Michigan State’s legendary head coach is putting together another good coaching job.
On Friday, MSU’s Tom Izzo was one of 15 college basketball head coaches to be named to the Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year Watch List. He is one of four coaches from the Big Ten to make the list, alongside Dusty May (Michigan), Fred Hoiberg (Nebraska), and Brad Underwood (Illinois).
Izzo, in his 31st season at the helm in East Lansing, is coaching another Spartans team that is defying some preseason expectations. He made this list last season while winning the Big Ten by three games after beginning the year unranked.
Michigan State began this season ranked 22nd, but has played above that level all season. The Spartans are currently 15th in the AP Poll at 21-5 overall and 11-4 during Big Ten play, with their best mark of the season being when they were ranked seventh on Jan. 26.
More on Izzo, Challenges Ahead for MSU
It’s going to take another quality coaching job from Izzo for MSU to go far at the tail-end of its season. Izzo has said plenty of times this year that his team doesn’t really have a wide margin for error. Certain things have to go right for Michigan State to beat higher-end opponents…