What’s Left For Izzo To Prove? His Players Say Nothing. He Says They’re Wrong.

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Photo credit © Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
Minneapolis -- Sitting next to Cassius Winston on the interview dais Friday afternoon, Tom Izzo threw his best player a glance and smiled. 

"Hell no, I don't agree with that," he said. "Again, Cassius is wrong." 

The question has been asked of Michigan State's players throughout the week, with the program closing in on its third national championship: Are you trying to win this for Izzo? To a man, they've politely said no. They're trying to win this for themselves and for each other, no disrespect to their coach. 

"He already got one," Xavier Tillman said on Tuesday. "He did it, he did what everybody’s been trying to do, so this one’s for us. We want to do this for our legacy. This is something to be proud of to be able to truthfully have a banner. Going to the Final Four is obviously amazing, but to win it is different. And I want that feeling." 

Izzo helped Michigan State hang its second national championship banner in 1999. He's been back to the Final Four six times since, but without winning it all. Some feel the Hall of Fame coach needs a second title to validate his resume. 

Not Winston. 

"I'm pretty sure Coach Izzo could stop coaching right now and nobody would be mad at him," Winston said Tuesday. "He's accomplished everything. He's done everything you could at this level. ... Coach Izzo doesn't have anything else to prove to anybody."

That so, Tom? 

Hell no. 

But if his players are talking crazy, Izzo takes the blame. 

"Part of it's my fault because I say, 'I've been there, and nobody can take that away from me. But my dream is for you guys to get there.' So if they get there, they're taking me along for the ride," Izzo said. "That's why I still have bigger fish to fry and bigger things to go after."

Take last weekend. Izzo wanted to prove he could return to the Final Four in the age of one-and-done players. He wanted to prove he could coach another team to exceed the sum of its parts.  He wanted to prove he could win a big game against Mike Krzyzewski and Duke.

Then he went out and did it. 

And now that he's here, back in the Final Four, you can bet Izzo wants to prove he can still get over the hump. For as glamorous as those eight Final Four appearances may be, Izzo's 3-6 record once he arrives is nothing to write home about. 

It was shortly after knocking off Duke that Izzo said, "Now what I've got to do is refocus. We've been there, it's the eighth Final Four. But we've only won one. I have to reassess how I handle it, what I do, and that's what I told my players."

Izzo also told them this. When he ran into Winston's mother on the court during the post-game celebration, he exclaimed, "How 'bout that!" And she replied, "That's not good enough. We've got two more." 

"I looked at her and I said, 'A woman of my own heart.' I just absolutely loved it," said Izzo. "So it's going to be grind city again. We've got to figure out how we do things a little different, because there's some good teams up there, and not get enamored with this win." 

The win was such a huge deal because it was just the second of Izzo's career in 13 games against Duke. But that record could have been flipped and the collective satisfaction wouldn't have been dulled, not by much. That's a testament to the kind of machine Krzyzewski has built at Duke, one that Izzo is striving to reproduce at Michigan State.

"Everybody that beats Duke is ready to put that on the wall because that's the program he's built. And that's what I'm hoping to still build," Izzo said. "I mean, the respect everybody has for Duke is why it's a big game." 

Izzo and the Spartans certainly command a measure of the same respect. But there's always more to be gained. Izzo recalled on Friday how Michigan State scrimmaged Gonzaga in Minneapolis back in October. At the time, someone remarked, "Wouldn't it be nice to come back here?"

Here they are. 

"It's a long journey, and I will never, as long as I'm coaching, ever not think of getting to a Final Four and winning a National Championship," Izzo said. "Once you do it once, it's so good you want to come back." 

If his players believe he's got nothing left to prove, Izzo suggested asking them another question: Is that man ever satisfied? 

"I think they'd tell you I'm never satisfied," he said, "but I don't think they are either. I think they've done a good job. They've taken me farther this year than I've taken them."

Then Izzo glanced again at Winston, before circling back to Mateen Cleaves, the last star point guard to help the Spartans to a national title.  

"They're different kind of people in different ways, but they both have the ability that their teammates respect them and follow them, and they both are winners," Izzo said. "That's kind of the common denominator to be successful." 

Now let him prove it.