Ryan FordDetroit Free Press
The Spartans mauled Michigan in the second half for an 81-62 victory on Tuesday night in East Lansing to give Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo yet another milestone: 700 wins. He’s one of 38 men’s basketball coaches with 700 wins at the Division I level. (He's the second to reach the plateau this season, after Gonzaga's Mark Few; Izzo's pal, Oakland's Greg Kampe, is 13 wins away, with 688 victories). Even more impressive, all 700 of Izzo’s wins have come with the Spartans.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOM! Izzo notches 700th career win, on birthday, 81-62 over Michigan
Here’s a look back at Izzo’s milestone victories at MSU:
1: MSU 69, Chaminade 66
Nov. 20, 1995: Izzo, who had spent the five years as the right-hand man to longtime MSU coach Jud Heathcote, started his time in the top job off right, with a win over the Silverswords to open the Maui Invitational in in Hawaii. It didn’t come easy, though; MSU needed 19 second-half points from forward Quinton Brooks and a missed 3-pointer at the end by Chaminade to get the victory.
In Izzo’s words: "Jud lied to me. He told me that being a head coach was going to be easy. But I can't think of a tougher way to open my career."
100: MSU 77, Indiana 71 (OT)
Jan. 11, 2000: The Spartans dominated the Big Ten en route to winning the NCAA title, but you wouldn’t know it from this game; Morris Peterson hit a 3-pointer with just over 11 seconds left in regulation to force overtime against Bobby Knight’s Hoosiers. Also, Izzo wasn’t the only one with a milestone: Point guard Mateen Cleaves picked up his 653rd career assist, passing Scott Skiles as MSU’s all-time leader.
In Izzo’s words: "It's special when you beat a program that in my estimation is one of the best in the country with the way they've won and the class way in which they've won. I consider myself very lucky."
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200: MSU 89, Iowa 72
Feb. 4, 2004: A 17-point victory at home over a conference rival in which the Spartans shot 51.7 percent from the field — even Izzo couldn’t complain too much about win No. 200, right? Not so much: "If we don't start checking better, we're not going to get anywhere," the coach grumbled after his Spartans allowed the Hawkeyes, with just seven scholarship players, to shoot 41.1 percent from the field.
In Izzo’s words: “I sat there and watched John Chaney get his 700th win, and I wrote him a little note. I said I couldn't stay alive that long if I was on a resuscitator.”
300: MSU 66, Iowa 52
Feb. 24, 2008: This time, they got a smile— and some tears— out of Izzo. The game was nice — MSU never trailed and held the Hawkeyes without a field goal for the first 10:22 of the game — but the real treat for Izzo was a visit from dozens of his former players, in attendance for a post-game ceremony and video honoring the milestone. “I was tickled to death that all those guys came back,” Izzo said.
In Izzo’s words: “It wasn't a special day when it started, but I've got to admit, being out there and having all those players back and fans hanging around … that hit a little nerve for me for a while.”
341: MSU 106, UMass 68
Nov. 28, 2009: It wasn’t the setting Izzo would have liked — in the third-place game of the Legends Classic in Atlantic City, N.J., rather than the title game — but the moment was still meaningful as he became the winningest coach in MSU history. After the game, his players doused Izzo with water and gave him a plaque emblazoned with a footprint and the words: “You've left your footprint. 341 wins.”
In Izzo’s words: "The players gave me a little plaque that I think signifies what we want to do each year. It said that 341 leaves a footprint in the sand, and that's what we try to do with each class … leave something that somebody will remember."
400: MSU 68, Minnesota 52
Jan. 21, 2012: It was a vintage Izzo performance on the sideline, with the coach stamping his feet, throwing up his hands and burying his face behind his arms. And the Spartans still led by 19 points in the final minute of the game. It’s wasn’t pretty, but Izzo would have to take it at the Breslin Center; "Any milestone you can share in front of your fans....” he said.
In Izzo’s words: “The truth of it is, is it doesn't mean nothing to me. … (Bob) Huggins has got 6 or 700 (wins), and (Jim) Boeheim has got almost 900, and (Mike) Krzyzewski's got almost 2 million. It just seems like in the big picture of things, 400 wins is 400 wins."
500: MSU 99, Boston College 68
Nov. 26, 2015: Senior guard Denzel Valentine stolea bit of the hoopla surrounding Izzo’s milestone win in the Wooden Classic in Fullerton, California, by putting up the second triple-double of his career. Valentine scored 29 points and added 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Even so, Izzo played a role; Valentine’s game went into a funk until Izzo yelled at him from the sideline and urged him to engage in the offense.
In Izzo’s words: " ‘Yay, Izzo got 500 — he's only 600 behind (Mike) Krzyzewski!’ I'm still more worried about banners than about wins.”
600: MSU 77, Ohio State 70
March 15, 2019: Call this “The Foster Loyer Game,” in MSU lore as the Spartans dropped the Buckeyes in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals at the United Center in Chicago. The freshman guard from Clarkston subbed in for Cassius Winston and went on a heater, hitting four of five 3-point attempts to match his previous season total — four in 20 tries — in 18 minutes off the bench and finishing with 14 points. Of course, it could also be “The Cassius Winston Game,” as Winston returned from an early benching — following three turnovers — to score eight points in the final 3:30 of the first half and add another 10 points in the second half while dishing out five assists and grabbing seven rebounds.
In Izzo’s words: The coach was less than enthused immediately after the victory — "It's just a number, ya know?" Izzo told Big Ten Network. He was more focused on the Big Ten tourney — which the Spartans would win en route to their ninth Final Four appearance under Izzo — explaining his quick hook for Winston thusly: "I think we got a good enough relationship with people that they understand I am trying to push them. I don't want to be one-and-done, I don't want to lose tomorrow, I don't want to lose the next day. They know that."
Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter or X or whatever at @theford.
Free Press sports writers Jemele Hill, Joe Rexrode, Chris Solari, Drew Sharp, Shannon Shelton and Shawn Windsor contributed to this report, which is updated from Izzo's 600th victory on March 15, 2019.
