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Tom Izzo reveals the biggest thing he'll take away from this Michigan State team

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby: On3 Staff Report03/25/23
Tom Izzo, Michigan State Spartans basketball coach
Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo walks on the floor before an NCAA Tournament game against Kansas State on March 23, 2023. (Jamie Schwaberow / Getty Images)

With his season over and the chance now to reflect on the year gone by, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo provided some of his thoughts on the state of the Big Ten and how well it fared in the NCAA Tournament.

Izzo was proud of his team, which saw its season end on Thursday night in an overtime defeat at the hands of Kansas State.

The long-time Michigan State coach didn’t look at the season so much as one that forced the Spartans to take their lumps so much as one in which the Big Ten was really, really good.

“Oh, for sure, and I don’t know how many lumps — we did have some injuries and went through some things during the year,” Izzo said. “But the lumps, no matter what anybody says, top to bottom, I have no problem standing up and saying we have the best league in the country. When you have that number of teams beating the hell out of each other every day, I don’t think we’re worn out from it. I just think you get a bad seed from it.”

The argument about the Big Ten being the best conference in college basketball might have some arguing on the opposite side.

The Big 12, for one, had multiple teams make it to the Elite Eight.

And while a team like Michigan State might have outplayed its seed in the NCAA Tournament there were others in the league that did not. Like Purdue, which became just the second-ever No. 1 seed to lose in the opening round.

Still, Izzo believes the Big Ten more than proved its mettle in this year’s Big Dance.

The Spartans managed to take down 10-seed USC, then bested two-seed Marquette to reach the Sweet 16.

“So we had all these teams with seven, eight and nine seeds,” he said. “I’m not saying that was wrong, but that’s what happens when — I’d like to see some teams come in and survive this league and the places we play. I’m going to become a big Badger fan. I’m going to pull for them in the NIT.

“I’m proud of my team, but I’m proud of the league, too. Disappointments is disappointments, but I think as a seven seed, maybe we showed how good our league was instead of, like some people, the other way around.”