams to the Sweet 16 that he has lost count. When someone told him after the Spartans’ victory over Marquette in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday that it was his 15th, he stopped and smiled.

“You know, I didn’t know how many,” he said. “I really didn’t. I’ve had a lot of sweet Sweet 16s but for everything we went through, I’d say this one is going to rank right up there.”

Izzo has done it as a high seed, a heavy favorite, and as an underdog. And that’s what the Spartans were on Sunday against No. 2 seed Marquette – an underdog. An underdog prior to the game, and a major underdog a week ago after the Spartans had stumbled in the Big Ten Tournament and Marquette had cruised to a Big East Tournament championship.

Michigan State had become an overthought in the East Region, behind regular season conference champions such as Kansas, Duke, Purdue and Marquette looming in the 16-team bracket.

But when the basketball calendar flips to Big Dance time, people overlook Izzo at their own peril. Time after time, they do it. Time after time, he comes back like a legend. Including this time.

This is Izzo’s sixth Sweet 16 appearance as a No. 5 seed or lower – the most ever by any coach, breaking a tie with Jim Boeheim.

And this was Izzo’s 16th NCAA Tournament win as a lower-seeded team, also the most of any coach in men’s Division I college basketball history.

As for collecting his 15th Sweet 16, Izzo said: “They were all great. I have to look at all the other ones and then I might say, ‘Wow, that one was pretty cool.’ I’ve had a lot of great guys, man. And you know what? I bet a lot of guys are going to be in New York and I’m looking forward to it.”

It’s Michigan State’s first Sweet 16 since 2019, when the Spartans beat Minnesota in Des Moines, Iowa. That team eventually defeated LSU and Duke at the Regional in Washington, D.C. and advanced to the Final Four in Minneapolis.

“I’ve been a few of them,” Izzo said of the Sweet 16. “But everything this team went through and the way they rallied and how they kept getting off the floor, give them credit. And give credit to my staff. 

“When you have a two-day prep against a team like this – and trust me, that is a real good basketball team – I was proud of my guys. I was proud of Tyson Walker, I was proud of AJ Hoggard, I was proud of Joey Hauser. I wanted to lead the chants.”

Walker finished with a game-high 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting. But it didn’t come easy.

Michigan State and Marquette each had a hard time getting good shots out of their base offensive plays and sets due to the terrific defense played by both teams. 

“We took them out of some stuff, they took us out of some stuff,” Izzo said. “They got into us worse than we got into them. We played our defense, was more gap defense; they played their defense, which is more in-your-face defense.”

Marquette was successful at clutching, bumping and mugging Hauser as he tried to come off of screens. They did the same with Walker when he was away from the ball.

After a mammoth offensive rebound by Malik Hall with 1:28 left, Izzo called time out. He didn’t draw up an intricate halfcourt set. He put the ball in Walker’s hands, spread the court, and let the senior guard go to work.

“I told Tyson he had to take over because they (Marquette) were so good defensively,” Izzo said. “They were clutching. It was a hockey game at times, and they were so good at it that we couldn’t get away. So we had to go more one-on-one.

“We kept the ball in the middle because they did a great job of trapping us and we got it off to the middle. So we kept it in that middle third, and A.J. and Tyson did a phenomenal job. and Tyson made a couple of unbelievable plays.”