Head coach of the Michigan State Spartans, Tom Izzo, celebrates after cutting down the final loop of the net to seal MSU’s 69-62 victory over Temple University on March 25, 2001, in the NCAA South Regional at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, sending the team to the Final Four in Minneapolis. David P. Gilkey, Detroit Free Press / Izzos Net
During his many years as head coach, Tom Izzo has left quite the legacy for Michigan State men’s basketball. Year after year, the legendary program is recognized as one of the most decorated in all of college basketball, regardless of the Spartans’ position in the standings or the NCAA Tournament.
The College Basketball Report listed the 10 men’s college basketball teams who have finished in the KenPom Top 100 each year since 1997 in a post that was posted on X, the former name of Twitter, on Friday. Among them was Michigan State.
That has essentially been Izzo’s whole tenure as the Spartans’ head coach. In 1999, the Hall of Fame coach guided Michigan State to its first semifinal appearance since winning the championship in 1979—the Final Four. Though they were unsuccessful, the Spartans came back the next year and won the national championship in 2000.
Before losing to Arizona in the 2001 Final Four, Michigan State came very close to repeating the following year. In terms of consecutive Final Four appearances, that three-year streak is tied for the third-best in men’s collegiate basketball history. The closest three-year run was by Kentucky from 1996 to 1998. This is the most recent Final Four run.
Naturally, Izzo didn’t stop there. In 2005, just four years after leading the Spartans to the Final Four, Michigan State lost to North Carolina, the eventual national champion.
Four years later, Michigan State made a run all the way to the championship game, but the Tar Heels defeated them once more. The Spartans haven’t attended the national championship game since then.
Since then, Michigan State has made two additional appearances in the Final Four: once as a No. 7 seed in 2015, and most recently in 2019 after defeating a Duke team headed by Zion Williamson in the Elite Eight. Izzo has participated in 26 consecutive NCAA Tournaments with the Spartans.
