Baylor’s win was over #5 Kansas, so the defending National Champions are rounding into perfect form at the right time. Among those upset were #4 Purdue, a 68-65 victim to unranked Michigan State.
The win puts Michigan State at 1909 and all but assures Izzo of his 21st 20-win season, along with tying Bob Knight for the most wins as head coach of a Big 10 school. Izzo’s 662nd victory also leaves him just two behind the late John Wooden for 40th on the all-time men’s basketball list.
As if Izzo needed another milestone to add to his Hall of Fame career, having already been inducted in 2016, we have to acknowledge the 2000 National Championship, eight Final Fours and six Big Ten Tournament championships. Izzo was heavily rumored and courted by several NBA teams to leave East Lansing a few years ago, but remained loyal to the young men he recruited.
The Big 10 is basically guaranteed at minimum six teams (#13 Wisconsin, #4 Purdue, #15 Illinois, #22 Ohio State, #25 Iowa and Michigan State) going on to play in next month’s NCAA Tournament. The Spartans are assured to re-enter the Top 25 when the new polls are released, as they were just one vote behind Iowa last week, having fallen out from #19 the week prior.
Izzo had comments earlier in the week when asked about the incident involving Michigan and Wisconsin after the game. For those of you who did not see it, Michigan head coach Juwan Howard took a swing at Badger assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft in the handshake line after the final horn, where Howard said “I’ll remember that shit.”
Krabbenhoft grabbed Howard’s arm in an attempt to explain why a timeout was called in the final minute for Wisconsin to empty their bench and allow their walk-ons to get some playing time, while Michigan still had all five starters on the floor.
Howard was fined $40,000 by the conference and suspended the final five regular season games.
Izzo was asked if the handshake line should be retired, to which he replied,
“That, to me, would be the biggest farce, joke, ridiculous nature of anything I've ever heard of,”
The indicator being this would be eliminating another teachable moment for young men not old enough buy alcohol or rent a car. He continued by saying:
“(And now) we're going to tell them to not man up and walk down a line to someone who's kicked your butt and have enough class to shake their hand is utterly ridiculous.”
When Tom Izzo says the thought of something is ridiculous, you can bet the farm that it truly is. When Mike Krzyzewski retires at Duke after this season, Izzo is likely to take over as the most respectable coach in men’s college basketball.
I can hear some of you saying that distinction should go to Jim Boeheim at Syracuse. Tom Izzo did not have over 100 victories stripped away after knowingly playing ineligible players over the course of five seasons. Rather than teach his players to be men after their college career was over, Boeheim ended up being suspended nine games and had the program placed on probation twice for major NCAA violations.
If NHL players can line up and shake hands following a grueling playoff series, both men’s and women’s college basketball players can take 90 seconds to do the same. Tom Izzo should not need to make comments regarding the actions of a rival program as the calendar approaches March.
Juwan Howard should go back to school for etiquette, with Izzo as his teacher.
-JC24
Krabbenhoft grabbed Howard’s arm in an attempt to explain why a timeout was called in the final minute for Wisconsin to empty their bench and allow their walk-ons to get some playing time, while Michigan still had all five starters on the floor.
Howard was fined $40,000 by the conference and suspended the final five regular season games.
Izzo was asked if the handshake line should be retired, to which he replied,
“That, to me, would be the biggest farce, joke, ridiculous nature of anything I've ever heard of,”
The indicator being this would be eliminating another teachable moment for young men not old enough buy alcohol or rent a car. He continued by saying:
“(And now) we're going to tell them to not man up and walk down a line to someone who's kicked your butt and have enough class to shake their hand is utterly ridiculous.”
When Tom Izzo says the thought of something is ridiculous, you can bet the farm that it truly is. When Mike Krzyzewski retires at Duke after this season, Izzo is likely to take over as the most respectable coach in men’s college basketball.
I can hear some of you saying that distinction should go to Jim Boeheim at Syracuse. Tom Izzo did not have over 100 victories stripped away after knowingly playing ineligible players over the course of five seasons. Rather than teach his players to be men after their college career was over, Boeheim ended up being suspended nine games and had the program placed on probation twice for major NCAA violations.
If NHL players can line up and shake hands following a grueling playoff series, both men’s and women’s college basketball players can take 90 seconds to do the same. Tom Izzo should not need to make comments regarding the actions of a rival program as the calendar approaches March.
Juwan Howard should go back to school for etiquette, with Izzo as his teacher.
-JC24