Nice even handed review of Izzo and “Mr March” moniker
I’m not an Izzo fan, but to call this even-handed is generous. This is a hate piece that essentially dismisses his 8 final four appearances because he has not won the whole thing since 2000.
Yeah, Rob Parker (as usual) doing his thing. Namely: many of his opinions aren't completely unreasonable, but he goes completely bombastic and off-the-edge in trying to make his point.
It's absolutely fair to say "Tom Izzo isn't the same coach the last 5 years that he was in his first 20 years." It's absurd to imply "Tom Izzo is no better an MSU coach overall than Jud Heathcote was."
But so it goes. Bombastic and off-the-edge has made Parker much of his $$$, and he's 58 years old at this point. He's not going to change.
Considering he shouldn't even have a job and should be locked in a prison cell for what he covered up, he doesn't deserve any respect.
Also not an Izzo fan, and think he's a bit (though not massively) overrated, but yeah this is dumb. He mentions his history against Duke a few times, but it's probably worth mentioning that MSU was in the Final Four just two(!) tournaments ago, and beat #1 overall seed Duke (feat. the 1st, 3rd, and 10th picks in that year's draft) to get there.
Twenty-two years ago was a completely different era in CBB. His success then was cool and all, but so what? For the past decade or so, Izzo has done less with arguably a lot more talent than most other programs.
Yup. I hate Izzo for many reasons, but his March record isn't really one of them.
Yeah, I'm not sure why he focused so much on not winning a national title in 22 years. A lot of great coaches never win one.
What is more relevant is that he has only 2 final fours in his last 12 years and didn't advance either time so he is WAY off the pace of six in his first 15 years which included a title and two other title appearances.
And then to have only made the sweet 16 once in the last six tournaments is an even greater decline.
Those last two facts are what should be focused on, not that he hasn't won it all in 22 years.
FiveThirtyEight did an analysis in 2015 that declared Izzo the greatest NCAA tourney coach by far based on wins above seed expectation (this was after the Denzel Valentine team made the Final Four as a seven seed): https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/tom-izzo-is-the-best-coach-in-modern-ncaa-tournament-history-by-far/
They updated it in 2018 after Boeheim made a couple runs to pass Izzo after he lost as a two seed to MTSU. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/jim-boeheim-is-the-new-king-of-march-madness/
In just those three years Izzo was negative five wins against expectations, almost giving back a third of the wins above expectations he had accumulated.
He would have earned some back after the 2019 Final Four so he's probably on top once again. That said, his negative four or so in the last 6 tournaments is probably amongst the worst during that span even with the final four appearance.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:09 AM ^
According to Bart Torvik, he's #1 in Performance Against Seed Expectation since 2000, but I think that's a cumulative stat that rewards longevity.
https://barttorvik.com/cgi-bin/ncaat.cgi?type=coach&sort=18&yrlow=2000&yrhigh=2021
If you filter only 2011-2021 to show more recent performance, he's #28 (Beilein is #3, BTW).
https://barttorvik.com/cgi-bin/ncaat.cgi?conlimit=&yrlow=2011&yrhigh=2021&type=coach&sort=18
MSU fans really struggle with this because they want the narrative that he's one of the best today. Yes, he had two Final Fours during that span. But of the 11 (!) teams that have also done that, he has the lowest tourney win % in that 10 year span because of all of the early-round exits.
He's had a HOF career. He's one of the all-time greats. But right now, he's not a world-beater in March like he once was. All of that can be true.
Yeah, he's definitely not been the same in the past decade (in the tournament).
I feel like wins above seed expectation metrics should be modified to weight later games higher.
Jay Wright is 120th with negative overall PASE in your second link filtered by 2011-2021 but he has two national titles during that time.
As a fan you'd absolutely take a couple early round disappointments for a couple national titles compared to sweet 16s every year but the net result by PASE is the same.
I believe the article got one key thing right, that Izzo long ago made the program & the teams & the players about him.
He's a total diva during games, constantly drawing attention to himself.
Then after losses, he names players who screwed up his plan. Or he reverts to his habit of announcing it's his responsibility, which sounds good, but what does he say he's responsible for? That player X and player Y didn't do what he had told them to do.
Even after his most recent tournament loss, he compared his feelings after last year's loss ('I was mad at them') to his feelings this year (proud of them).
It's long been always about him.
Seems to me that Rob Parker and Izzo have a lot in common.
I wasn’t even gainfully employed 22 years ago.
Look I hate Izzo as much as the next guy but this article is poorly written and redundant. I hope someone does reporting on how he lets his players break laws and protects them from accountability in addition to his overrated march record (Seriously if Beilein were here for as long as Izzo were there he'd have close to as many final 4s if not that many).
I mean, Beilien was here and did a great job for 12 years and had two final fours, I'd even say it's a stretch that he would have had eight in 27.
And got robbed by refs vs Louisville. He should have a title.
Parkers piece is accurate.
March 21st, 2022 at 10:28 PM ^
Beilein. E before I both times.
March 21st, 2022 at 10:56 PM ^
Im not so sure. Beilein overtook a worse program and went to final fours in the span of six years and was one shot away from a third in 2014. I think he definitely gets to at least 3 in the next 15. More if he’s lucky
He was great for a pretty lengthy period of time. Hard to argue against that. Last 5-6 years, pretty average. Agree with one of the article’s premises that the game has evolved way past Izzo. Some ego probably, but he’s not had elite talent there in some time.
I did think this was clever snark:
Izzo won a national championship so long ago that sportswriters used typewriters back then.
March 21st, 2022 at 10:18 PM ^
In the last 5 years, Izzo has won 3 regular season big ten titles, a big ten conference tourney and been to the final four. A lot of programs would love for that to be average.
