Look at the NCAA Tournament bracket, and you wonder what Denver did to tick off the selection committee. It’s the Honda Civic of subregionals. Not a lot of power or flash. Unless you’re into watered-down Cinderellas like George Mason or part of Notre Dame’s bandwagon, none of Denver’s eight teams appear to have the mettle to get to San Antonio.
But if you got to the Pepsi Center right after breakfast Thursday and stared down one sideline, maybe you’d have hope. Prowling in front of the Michigan State bench, looking so much smaller than his national stature, was Tom Izzo.
If the NCAA Tournament is a coaches-powered event, where coaching resumes are made and shredded, Izzo is the one force in Denver who can make a difference. While Jamie Dixon picked up where Ben Howland left off at Pittsburgh and Tony Bennett wins at Washington State — leaving you to wonder what he’d do someplace where he could recruit — Izzo is the one proven national commodity.
Four Big Ten titles, four Final Fours and four national coach-of-the-year awards. A national title in 2000. A Big Ten-best 11 consecutive NCAA Tournaments and a young roster that makes you think he won’t miss one for a while.
If you watched his fifth-seeded Spartans (26-8) dismantle No. 12 Temple Thursday, 72-61, you saw a slice of the Izzo Way: vicious, physical team defense; cat-quick, unselfish guards; and dominating rebounding.
All-Big Ten guard Drew Neitzel suffered through a 2-for-11, five-point game but no one noticed. Michigan State’s defense was that good. It held Dionte Christmas, the Atlantic 10’s leading scorer, to a 1-for-12 pratfall. By the time Michigan State built a 52-38 lead, Christmas and Mark Tyndale, Temple’s other threat, were a combined 3-for-15.
That, Denver, is the Izzo Way.
“I just think he has that experience, and you can’t take that away,” Neitzel said. “He does a great job. He’s had a plan, and it’s worked throughout the years, so he doesn’t change it.”
The Spartans call it “Six Eyes.” When facing a player such as Christmas, who averaged 20.2 points per game and just won the Atlantic 10 Tournament’s most outstanding player award, three players eye him. Izzo took the concept from ex-Detroit Pistons coach Chuck Daly, who, people forget, used to rattle a young Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls out of the NBA playoffs.
“Like all coaches do,” Izzo said, “we steal from anybody that we can.”
It’s one thing to steal but another to apply it. The Spartans’ opponents shot only .401 this season. Temple shot .375 (21-for-56). MSU’s last five opponents have not topped 65 points.
“I just listen to everybody,” Izzo said. “I’ve been around guys that won championships like Larry Brown, of course, Chuck Daly. You know, I’m a big football fan. You watch all those teams that win championships. They’re always the best defensive teams.
“The philosophy, I probably got from (former MSU coach) Jud Heathcote. We’re going to play solid. We don’t press a lot and trap a lot.”
It will be fascinating to watch how the Spartans defend Pitt’s terrific floor leader, Levance Fields, in Saturday’s second round. If the Spartans survive that, see what they’ll do to stop top-seeded Memphis’ stable of slashers in the Sweet 16.
Izzo may not have enough offensive horsepower this year to make another Final Four. The 16 combined points he got Thursday from big men Drew Naymick and Goran Suton were cause for near jubilation.
But next season, Izzo loses only Neitzel and Naymick, and coming in is 6-foot-8 DeVon Roe, a consensus preseason All-American from suburban Cleveland for whom Izzo beat out North Carolina and Ohio State.
The wasteland that is college basketball in this state has Saturday left to appreciate a true master.
