Doubting Tom Izzo hasn’t served many people well over the years, myself included.
Everyone has been caught being a little harsh on the Hall of Fame head coach, and he usually ends up proving us all wrong.
Underperforming for a few years after COVID-19 and Cassius Winston leaves, and then losing AJ Hoggard, Tyson Walker, and Malik Hall in the same offseason? No worries, all he did was go out and win the deepest Big Ten by the widest margin in his coaching career.
Izzo just wins, and he loves to play the role of underdog. It’s usually when he has the most success.
So we should be expecting big things from the 2025-26 team. Why? Everyone is doubting the reigning Big Ten champs. The Big Ten media picked the Spartans to finish sixth in the preseason poll, his team barely snuck into the preseason AP Top 25, and now CBS Sports is dealing him the ultimate disrespect, saying that Michigan State is one of the preseason ranked teams that could miss the NCAA Tournament.
The article stated that if anyone other than Izzo was coaching the 2025-26 Spartans, there’s no way they’d be ranked in the preseason AP Top 25. That’s just a horrendous take.
Michigan State did lose plenty of talent this offseason, but it was one of the top eight teams in the country last year, and it returns four key starters while bringing in two fringe top-50 recruits, and an impressive transfer haul. Yet that’s not good enough to be ranked, in their eyes? OK.
That wasn’t even the most disrespectful statement that the article made, it was about the caliber of player on the roster (mind you, the roster is filled with four and five-stars).
"Izzo, 70, is one of the greatest to ever do it, and he might be able to take a roster full of kids from Michigan State's supply chain management program and lead them to the Big Dance."CBS Sports
Kids from Michigan State’s supply chain management program? First off, props to CBS Sports for knowing about how good that program is at Michigan State. But second, let’s not be disrespectful to Coen Carr, Jeremy Fears Jr., Jaxon Kohler, and Trey Fort who would start on most Big Ten teams. Throw in Carson Cooper, Jesse McCulloch, Divine Ugochukwu, Kur Teng, Cam Ward, and Jordan Scott, and you have a really solid roster with depth.
The disrespect is already flowing.