Good news: The head coach of Michigan State has just announced, celebrating his birthday
For the rest of his life, Tom Izzo will always remember his 69th birthday. The longstanding Michigan State coach created history on Tuesday night when he became the first in Big Ten history to win 700 games as a college basketball coach.
The fact that Izzo reached the milestone by leading the Spartans to an 81-62 victory over in-state rival Michigan in front of home fans enhanced the celebration even more.
With seven hundred wins (and counting), Izzo holds the record for most wins in the conference. He has eclipsed both Gene Keady (512 wins at Purdue) and Bob Knight (662 wins at Indiana). Matt Painter, the current coach of the Boilermakers, is ranked fourth with 432.
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Izzo undoubtedly relished the historic win on Tuesday. After time ran out, he stayed in the Breslin Center for a little while longer to celebrate with his loved ones.
But the great coach didn’t think reaching 700 victories was the most important thing. He says the achievement was made even more memorable by doing it all in East Lansing.
After the game, Izzo remarked, “Even to me, 700 wins is pretty impressive.” “It means a lot to me that the same school has 700 wins. I think that’s what matters most to me.”
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Here at Michigan State, the athletes and my assistant coaches have won every championship together. I feel terrific, proud, and incredibly gratified.”
Izzo has one of the best resumes in college basketball. He has six Big Ten Tournament titles and ten Big Ten regular season championships. Under Izzo’s direction, the Spartans have advanced to eight Final Fours and won the 2000 national title.
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Some coaches may start thinking about retiring at this point. Izzo’s professional accomplishments are almost endless. However, he has no intention of leaving anytime soon.
“Like I said, we’re not dead yet,” he replied. “We got some more wins, we got some more years to go.”
Ohio State’s decline persists.
At one point during the season, Ohio State seemed like a strong contender for the NCAA Tournament. The Buckeyes should have been a threat in the Big Ten with players like Bruce Thornton, Zed Key, Jamison Battle, and Roddy Gayle Jr.
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Ohio State’s only issues at the moment are self-inflicted. It lost at No. 14 Illinois 87-75 on Tuesday and has since lost three straight games. Six of the Buckeyes’ previous seven games have ended in losses.
Though there is still half of the Big Ten season left, Chris Holtmann’s team doesn’t seem to have much time left to assemble an NCAA Tournament resume.
“Whether it’s finishing a defensive possession or finish through contact offensively, we have not been able to mitigate some of those critical two- or three-possession runs,” Holtmann stated. “It increases a game’s point total from four to eight. or six to ten, or four to ten.
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“When your margin for error is pretty small, those are critical possessions.”
Ohio State’s slide to the bottom of the Big Ten will continue if it is unable to resolve these problems.
