NCAA Basketball: Ranking the last 25 national title winning head coaches

When Michigan State won its first national championship in 1979, Tom Izzo was just a high school coach in Michigan. Fast forward a few seasons and Izzo has become synonymous with the success at Michigan State. His Spartans seem to make the Final Four every other season and the best basketball coach in the state of Michigan just keeps building on his impressive resume.

Izzo played at Northern Michigan and got his collegiate coaching career started at his alma mater in 1979. After four seasons with the Wildcats, Michigan State head coach Jud Heathcote brought him onto this staff.

For the next 12 seasons, Izzo stayed with the Spartans as an assistant, learning and growing the whole time. When Heathcote retired in 1995, he recommended Izzo as his replacement, igniting another era of prosperity in East Lansing.

Izzo has led the Spartans to eight Final Fours and brought all kinds of talent to Michigan State. Great players like Mateen Cleaves, Draymond Green and Denzel Valentine have come through East Lansing, while Cleaves and company helped lead Michigan State to the national title in 2000.

In all, Izzo has taken this team to the NCAA Tournament for 22 straight seasons and has built remarkable consistency in the Big Ten.

The impressive consistency that Izzo has achieved at Michigan State propels him up the list of the all-time greats. He may have led the Spartans to just a single national title (so far), but his 600 career wins have put him in elite company.

That 2000 Spartans team remains the most recent championship for the Big Ten and Izzo has undoubtedly become the class of the conference. While it’s true that nearly 20 years have passed since that title, it’s only a matter of time before Izzo is cutting down another set of nets.