Tom Izzo wildly disrespected by latest KenPom coaching rankings

Football has been all the talk around East Lansing for the past 24 hours after Jonathan Smith’s Spartans were dominated at home by UCLA on Saturday afternoon. But Tom Izzo and Michigan State are gearing up for one of the most anticipated seasons in a few years.

Sure, the 2023-24 season was highly-anticipated, but that was based more on hope than recent results. This season is following a Big Ten title (by three whole games) and Elite Eight run. There’s excitement because it feels like Izzo and the Spartans are trending in the right direction.

Big Ten Media Days just took place and the Spartans were well-represented by Izzo, Jeremy Fears Jr., Coen Carr, Jaxon Kohler, and Carson Cooper.

There’s real excitement surrounding this team, and it’s because Izzo looks revitalized.

Izzo seemingly got his swagger back, and after winning his 11th Big Ten title and making his 11th Elite Eight last season, everyone is buying stock in the Hall of Famer again.

Everyone except KenPom, apparently.

Over the weekend, KenPom ranked the top 25 active head coaches in college basketball, and Izzo was nowhere to be found.

That’s right, guys like Tommy Amaker, Shaka Smart, Rick Barnes, Dusty May, Brad Underwood, and Pat Kelsey are all ranked ahead of Izzo (among over a dozen other head-scratchers) despite him having a much better resume and just picking up his 11th conference title.

Most experts would rank Izzo in the top 3-4 among active head coaches, but KenPom tried to do one of those “smartest guy in the room” moves, omitting Izzo from the list.

Also, as a completely unbiased opinion, Matt Painter is way too low at No. 16.

This is definitely of KenPom’s more questionable rankings.