Michigan State wins share of Big Ten championship as Tom Izzo ties Knight, Lambert for most career titles with 11

Regardless of what happens in the final two games of Big Ten play, Michigan State owns at least a share of the 2024-2025 regular-season conference championship and Tom Izzo will be tied with Big Ten legends Bob Knight (Indiana) and Ward ‘Piggy’ Lambert (Purdue) for the most titles in Big Ten history with 11.

The Spartans clinched a share of the 11^th Big Ten regular-season championship in Izzo’s Hall of Fame career with a 71-66 Maryland victory over the in-state rival of the Spartans on the road in Ann Arbor.

The latest coaching milestone for Izzo comes less than two weeks after he eclipsed Knight’s Big Ten record for career conference victories with Michigan State’s road victory at Illinois.

The Wolverines entered Wednesday’s Top 20 match-up needing a win over the Terps and a Spartan loss at Iowa on Thursday night to pull even with the Spartans in the Big Ten standings ahead of the Big Ten regular-season finale for both teams in East Lansing on Sunday.

With the Wolverines losing to the Terps on Wednesday, the Spartans can win the Big Ten regular season championship outright with a win at Iowa on Thursday. During his weekly press conference earlier this week, Izzo was asked about how he would handle a scenario in which the Spartans were to win a championship on the road, outright or shared.

“There will be no celebrating in Iowa,” Izzo said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “They’ve got a tiny little locker room there. Maybe we’ll give each other a hug if we find a way to win. But there will be no celebration. First of all, I will never do that on somebody else’s court ever. Second of all, I have too much respect for coaches, players, and fans. Third of all, we have bigger goals than winning it. Winning it outright. Playing better all of the time so we are better prepared for the tournaments that are coming up where it’s one bad day and one bad half and you are out. That’s not a negative. It is just the way I think it should be. I’ve seen it once or twice where people cut down the nets at somebody else’s place. I would never do that.”

A win at Iowa on Thursday would give Michigan State an outright championship. Even with a loss against Maryland, the Wolverines still have a chance to share a Big Ten title with their in-state rival. For that to happen, the Spartans would have to lose at Iowa on Thursday and drop their senior-day match-up with the Wolverines.

The Spartans put themselves in position to win Izzo’s 11^th championship with five consecutive Quad 1 wins against upper-tier conference teams in Illinois, Purdue, Wolverines, Maryland and Wisconsin down the stretch of the Big Ten regular season. That impressive string of victories includes road wins at Illinois and Michigan.

For the Spartans, this is first Big Ten since 2020 when Cassius Winston and Xavier Tillman won the program’s third straight regular-season title. Michigan State has also won regular-season Big Ten championships in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2018, 2019, in 2020.

In addition to winning 11 Big Ten regular-season titles under Izzo, the Spartans have won six Big Ten Tournament championships, a national championship, and gone to eight Final Fours.

PAUL’S TAKE: When Izzo surpassed Knight’s record for career victories earlier this season, he graciously downplayed the accomplishment citing conference expansion which has led the Spartans and other Big Ten teams to play more games per year than Knight did when he was on the bench at Indiana. I would argue that Izzo’s record for career wins is more impressive than what Knight did in Big Ten play at Indiana given the talent gap between the Hoosiers and the rest of the Big Ten during Knight’s tenure as Hoosier head coach and the extent to which Izzo has had to adapt to the changing landscape of college basketball over three decades at Michigan State. I think it is fitting that in the same year that Izzo surpassed Knight’s career victories Big Ten mark, he also matched Knight and Purdue legend Ward “Piggy” Lambert for career Big Ten championships. What impresses me the most about Izzo’s latest career milestone is the way in which this championship transpired. Michigan State won this Big Ten championship with outstanding team chemistry and uncommon roster depth in the transfer portal era as the result of buy-in at the player level and a commitment to player development on the part of Izzo and his coaching staff. The Spartans also got some help from the portal with the addition of Frankie Fidler and Szymon Zapala, but this championship was built on the backs of returning players who bought into Izzo’s belief that the bedrock principles upon which he built a national powerhouse at Michigan State were still relevant at a time when many would argue otherwise.

During a year in which so many great college coaches have put down their clipboard due to the inability to reconcile the principles they believe in with the current landscape in college basketball, it is pretty darn impressive to see that defending, rebounding, and running can still propel Michigan State to championships at a time when the game has become so transactional. This championship will get even sweeter if Michigan State can close out the regular-season wins over Iowa and Michigan, and go on to make the type of run in the NCAA Tournament that Izzo-coached teams have done frequently over the years.

This has been a special season for the Spartans no matter what comes around the bend. Izzo has done as good a coaching job as I’ve seen in helping his team navigate a Big Ten grind that is different than any of his previous team’s have faced. Michigan State players also deserve their share of credit because the buy-in on this team and the care-factor on this entire roster is a unicorn.