March 21st, 2022 at 11:39 PM ^
All true, but all 3 of those titles came on teams that were reliant on Cassius Winston at PG.
In the 2018-19 season, Winston either scored or assisted on 49.9% of State’s field goals. For context, Trey Burke’s national player of the year figure was 47.5%.
If you look at MSU the year before Winston became a starter and the two years since he left, they’ve been middle of the B1G pack each time, 30-28 in conference play. In their case, counting the titles over the past 5 years mischaracterizes the trajectory of their program.
So he doesnt get credit for winning the recruiting battle for Winston? Michigan and Beilein struggled pretty hard the three seasons after 2014 until they caught fire in the 2017 BTT.
Tournament performance has been meh relative to seed for the past 5-6 years thanks to the losses to MTSU in 2016 and Syracuse in 2018, but both of those were just flukes.
As someone else pointed out, still won three straight conference titles from 2018-2020 and made the 2019 final four. Very likely would have made a run in 2020 if there was a tournament given it was Winston's senior year and Tillman's junior year and they were a top 5 team (Torvik).
Also had elite talent during the first part of that stretch in Miles Bridges, Jaren Jackson, Cassius Winston and Xavier Tillman.
It's really only been the last two seasons that they've been mediocre overall with not a lot of talent.
And he's had stretches like this before in his career. Both the 06 and 07 seasons he was 8-8 in the conference and didn't make the Sweet 16. Those years were sandwiched between a bunch of final four and title game appearances.
I wouldn't count him out just yet.
He’s been to the Final Four twice since 2015 and as recently as 2019. He’s just lighting a fire under his own ass.
Well, given Tom's height, his ass probably hovers just barely above a tea light candle. That little flame would be more than sufficient to accomplish the lighting of the "fire under his own ass" trick.
He's become pretty feast-or-famine though.
2016 - First round
2017 - Second round
2018 - Second round
2019 - Final Four
2021 - Play-in
2022 - Second round
March 21st, 2022 at 10:32 PM ^
That looks like mostly famine, given the expectations of the program.
Gosh Darn, that website is barely readable.
Language!
Sorry. I got worked up there.
I like reading these words because I agree with all of them. Izzo was sainted far too early and looks past his prime. I can not believe kids sign up to play for a coach who verbally abuses them at every opportunity AND doesn’t win shit.
BUT: Rob Parker is an absolute hack of a writer. He has spent his professional life talking shit about local sports figures and is the one remaining “journalist” who refuses to concede that Brady is the GOAT. It has become a tired schtick and makes it so satisfying to watch his career descend in irrelevancy.
I guess I just like someone, even Rob Parker pointing out Izzo IS NOT among the greatest coaches today and is certainly no longer Mr March. A good coach? Absolutely. The best ever at MSU? absolutely.
But I don't get the fawning over him as a Hall of Fame great coach. I put him in the same category as Jim Boehiem.
Uh, Izzo has three more final fours in NINETEEN less seasons than Boeheim.
I hear you on this - and your take is a bit more even-handed! (IMO 😀)
Boeheim was a bubble hall of fame coach as I recall. If not for Carmello, he wouldn't be in the HOF. So, to compare him to Izzo seems to reinforce the point, not refute it
Izzo is one SUV rollover from being Tommy Amaker.
It's no wonder he named his son after Mateen. Mateen single handedly made his career
That would make sense if he hadn't gotten to 5 more Final Fours after the Flintstones...
Yet, since 2000, he failed to advance to the final every time except once, and usually exiting in horrible fashion.
2001: Was a #1, got blown out by #2 Arizona 80-61.
2005: Got blown out by North Carolina 87-71.
2009: Advanced to final, only to get blown out by North Carolina 89-72,
2010: Lost to Butler 52-50.
2015: Got blown out by Duke 81-61.
2019: Was a #2, beat by #3 Texas Tech 61-51.
Look at UM 1985-1998 and 2009-2022
You think he wouldve had a dynasty if Michigan didnt eat its own basketball program? Look really close at those years in between then look at Um / MSU and tell me honestly.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:41 AM ^
You think he wouldve had a dynasty if Michigan didnt eat its own basketball program?
He would've built a good program, something on par with what Matt Painter has done at Purdue, but it wouldn't have been the juggernaut that it was. Not enough gets made of how Izzo's legacy was built on exploiting the vacuum that Michigan left in the recuiting arena while they were in NCAA sanctions hell. The moment Michigan got it's act together under Beilien, MSU suddenly started to come back to the pack. That's not a coincidence.
100%
March 22nd, 2022 at 12:24 AM ^
Mateen brought Izzo a title, but even Mateen wasn’t the same after that accident. I didn’t even know Mateen could dunk until I saw his HS tape at one point.
Geez. Villanova just throwing it at the backboard and Michigan throwing it out of bounds. This feels like a midseason game right now
I never understood why the media loves him so much
Lupe?
Look, Izzo and MSU are surely annoying but fuck Rob Parker, I hate that fucking dumbshit,arrogant and smarmy fuckwad.
That article read like a HS kid wrote it, he takes a swipe at Steve Fisher as well.
Parker is a clown!
As far as I am concerned, parker and the angry little troll are both douchebags. Can't stand either one 🖕.
I'm no fan of Tommy Temper Tantrum, but Parker lost whatever credibility he might have had long ago. He and his successor at the Detroit Fish Wrapper, Drew Sharp, always wrote as if they were trying to get back at the cool kids who never let them sit at their lunch table. If these two couldn't throw shit, they didn't have anything to say.
Deadspin and Rob Parker absolutely deserve each other. What a hilarious combination.