Back in October, I remember coming away from Michigan State’s exhibition loss to UConn a little worried about this year’s team. I knew Tom Izzo was going to figure it out somehow, but it looked like the Spartans and UConn Huskies looked to be on two completely different tiers, talent-wise.
A few weeks later, the Spartans were beating Kentucky, Arkansas, and North Carolina. They did lose at home against Duke in an ending that they wish they could have back.
Izzo still managed to rally the troops after that and piece together a nice winning streak until they finally dropped a game against Nebraska in Lincoln. It was one of their worst games of the season and they still only lost by two against what turned out to be a top-five team in the country at one point.
Since then, Michigan State went on a long winning streak of 10-plus point victories, hit a bit of a speed bump, and then rallied for road wins against Purdue and Indiana to crawl back to 24-5.
It’s been a surprise season for some, but Izzo had been speaking highly of his group all offseason.
The experts, however, were not. Evan Miyakawa wasn’t so high on Michigan State in the preseason, but according to his grading system, Izzo’s team is one of the biggest “overachievers” in college basketball this season.
Which teams have overachieved relative to their roster?
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) March 4, 2026
This graph compares the quality of each team's resume to their preseason roster grade at https://t.co/cegyfz8ykZ. Teams above the middle gray area have significantly out-performed their roster talent👇 pic.twitter.com/VOmaojyVRe
Although Dusty May of Michigan and Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg also deserve Big Ten Coach of the Year consideration, seeing the way Izzo has pieced together a roster mixed with his own guys and a couple of transfers has truly been impressive after losing a bulk of last year’s production.
No one expected Michigan State to be in the conversation for a 1-seed at the end of the season after losing seven players from its Big Ten title team.
But here we are.
Tom Izzo deserves Big Ten Coach of the Year
Izzo is having one of his signature “no one expected us to do anything” seasons in which Michigan State was projected to finish near the middle of the pack in the Big Ten after winning the conference a year ago.
A ton of offseason attrition and roster uncertainty, paired with a season-ending injury to a key transfer before the year even tipped off had people talking “lucky to sneak into the tournament”.
OK, so that wasn’t a popular opinion, but if you went by preseason expectations based on where people had Michigan State finishing in the Big Ten, the Spartans would probably have been somewhere in the 7-8 seed range in the NCAA Tournament. A slight step back was expected after losing Jaden Akins, Jase Richardson, Tre Holloman, Frankie Fidler, Xavier Booker, Szymon Zapala, and Gehrig Normand. Losing a couple of guys every year is
Losing an entire backcourt and being forced into starting an unproved sophomore at shooting guard (Kur Teng) to start the year and then moving him to sixth man as well as a starting a rather under-scouted guard in Divine Ugochukwu while going through the ups and downs of Trey Fort would have crushed most coaches. Not Izzo.
Instead, Fort is fighting back from a rough first few months of his Spartan career, Ugochukwu gave the team a ton before departing with a season-ending injury, Teng has become one of the best bench sparks in the Big Ten, and Jordan Scott has entered the mix as the new starting two-guard.
Add in the fact that Izzo has helped develop Carson Cooper, Jaxon Kohler, Jeremy Fears Jr., and Coen Carr heavily this season and you have even more reasons to award this man Big Ten COY.