“I’m 600 behind Mike Krzyzewski, so I’m staying humble on that,” he said. “I haven’t accomplished much if you look at the big picture of things."
And if you look strictly at his record versus Krzyzewski, Izzo's accomplished next to nothing. He's 1-11 all time against the winningest coach in the history of college basketball. He'll get another chance to improve that mark when Michigan State takes on Duke Sunday in the Elite 8.
Izzo was asked on Saturday if Krzyzewski is his 'white whale,' so to speak, the coach he's forever chasing.
Sunday will mark the fifth game between Michigan State and Duke in the last five seasons. They most recently played each other at the start of last season, when then-No. 1 Duke beat then-No. 2 MSU by seven. The last time they met in the NCAA Tournament was the 2015 Final Four when the Blue Devils ran the Spartans out of the gym, 81-61, on their way to the national championship.
Izzo's only win in the series came in the 2005 Sweet 16, when his 5-seeded Spartans upset Krzyzewski's 1-seeded Blue Devils. Another upset is what it will take tomorrow. For Izzo and Michigan State, it might be time. Aside from that blowout in 2015, each of the last seven games between the two teams has been decided by 10 points or fewer.
"I've got a lot of goals (left)," Izzo said. "But I think I could focus in on making one of them the game tomorrow night and see if we could change that 1-11 record. Hell, not many guys outside of their league are playing them 11 times. I figure that we've played them a lot. Played them down there a lot, played them in different events and we've knocked on the door. It hasn't opened yet. One of these days it's going to open."
If Michigan State is indeed due, Krzyzewski isn't nervous. ("I'm too old to be nervous," he quipped.) He doesn't put any stock into his record against Izzo, anyway. He almost cut the question off when the subject was brought up, uninterested in rehashing old scores.
"I'm not a big believer in coaches' records against one another," said Krzyzewski. "It's not like you have the same team, the same circumstance. Somebody might have been injured, it (might have been) a time where your team wasn't functioning as well. Just like I'm not a big (believer) in records on Tuesdays or Fridays or Saturdays or whatever. You play the team that you're going to play against right now. And they're capable of handing us a defeat. It doesn't make any difference what's happened in the past, really.
"Those stats don't mean anything. They really don't mean anything. And that one to me doesn't mean a darned thing."
Izzo, 64, is in his 24th season as head coach at MSU. Krzyzewski, 72, is in his 39th season at Duke. Over the years, the two have developed a healthy relationship through serving on the same college basketball boards. They agree neither one has changed much.
"We’re both in it for the love of the game and the love of kids. We’re old school," said Krzyzewski. "We both get paid a lot of money now -- a lot -- but we didn’t get in it for that. We got in it because we love the game. He’s never changed. He’s a genuine guy. ... He’s done a lot for the game."
With Izzo, Krzyzewski said with a grin, "there is no BS. He's going to tell you what he feels is the truth. ... He'll tell you what he thinks, and he'll also accept what you think. And then, hey, if that's a little bit different but it makes sense, you go with what's there. But it's really right on the table, right on the table. I love that."
To Izzo, Krzyzewski's consistency over nearly 40 years of coaching is what immediately stands out.
"I have incredible respect for what he's done. Any coach, any player, any person, any CEO that can consistently work at a level of excellence, I'm a fan of. And I don't think we've changed that much. I don't think he's changed that much. He dipped into the more one-and-done style and has found a way. Like a chameleon, he can just figure out a way to make it work for him, and he has done an excellent job of that."
This year's Duke team, the No. 1 overall seed in the Tournament, has likely three one-and-done freshmen in Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish. (Reddish missed Duke's win over Virginia Tech in the Sweet 16 due to a knee injury and might not be available Sunday.) Michigan State may not have a single first-round draft pick.
"Maybe that's the only thing that's been a lot different is the number of one-and-done players they had. We've had a few, not as many," Izzo said. "But, man, he's maintained it since the late '80s when I really started watching them and figuring out how they do things from the Johnny Dawkins and Jay Bilas area and Grant Hills and Jay Williams and the guys we played in that first '98 game.
"But you always keep an eye on the programs -- and I think everybody does this in life -- that have been successful. You try to figure out how do they do it, and then how do you beat them. I figured out a little bit how they've done it. I haven't figured out as well how to beat them. I'm still working on that. And that's why we're still a work in progress."