Michigan State Spartans

Head Coach Tom Izzo is entering his 16th season as the head man at Michigan State. After a strong recruiting season which netted a PG, SG, PF and C; their best pick being Center Adreian Payne. Coach Izzo has added a new wrinkle to his offense, a motion offense he calls “the drag” which was brought in to take advantage of the team’s athletic guards. The problem early on is turnovers. “There aren’t many excuses on why good guards should just turn the ball over at will,” Izzo said recently.

Expect the Spartans to be in the thick of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

A SHORT HISTORY

The Michigan State Basketball came into existence in the 1899/1900 season and was led by Coach Charles O. Bemies who guided his team to a 5-2 record. Bemies would step down and the team was then led by George E. Denman, who coached between 1901 and 1903 and guided his teams to an 11-0 record and is still Michigan State’s only undefeated men’s basketball coach. The most successful Spartans coach was Jud Heathcote (1976-1995) who guided his teams to an overall record of 340-194 (.637), the 1979 NCAA Championship, 9 NCAA appearances and 3 Conference Championships.

Since Coach Izzo has taken over the team, the Spartans have posted a 366-137 (.710) and has led them to the NCAA Championships in 2000, five Final Four Appearances, twelve NCAA Appearances, five Conference Championships and two Conference Tournament Championships.
Overall, the Spartans have won two NCAA Championships, one, NCAA Runner up, seven NCAA Final Four Tournament appearances, ten NCAA Elite Eight appearances, fourteen Sweet Sixteen appearances, eighteen NCAA Tournament Second Round appearances and twenty-three overall NCAA Tournament appearances.  They have been Conference Tournament Champions twice and Conference Regular Season Champions eleven times.

Head Coach Tom Izzo led his Spartan Basketball team to an outstanding 28-9 (14-4 in the Big Ten) and were Big Ten co-champions and marched into the Big Ten Conference Tournament as the 3 seed but lost to 6th seeded Minnesota in the Conference semi-finals.

The team received an At-large bid from the NCAA and entered the 2010 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament as the 5th seed in the Midwest Region. They emerged as Midwest Region Champions after defeating New Mexico State, Maryland, Northern Iowa and Tennessee and advanced to their second straight Final Four appearance. In the National Semi-finals, they were defeated by a game Butler Team, ending their heroic season.