Tom Izzo

[Montana81]

Thought this was interesting. Another coach the game has maybe passed by?

I’ve felt for a long time izzo is kind of overrated

On one hand…8 finals fours and a ship at Michigan State. 10 B1G first place finishes. Hasn’t missed the tourney in 25 years.

On the other…has rarely been a legit title threat even in many of those final four seasons(they’ve been blown out in half of them). 13 double digit loss seasons. And now haven’t won more than 23 games since 2019.

I think some of what he said is true, at the end it comes down to the players attitude. But the quip about analytics being garbage and not being able to blame the players for anything was a pretty bad look.

 

[Col. Angus]

He doesn’t like analytics because at some point ya gotta just look at a guy’s heart?

Well ****, all the data compiled to create analytical analysis is done so with the assumption all the teams are playin with their full hearts and as hard as they can. So if his team isn’t, and it’s made their analytical data be incorrect, then oh well.

Seems just like a bitter old *******.

 

[WeWant9]

He’s a solid coach, but not in that elite tier. MSU started the year at #4 and will struggle to make the tourney, currently 1-3 in B10 play with zero quality wins.

 

[bbnkat02]

Time for Izzo to hang it up. If a regular fan said this he’d be ridiculed to no end. But this came out of the mouth out of a multimillionaire. Ridiculous.

 

[OG_Kat96]

Yea I don’t see the problem. Analytics are way overblown and in, say, baseball especially are ruining the sport. I agree with him, players today are soft, unapproachable, and the analytics only crowd is tiresome.

Maybe I’m alone in that, but whatever.

 

[OG_Kat96]

Time for Izzo to hang it up. If a regular fan said this he’d be ridiculed to no end. But this came out of the mouth out of a multimillionaire. Ridiculous.

So maybe I missed something. What exactly did he say that made you post this? I really don’t know, I must be missing something.

 

[dlh331]

Runs a similar program to Kansas; very thug prominent….

 

[caneintally]

Honestly there is no elite coach even him that the game has passed by . He is having a down year . Just a year or 2 ago he had a great team. Just like 2 seasons ago Cal had an amazing season and was the 5th overall seed BUT due to all the guards having injuries the last month they totally lost their rhythm and got upset by a very good soon to be elite 8 15th seed. But the game obviously hasnt passed him by . He had a down year last year and they still were pretty decent. The covid year doesn't count as no young team in that scenario had any chance to be good . We sucked that year just like Duke did and a few others did. Izzo has some good recruits coming in and the big recruit this past season was like Skal times 10 in terms of overated . It has happens every now and then. At least Skal was still a pro .

 

[Kingslayer07]

He's starting to remind me of a grouchy Jim Boeheim. Not a good look.

 

[anon1751545683]

The game passed him by with the shot clock. He's a stall ball coach. His teams would rarely score over 50 points if there was no shot clock.

 

[kb22stang]

I smell bit.....

 

[catsfanbgky]

Izzo overrated ? Lol. OK. He coaches the regular season to prepare for the tournament. They are always a 5-9 seed it seems like, but look at the schedule they play every year. Gauntlet in the pre conference. Keep in mind hebis doing this at Michigan State. He takes mostly local guys in state, blends in a few blue chippers, and molds them to a tough as nails tourney team. He is having a down year, every has them . K had a few, Cal has. Coach long enough and you will end up with a few less talented teams. Izzo is a great coach. Stop it with that non sense. Everybody here wanted Nate Oates after a COUPLE good years at Bama. Well,, is he overrated ?

 

[TucsonCat]

Some people handle adversity better than others. He might turn it around, or this might be the beginning of the end.

 

[bthaunert]

He's starting to remind me of a grouchy Jim Boeheim. Not a good look.

Thought the same thing. He's still a decent coach, but don't see him making any adjustments at this time in his career to put him into the upper tier again. He's on his way to another 13+ loss season, which will be 4 years in a row with that many losses. He had 4 13+ loss seasons in his previous 25 seasons. All of his assistant coaches are former assistant coaches at MSU who came back after stints elsewhere...always question that.

 

[FirewithFire]

I kind of agree with him about analytics. They are just another tool in the box and are easily manipulated by a ton of variables.

Kids are different today, and college sports has changed in almost every way since NIL. That kind of change will be the hardest for the old times who have "their way" of doing things. He isn't young so making the adjustment might be something he just doesn't want to do. Maybe he's like Tubby and he's just done.

It remains to be seen if he can/will adjust, but I wouldn't bet against him. There's a reason his teams are always the ones I don't want to see come March.

 

[Cats192]

I don't think you have to look at analytics as the end-all be-all, but...

To dismiss them completely because "You have to look at a guy's heart" is wrong. We would have roasted Cal for saying this.

