Couch: Tom Izzo beating Bob Knight changed Michigan State, set path to Knight’s record

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EAST LANSING — On Jan. 4, 1996, Tom Izzo never could have imagined that 29 years and a little more than a month later he’d have as many Big Ten wins as the coach in the red sweater on the opposing bench.

He had bigger problems — building a program, keeping his job, making sure Breslin Center never again looked like Assembly Hall North with thousands of Indiana basketball fans in the stands.

Izzo’s first Big Ten win — 65-60 over Bob Knight’s Indiana program nearly three decades ago — was both a depressing occasion and defining moment for Michigan State’s then first-year head coach.

“I swear there were 4,000 red sweaters,” Izzo said.

There won’t be nearly as many Tuesday night, when Izzo tries to break Knight’s record, fittingly, against Indiana — which next season will hire its sixth head coach since Knight’s exit in 2000.

The Hoosiers are trying to find their Izzo.

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Izzo long ago took over as the dean of Big Ten coaches. Saturday, he tied Knight, winning his 353rd Big Ten game — 86-74 over Oregon in one of the more epic games at Breslin Center in some time.

“It’s one I never thought was even obtainable,” Izzo said of the record, ahead of Saturday’s win. “Never thought about it. Just because I know the man who held it. I also know that I’ve got another year under my belt than he did. We played more conference games than (back then). Records are records, but it’s an honor and a privilege, to be very honest with you, to even be talked about in the same breath as him.”

Izzo today is the dream for an athletic director when they hire a men’s basketball coach — or football coach, for that matter — the relative unknown who turns a middling program into a powerhouse and then sustains it for decades, never leaving and never losing his passion for the job. It’s an impossible standard. He, like Knight, has very few peers.

“I think passing Bobby…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/couch-tom-izzo-beating-bob-094824459.html

Author : Indianapolis Star

Publish date : 2025-02-10 09:48:00

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