Tom Izzo

Tom Izzo is the head coach of the Michigan State University men's basketball team and has guided the Spartans to six appearances in the NCAA Final Four, including the NCAA national championship in 2000. A 1977 graduate of Northern Michigan University (where he played basketball and was a Division II All-American), Izzo served as an assistant coach at his alma mater before joining Michigan State's coaching staff in 1983. Head coach since the 1995-96 season, Izzo is a four-time national coach of the year and has led Michigan State to six Big Ten and two Big Ten tournament championships.

Born in Iron Mountain, Michigan on January 30, 1955, Tom Izzo played four different sports at Iron Mountain High School before enrolling at Northern Michigan University. Earning a place on his college's basketball team as a walk-on, Izzo eventually became a starting guard for the Wildcats and was honored as a Division II All-American following his senior season in 1977.

Izzo was a high school coach for one season before joining his alma mater as an assistant basketball coach in 1979. He remained with the Northern Michigan staff until being named a part-time assistant coach at Michigan State University in 1983. Izzo opted to leave his home state to take an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator position at the University in Tulsa in 1986, but he returned to Michigan State just months later to rejoin Jud Heathcote's staff.

Prior to the 1990-91 season, Izzo was named as associate head coach by Heathcote, who would retire after the 1994-95 campaign, when the Spartans finished second in the Big Ten conference and were ousted in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Izzo was promoted to head coach in 1995, and led Michigan State to 9-9 conference records and NIT appearances in his first two seasons at the helm.

The Spartans improved to 22-8 overall in 1997-98, sharing the Big Ten conference championship and reaching the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Izzo was selected as National Coach of the Year by a number of organizations, including the Associated Press and the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). Michigan State built on that success the following year by winning a school-record 33 games, claiming the 1999 Big Ten Tournament title and advancing the NCAA Final Four for the first time in 20 years.

Izzo earned his 100th victory as a head coach during the 1999-2000 season, when Michigan State went on to repeat as Big Ten Tournament champs and win a second NCAA title in school history  defeating Florida 89-76 in the championship game. A third straight Final Four appearance came in 2001, when Izzo earned National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Coach of the Year honors and the Spartans became just the fourth school in Big Ten history to win four straight league titles.

Michigan State went through a rebuilding year in 2001-02, having lost a number of talented players but still earning an NCAA berth. Izzo then led the Spartans to a stronger campaign the following year, finishing third in the Big Ten and making a surprising run to the Elite Eight before falling to top-seeded Texas. The Michigan native won his 200th game during the 2003-04 season, when the Spartans rebounded from a slow start to finish second in the Big Ten.

A first-round NCAA loss followed that regular season, but Izzo and Michigan State returned to the Final Four in 2004-05, becoming the only team to appear in four Final Fours between 1999 and 2005. Izzo was named the 2005 Clair Bee Award winner, in recognition of the significant positive contributions he had made to his sport.

Izzo earned another coaching honor, the Big Ten Coach of the Year, in 2009, after leading Michigan State to a conference championship and another Final Four. The Spartans' 31-7 record - which included an 8-1 road record in the Big Ten -- was the third-highest win total in school history, and featured two wins over number-one seeds in the NCAA Tournament before a loss to North Carolina in the title game.

The Spartans then captured a share of a second-straight conference championship in 2010, a year that saw Izzo pass 340 career victories to become the school's all-time winningest coach. Michigan State earned a number-five seed for the NCAA tourney, yet was able to reach the Final Four for the sixth time in 12 seasons with a win over Tennessee in the Midwest regional final.

In 2011-12, Izzo led Michigan State to a share of the Big Ten regular-season title, and followed that up with a Big Ten Tournament title. The Spartans entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed, but were upset in the Sweet 16 by Louisville.