 

[Cold Stout Beer]

Just keep him out of the F4 so he can't stink it up.

 

[bthaunert]

Izzo overrated ? Lol. OK. He coaches the regular season to prepare for the tournament. They are always a 5-9 seed it seems like, but look at the schedule they play every year. Gauntlet in the pre conference. Keep in mind hebis doing this at Michigan State. He takes mostly local guys in state, blends in a few blue chippers, and molds them to a tough as nails tourney team. He is having a down year, every has them . K had a few, Cal has. Coach long enough and you will end up with a few less talented teams. Izzo is a great coach. Stop it with that non sense. Everybody here wanted Nate Oates after a COUPLE good years at Bama. Well,, is he overrated ?

IMO, it's more around adapting to today's game. He seems like a guy, in those comments, that does not want to adapt, and that is never a good thing. Reminds me of Cal the past few seasons not willing to adapt to todays game. He finally put his ego to the side, hired Welch, and made adjustments to keep up with the times. Saban did it at Alabama...realized a little while back that you needed to have a prolific offense in todays game to have a shot and continued having success. You either change, or you get left behind. I still think he's a good coach, but if he doesn't make changes with the times, the game will pass him by.

 

[Cats192]

IMO, it's more around adapting to today's game. He seems like a guy, in those comments, that does not want to adapt, and that is never a good thing. Reminds me of Cal the past few seasons not willing to adapt to todays game. He finally put his ego to the side, hired Welch, and made adjustments to keep up with the times. Saban did it at Alabama...realized a little while back that you needed to have a prolific offense in todays game to have a shot and continued having success. You either change, or you get left behind. I still think he's a good coach, but if he doesn't make changes with the times, the game will pass him by.

100%.

First thing I thought of was Cal the last few years.

 

[RexBowie]

The thing is, seems like many Izzo teams are like this, but they seem to always peak at the right time. No idea if that is the case this year, but it wouldn't surprise me. It's what he does.

It's also why he wouldn't have fit at Kentucky.

 

[mhroe1984]

Won a nice amount of cash yesterday on a Penn State/Northwestern Parlay. I love those slight home underdogs!

 

[GoNoles111]

I didn't hear anything I'd consider dumb.

 

[DreadLox]

I don't think you have to look at analytics as the end-all be-all, but...

To dismiss them completely because "You have to look at a guy's heart" is wrong. We would have roasted Cal for saying this.

That's hardly a standard. People here roast Calipari for tying his shoe laces.

 

[bbnkat02]

So maybe I missed something. What exactly did he say that made you post this? I really don’t know, I must be missing something.

Your opinion. Most people that have listened to this have pointed out how silly it is. They’re having a horrible season and this was bs deflection. Had Cal said that? Holy cow….this place would erupt. And rightfully so.

You can’t just say “you can’t measure a guys heart” Well you can in some ways. Basketball is full of effort metrics. Rebounding being one of them. Assists can kind of show that too.

Stats are completely everything but you can’t come out after a loss and say that. What next? Champions of life?

 

[Cats192]

That's hardly a standard. People here roast Calipari for tying his shoe laces.

That's true

 

[wildcatdon]

Thought this was interesting. Another coach the game has maybe passed by?

I’ve felt for a long time izzo is kind of overrated

On one hand…8 finals fours and a ship at Michigan State. 10 B1G first place finishes. Hasn’t missed the tourney in 25 years.

On the other…has rarely been a legit title threat even in many of those final four seasons(they’ve been blown out in half of them). 13 double digit loss seasons. And now haven’t won more than 23 games since 2019.

I think some of what he said is true, at the end it comes down to the players attitude. But the quip about analytics being garbage and not being able to blame the players for anything was a pretty bad look.

What ship did he win, battleship, flagship, gunship, lol. Just messing with you. That’s one of those cliches or terms that just gets on my nerves.

 

[UK90]

If a regular fan said this he’d be ridiculed to no end. But this came out of the mouth out of a multimillionaire. Ridiculous.

Please clarify what you mean by “this.”

What specific statement are you referencing here?

 

[ck-2]

Honestly to me it sounds about like something Cal would say. He’s had some doozies.

 

[bbnkat02]

Please clarify what you mean by “this.”

What specific statement are you referencing here?

His whole statement. What is this defend KU and Izzo week on the boards?

You can’t blame players like the old days, but he needs to adapt to the changing sport. This had an “old man yelling at clouds” vibe to it.

 

[docholiday51]

That's hardly a standard. People here roast Calipari for tying his shoe laces.

I thought he hired someone to do that

 

[ck-2]

I thought he hired someone to do that

I hear he does his own weed eating.

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

Thought this was interesting. Another coach the game has maybe passed by?

