It's been 11 long years since Duke last won a national title, and in Blue Devil years, that's basically a century. The Blue Devils won five national titles under Coach K, but the past decade has been filled with upsets and disappointments, and their recent NCAA Tournament choke jobs should be a lesson for Michigan State fans.
Tom Izzo gets called a "choke artist" in the month of March by rival fans -- and now even some cynical Michigan State fans -- because he hasn't won a national title since 2000 despite knocking on the door six times since.
Michigan State has made six Final Fours since winning that last title which leads all of college basketball, but it can't seem to get over that hump. Making the Final Four is great, but it doesn't really mean anything other than the fact that you can hang a banner unless you win a national title.
So why do I bring Duke up here?
Well, Duke is arguably the biggest brand in college basketball right now and it's considered a national title favorite every season. The Blue Devils are also known for getting the top talent in the country in every single recruiting cycle, and yet they have one title since 2010-11. What does that prove? It's not easy to win a national title. Michigan State fans forget that sometimes.
Let's just look at where Duke's recruiting classes have ranked nationally every year since:
2011: 2
2012: 31 (just 2 signees)
2013: 7
2014: 1
2015: 2
2016: 1
2017: 1
2018: 1
2019: 3
2020: 3
2021: 6
2022: 1
2023: 2
2024: 1
2025: 1
Look at those insane recruiting classes and tell me that winning a national title is easy. All of those elite prospects in seven different No. 1 overall recruiting classes (including three of the past four), Duke produced just one national title, three Final Fours, and four ACC regular-season titles.
These are Michigan State's recruiting classes during that same timeframe:
2011: 18
2012: 12
2013: 78
2014: 43
2015: 25
2016: 3
2017: 47
2018: 17
2019: 26
2020: 51
2021: 12
2022: 59
2023: 6
2024: 24
2025: 34
We hear all about how Izzo chokes and how he can't win the big game, and yet he's still had several teams during that span who were good enough to win it all because of how good of a coach he is. During this span, Michigan State has two Final Fours and five Big Ten regular-season titles.
Izzo is a national title away from earning as much respect as Duke gets every single year, without question. The Blue Devils will open next season as a top-five team again and everyone will forget that they just choked away a double-digit lead in the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year and all that criticism and hate will go to Izzo.
Rinse and repeat when Duke loses in the second weekend next year no matter what Izzo does.
Moral of the story? Winning the NCAA Tournament isn't easy. If it was, there wouldn't be just seven active head coaches who've won a national title, and just three with multiple championships.
Yes, it's frustrating to go 26 years without one as an elite program, but Izzo is going to get back to the big stage whether you trust him anymore or not. He's just going to do it because he's one of the best to ever do it. Winning the NCAA Tournament is the toughest champio