Tom Izzo still builds his team the old way and that paid off huge vs. Louisville

For as amazing as Jeremy Fears Jr. is, he’s not a knockdown shooter, and he didn’t shoot it well on Saturday in Michigan State’s 77-69 Round of 32 win over Louisville. The ideal way to defend him in the pick-and-roll is with drop coverage, but that’s made considerably more difficult when the big man setting the screen can step out and knock down a three. 

For the first three years of his career, Jaxon Kohler couldn’t stretch a defense that way. But with 6:41 left in the second half, Kohler put the game out of reach by popping behind the three-point line and turning one of Fears’s record-breaking 16 assists into a 13-point Michigan State lead. 

If most coaches needed a stretch big, they’d go to the Transfer Portal to get one. Not Tom Izzo. The Hall of Famer who reached his 17th Sweet 16 on Saturday isn’t afraid to dabble in new-age roster construction, but he prefers to build the old-school way, and that paid off huge against the Cardinals. 

“This is tear-jerking for me,” Izzo told reporters in his postgame press conference, “because I’m watching guys grow in front of me like it’s supposed to happen.” 

Tom Izzo’s homegrown Spartans are a rarity in modern college basketball

It’s not just Kohler, the senior forward, who is shooting 40 percent from three and went 2-7 from beyond the arc on Saturday. Izzo highlighted Fears, Coen Carr, who nearly matched his season-high with 21 points while hauling in 10 rebounds, and Trey Fort, one of Michigan State’s three transfer additions, who has struggled for most of the season. 

In his junior season, Carr, who has long been the most athletic player in the country, has finally rounded out his game, shooting better from the perimeter and getting his own shot off the dribble while still being a terror in the open floor and the best in-game dunker in the sport. Like Kohler adding a three-point shot, that doesn’t happen if Izzo doesn’t stick with them through the growing pains. 

Fort hasn’t been in East Lansing nearly as long as Kohler, Carr, or even Fears, Izzo’s redshirt sophomore point guard. Still, it’s obvious how emotionally invested the 71-year-old head coach is in his seniors’ success, beyond whatever financial commitment the program made to bring him from Samford. 

“Trey has had a miserable year for what he was expected and for what we were expecting,” Izzo said bluntly. “But instead of quitting, instead of, when the going gets tough, nowadays everybody gets out of dodge, he has stuck with it.” 

Fort had 12 points in 19 minutes, going 3-5 from three. It was his first game scoring in double figures since February 4 and just his fourth of the season. 

Izzo has never been one to take the easy way out. Neither are his players. Another trip to the Sweet 16 is the reward for the entire program.