I’ve felt for a long time izzo is kind of overrated

On one hand…8 finals fours and a ship at Michigan State. 10 B1G first place finishes. Hasn’t missed the tourney in 25 years.

On the other…has rarely been a legit title threat even in many of those final four seasons(they’ve been blown out in half of them). 13 double digit loss seasons. And now haven’t won more than 23 games since 2019.

I think some of what he said is true, at the end it comes down to the players attitude. But the quip about analytics being garbage and not being able to blame the players for anything was a pretty bad look.

I didn’t think it was that bad, he’s old school and he’s not wrong. You can’t really blame players anymore, they will pack up and leave at the first sign of adversity for many of them. I’d almost guarantee Xavier Booker will transfer no matter how much Izzo talks about loving him or How much the team likes him. He doesn’t play and that’s all that matters.

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

Yea I don’t see the problem. Analytics are way overblown and in, say, baseball especially are ruining the sport. I agree with him, players today are soft, unapproachable, and the analytics only crowd is tiresome.

Maybe I’m alone in that, but whatever.

I agree, I haven’t seen but maybe 1-2 pitchers even go beyond 5 innings most of the time now. It’s insane. Guys win the Cy Young pitching 190 innings over a year.

 

[bbnkat02]

I didn’t think it was that bad, he’s old school and he’s not wrong. You can’t really blame players anymore, they will pack up and leave at the first sign of adversity for many of them. I’d almost guarantee Xavier Booker will transfer no matter how much Izzo talks about loving him or How much the team likes him. He doesn’t play and that’s all that matters.

The portal is good for that I think. Sometimes you get to a place and you just can’t get playing time for whatever reason. Why not take a shot somewhere else? Players want to get court/field time.

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

IMO, it's more around adapting to today's game. He seems like a guy, in those comments, that does not want to adapt, and that is never a good thing. Reminds me of Cal the past few seasons not willing to adapt to todays game. He finally put his ego to the side, hired Welch, and made adjustments to keep up with the times. Saban did it at Alabama...realized a little while back that you needed to have a prolific offense in todays game to have a shot and continued having success. You either change, or you get left behind. I still think he's a good coach, but if he doesn't make changes with the times, the game will pass him by.

That’s about the worst thing I can think of from that statement.

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

The portal is good for that I think. Sometimes you get to a place and you just can’t get playing time for whatever reason. Why not take a shot somewhere else? Players want to get court/field time.

I get that but for a coach who half his career at least was an about building teams, that’s hard now. That’s what he’s saying in this message. He’s basically calling his team soft, but he can’t come out and say that now because everyone would get their feeling hurt. There was nothing dumb about it.

 

[UK90]

His whole statement. What is this defend KU and Izzo week on the boards?

Nothing he said was as outrageous as you claim. I don’t agree with his view on analytics, but it’s one that I often hear old-school types saying …and they don’t get “ ridiculed to no end” for it. Hell, Charles Barkley gets applauded when he says it.

If you can’t clarify why you think his statement so batshit crazy, then I have to question if you even know. Are you sure you weren’t just assuming it so because the dude who tweeted it said so?

 

[catswin]

Eight Final 4s is pretty damn impressive. He is not super impressive or dominant in the regular season, but he has done a pretty good job getting his team peaking at the right time.

 

[bbnkat02]

Nothing he said was as outrageous as you claim. I don’t agree with his view on analytics, but it’s one that I hear lots of old-school types often saying …and they don’t get “ ridiculed to no end” for it. Hell, Charles Barkley gets applauded when he says it.

If you can’t clarify why you think his statement so batshit crazy, then I have to question if you even know. Are you sure you weren’t just assuming it so because the dude who tweeted it said so?

I explained it to you. He’s stubborn. I’ve watched them play. There offense is extremely stale. You can’t lay all blame on players when you don’t adapt to the changing game. The one thing Cal hasn’t done much is throw dudes under the bus too bad. Again, this reeks of “I’m not changing the game is wrong!”

Are players soft these days? Eh. Depends on the dude. I wouldn’t call dudes like Oscar soft. Nor Tyty. Hell none of our dudes right now are overly soft.

Izzo’s getting punked on the court and he doesn’t like it. But he needs to look at his own game before whining to the media.

 

[revcort]

I really like Izzo as a person. He seems a very humble man who usually takes criticism well and takes responsibility for his failures. However, I do agree with others that the game has passed him by to some degree. His offense is stuck between 2000 and 2015 or so. We all know the game has evolved over the last decade or so, and even faster changes in the last 5 years. He's struggling with recruiting now because of his lack of adjustments in his game. He still has teams that usually play strong defense but their offense is the same as it was back in 2010. Today's top players just don't want to play for him because of this. Comments like these just reinforce that he's a bit out of touch. The sarcasm and the frustration is coming out clearly and everyone can see it. It's not a good look.