BUFFALO — Nate Oats may not have wanted to endure Buffalo’s weather this weekend, but Tom Izzo was quite comfortable.
It’s his time of year after all.
Izzo has guided Michigan State to its 28th consecutive NCAA Tournament, the second longest active streak in Division I behind Kansas. The landscape has changed since his first trip in 1997 and Izzo has changed just enough to survive.
The 71-year-old has endured the preps-to-pros era, the one-and-done era and is now attempting to sift through name, image and likeness. The Big Ten has gone from a midwestern league to one that spans coast to coast. Contemporaries like Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams and Jim Boeheim have all found the exit while Izzo trudges ahead.
“If there’s one thing — whenever I leave — that I want to be known for, it’s consistency,” Izzo said.
Of the eight teams in Buffalo for the opening rounds, Izzo’s 28 tournament appearances are more than the other seven coaches combined (25). His 57 career tournament wins slaughter their 13 total wins.
Izzo is the last of his kind. He’s never coached outside of Michigan and was in East Lansing 13 seasons before being promoted to head coach, the only college head coaching job he’s held.
In a transient society, college athletics no longer have a cap.
Players are moving yearly and coaches aren’t interested in staying anywhere for long anymore. He’s turned down opportunities to go elsewhere, including spurning the Cleveland Cavaliers’ last-ditch effort to keep LeBron James in 2010. He also shut down the Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls and then-New Jersey Nets over the years.
He’s resisted the professional temptations John Calipari, Rick Pitino and even John Beilein — one college basketball’s all-time gentlemen — haven’t been able to ignore. Izzo has remained content at Michigan State.
“Money isn’t everything. Easy to say when you have it, I know,” Izzo said. “… I want to be happy. I want to be at a place I want to be. I want to work a lot of hours, they’re going to work a lot of hours.”
No matter the era or the challenge, long-time coaches usually have three endings. They refuse to adapt to changes and become mediocre, they refuse to adapt and retire or they roll with the changes and figure out how to survive.
Bob Knight fizzled long before one-and-dones or NIL, while his protege, Krzyzewski, embraced the one-year players. Pitino and St. John’s embraced the transfer portal and NIL, while Syracuse has refused.
Izzo has found ways to adapt while retaining some of his core principles. He’s landed dozens of top-notch recruits, but only two top-10 players over the last 20 years, while only having four one-and-done players during that stretch.
And while teams are churning over rosters every year, Michigan State has nine players back from last year’s team that went to the Elite Eight. Four of those players have been with Michigan State for at least three seasons.
And yet he’s still produced four Final Fours, four Big Ten tournament championships and seven Big Ten regular-season titles over the last 20 seasons.
“You’re going to work from Day One. It’s set in stone and it just builds your character, your personality and who you are,” said Michigan State guard Jeremy Fears Jr., who leads the nation in assists. “… You slowly learn how to win. He teaches you how to win and how to be consistent, and everyday, how to show up”
Izzo isn’t lamenting NIL or the transfer portal, but he wants changes to be made. His main desire is for more transparency when it comes to money being allocated to players.
While professional sports have a reported salary cap that every team must operate within, college sports do not. And schools — especially private schools — aren’t required to disclose how much their NIL budgets are.
Although many say the college basketball product is better than it’s been since players began jumping from high school to the NBA over 30 years ago, player movement is still hurting the game.
It’s difficult for fans to invest in players who may only stick around for one season. The common bond between players and fans is often passion for their teams. And even if players are staying in college longer, team quality still dips because rosters are completely different every year.
Capping the amount of NIL allotted to each school and turning scholarships into signed contracts — all of which would require a collective bargaining agreement and a players’ union — would help close the revolving door.
“Players deserve to make some money and I’d be happy about that,” Izzo said. “But fan bases and administrators and universities deserve to be able to have it at somewhat of an even-keel. … I just hope that we can get our arms around it and deal with the problems that we have. And I don’t know that money solves that. You get money, someone else gets more money.”