30 seasons ago Coach Tom Izzo took the helm at MSU Basketball and what followed is legend. The 2000 NCAA National Championship, 10 regular-season Big Ten Championships, six Big Ten Tournament titles, eight Final Four appearances, eight National Coach of the Year awards and (a Big Ten-record) 26-straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
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Along the way Coach has mentored and aided dozens of assistants in the advancement of their coaching careers. We all know about Tom Crean, Dwayne Stephens, and Drew Valentine. Though as you can imagine, the list of current and former head coaches who can trace back through their own head coach mentors to Coach Izzo is quite long, 214 Coaches long, so far.
To give an example, an assistant under Tom Crean, Steve McClain became a head coach at U Illinois-Chicago. He had Steve Roccaforte as an assistant who went on to head up Lamar, and in turn had Tic Price on staff who head coached at Lamar, McNeese State, Memphis, and New Orleans. One of Tic’s products was Johnny Jones who headed up Texas Southern, LSU, North Texas, and Memphis. An assistant under Johnny Jones was Eric Musselman who currently heads USC, though also led Arkansas and Nevada. A Musselman assistant, Josh Newman, went on to lead Pacific and had on his staff Lamont Smith who became head coach at San Diego. Smith’s tenure included Sam Scholl, who also then helmed San Diego with staff including Chris Gerlufsen. Chris went to lead Hawaii and now runs the UC-San Francisco team. Now, not all of the connections are so cleanly linear due to the nature of the coaching business, a head coach for one team may become the assistant for a next one – either through failure or success in moving to a bigger program. In the example above, the last two names, Sam Scholl and Chris Gerlufsen actually were both assistants under Lamont Smith. Jim Boylen (a direct Coach Izzo connection) was also an assistant under Eric Musselman. Jordan Mincy, currently HC at Jacksonville, appeared in the tree in eight different slots. The 214 number omits duplications, with the full tree crossovers in place, the number is closer to 314 – though with later generations the timing of connections through expansive coaching branches comes into play.
We’ve broken these coaches into generations or degrees of coaching separation and include the coaches’ names, schools (or pro teams) where they were a head coach, and their current school, team, or, if they are out of coaching at the collegiate or pro level. Some may still be coaching at high schools or may have taken roles in university athletic departments – though we’re not tracking those movements. That said, for this post, in the initial table we’re just listing the first and second generations. The additional coaches in the later generations are provided simply as part of a list. Though, as what seemed like what might be a quick hour of searching expanded, we realized we’ll need to work on a better visualization for all the coaches in their respective generations… coming soon.
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The Full List follows.
A last couple of points. Despite the numbers and distant connections, I’d not be surprised if Coach Izzo knew of each of these coaches – though he may not be consciously aware of each of their “Treeness” or even his full reach and impact on the ranks of modern coaching. I say that as I’m guessing he keeps an eye out for his guys and his guys’ guys… etc. Also, should that day ever come [bite your tongue] where Coach Izzo does hang up his sneakers, I hope everyone on the list finds themselves with an invite to what should be an excellent (and moving) celebration.
Enjoy, and Thanks Coach Izzo – All the best in 2025!!