Izzo says NCAA Tournament should be about the money, not the players or teams
Izzo was talking about smaller teams taking away bids from larger teams and whether that is good for college basketball or not.
A couple of key quotes from Izzo:
Izzo...said he's always been a fan of "the little guys" but that from a business perspective, squeezing out big-name programs like Michigan State presents problems.
"What's happening now, everybody likes the upsets on the first weekend, but I'm not sure moving on that's what's best for the game,"
"It's all about what is best for the financial part of it, if I'm going to be very blunt, more than it is the players and teams,"
Izzo also proposes the committee should have more guys like Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, and Mike Krzyzewski on it. As a Michigan football fan who is still mad about 1997 and Tom Osborn appealing to the coaches poll, the last thing we need is a bunch of decrepit cronies deciding who should be in the tournament and who shouldn't.
What Izzo seems to miss is the middle tier teams from the P5 conferences aren't always good just because they are from a P5 conference. They routinely get beat by mid-majors and it isn't really an upset.
Maybe Izzo is still trying to wash away that Middle Tennessee State result.
I think the bigger point Izzo is trying to make remains. He's basically making two points and one is self serving to the other:
1) The tournament needs to have certain brands in it every year.
2) The bigger conferences should be getting more teams in.
Both of these, ultimately, are about the bigger conferences getting more the of the NCAA Tourney revenue.
He is proposing to either leave the tournament at 68 teams and leave out more of the smaller schools to make room for the middling P5 schools (which is why he wants his crony old boy network to have more of a say on who's in or out) or to expand the tournament so the middling P5 schools can get in in addition to the smaller schools.
Again, either way this is about the bigger conferences getting more schools in, thus a bigger portion of the revenue.
It would be amusing if the NCAA was like, Wait, MSU is in the tournament? How did that happen? And kicked them out.
The Izzo/MSU insta-bid needs to stop. He's a fucking tone deaf clown that doesn't deserve the respect he seems to get every March.
And of course he doesn't want smaller schools to get in so that can't keep embarrassing him all the time.
The people in charge of college sports don't like college sports.
Izzo trying to justify the fact that his undeserving MSU team took bids away from more deserving mid majors.
izzo just doesn't like the embarrassment of losing to those small schools in the tourny
I've never gotten why Izzo and MSU are treated like this blue blood program and why he deserves so much deference. He's won one title and been to two more finals in his 25-year career. He's gotten to the same number of Sweet 16s as Juwan Howard has over the last decade. People are not tuning in to see his 9th-seed team maybe make it out of the first weekend less frequently than we have presidential elections.
He's only been to one other national title game. His record in the Final Four is appalling.
granted the other NC appearance was against a great UNC team. but it was in Detroit and his squad was dog walked
Michigan has been to 8 final fours, been runner-up 5 times, and has one title.
Michigan State has been to 10 final fours, been runner up once, and has two titles.
While this was a hard journey down memory lane for how close Michigan has been to having more titles, it also puts into perspective the overall programs performance.
What helps MSU is recency. Of those 10 final fours, 8 have come since 1999. Michigan has had 2 during that time.
The other factor is that Izzo is now THE elder statesman amongst major conference coaches, having been there since 1995. After him, it's Leonard Hamilton at FSU (2002), Scott Drew at Baylor (2003), Bill Self at Kansas (2003), and Matt Painter at Purdue (2005).
His teams were extremely successful over the years and the longest they've gone without a FF appearance is 4 seasons.
Definitely a bit of a schmuck, but some great results as a coach.
Draft kings won’t ice out the little guys
Must be lobbying for his retirement gig.
100%
I hope MSU loses in the first round again.
This feels exactly like why some big clubs want the Super League in Europe. Has nothing to do with the actual teams and players on them. Its about name brand… give the masses what they already know they like and they wont miss what they dont know about.
Get rid of Conference Tournaments and those middling P4 teams won't have an extra loss they didn't need.
What’s good is michigan state losing every fucking game they can.
Izzo isn't aging well. What a grumpy, old man, I no longer know how to have fun and now get off MY LAWN type of comment. Yeesh.
What's he doing now...yelling at clouds.
"What's happening now, everybody likes the upsets on the first weekend, but I'm not sure moving on that's what's best for the game,"
So is he calling for fixing the games?
This is kind of the most "anti-sport" thing I have heard in awhile.
Sounds like he is openly endorsing the complete opposite of a meritocracy.
I for one am shocked at the questionable ethics in his musings.
Then what he is really saying is that he really wants to make the tournament into more of a made-for-TV exhibition, which is what the football playoff is going to become instead of a bona fide playoff to crown the best team as champs. Unlike football where the mid majors are rarely truly credible candidates to be the best team, plenty of mid major basketball programs can hang with the teams from supposed power conferences.
Izzo says he’s “always been a fan of the little guys”
Tom, sometimes the jokes write themselves.
This is certainly the Big Ten position. Any B1G coach would say the same thing.
Virginia says ‘Hi!’
What a tiny little turd that guy is.
He's being loyal to his school. He's pitching to get more money for Staee because they might be paying Tucker a lot.
Washed.
Dude opens his mouth and you're guaranteed to get an out-of-touch quote. He must really be charming in the living room and even after practice because he's always seemed like such a dick bag.
He's kind of right, of course. We love the upsets in the first few rounds, but when the Final Four (or the championship game) has Cinderellas in it, it can suck the air right out of those games. San Diego State against UConn was a snoozer last year, for instance, and while there can certainly also be blowouts between big-time programs, at least you can get the fun of a rivalry or some other match-up of significance.
Michigan vs. Louisville. Kansas vs. UNC. Etc. There are story-lines there that stand out, and coaches that people either love or hate. That's more compelling than ... Duke vs. Grand Canyon, or something, in the finals.
Fuck Izzo and his 13 sexual assault players and rapists since he has been a coach and not doing a dma thing about any of those players. He is a little bitch who is jealous of Michigan and is way overrated as a coach. He can't develop or use NBA type of players correctly
March 20th, 2024 at 10:11 PM ^
The AD’s have sent out the talking points and the coaches are getting those points out. This is the Power Conferences realizing they need as much money as possible and what better way to do it than to get 80% of your teams in the Big Dance. Money will be the death of big time college athletics.
March 20th, 2024 at 10:12 PM ^
A guy who always makes the tournament, deserving or not, whose team couldn't win more than half of their conference games is complaining that he almost didn't get selected for the tournament that always selects them.
Ok.
March 20th, 2024 at 10:23 PM ^
I wish Izzo would go away already. His egotistical shamelessness is only ignorant because he wins and he coaches a clown college.
OP title should have been… “Douchebag is a douchebag.”
He has forgotten his roots. F*ck the little troll. Sorry not sorry.