When you think about some of the best cultures in college basketball, a handful of programs come to mind. There are elite programs like Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, and Kentucky which all seem to have elite cultures, but Michigan State has "the best culture in college basketball by a lot" according to one of Tom Izzo's coaching colleagues.
That's right, a fellow head coach told Izzo as he approached Bob Knight's record 353 career Big Ten wins that he has the best culture in the country by a wide margin.
That coach is none other than former Iowa coach and current Nevada head man Steve Alford.
According to @msucontent on X, Alford texted Izzo last weekend and told him to remember that he has the best culture in the sport "by a lot" so whenever he gets frustrated, he needs to appreciate what he has because nobody else has that.
And this video provided by TheSpartanMag and shared by @msucontent on X proves that he does, in fact, have an elite culture and it's truly rare to find this anywhere else.
Izzo said he received a text from Steve Alford this weekend saying “You’ve got the best culture in college basketball by a lot. Whenever you get frustrated, appreciate what you got, because nobody has it.”
— Michigan State Content (@msucontent) February 11, 2025
This video sums it up.
🎥 @TheSpartanMag pic.twitter.com/MdRt4ALMt7
While he was busy winning his Knight-tying 353rd Big Ten game over Oregon, Izzo had a plethora of former players in attendance such as Morris Peterson, Mateen Cleaves, and Jason Richardson while Mat Ishbia was also there and his team shook hands and high-fived each of them after the win. No other school has a tight-knight culture quite like this.
Sure, Duke has "The Brotherhood" and other schools can claim to have something similar, but no program has players constantly coming back to see their former coach and support the school that raised them quite like Michigan State.
Steve Alford is right: no one has it like this. Enjoy it.