In case you did not already know, he is the best coach anywhere between New Jersey and Southern California
WOOOHOOOOO!
Earlier today, the Big Ten announced that it has named Tom Izzo as its 2024-25 Coach of the Year. This is Tom’s fourth time winning the award, and at 70 years old, he is the oldest coach to ever receive this honor.
Coach Izzo was also tabbed as B1G COY in 1998, 2009, and 2012. The 13 years between his last COY award and this one represents the longest gap between awards in conference history. The previous long was 11 years… between his first two times winning the award.
This year, Tom led MSU to a 26-5 record overall, and 17-3 and first place in the Big Ten. Coming into the season, the Spartans were projected as a middle of the pack team, not even one of the double-bye teams. A lot of those lower expectations was because of the underperformance of last year’s squad and the unknowns of this year’s roster. Over the course of the season, Izzo made changes to the starting lineup on three separate occasions. The first switch was moving Xavier Booker to the bench for Jaxon Kohler. Then Tre Holloman took over Frankie Fidler’s spot. Then Jase Richardson took Tre’s spot, reportedly at Tre’s suggestion, to get us to the lineup that finished the regular season.
Throughout the season, Coach Izzo adjusted his players’ minutes distribution to best combat the varying opponents MSU faced. In the end, that mastery of his roster led Izzo to a commanding conference championship and a well-deserved recognition as Coach of the Year.
Congratulations to Tom Izzo!
In other honors, Jaden Akins and Jase Richardson were both named third-team All-Big Ten. Akins was also named to the All-Defense team while Richardson was placed on the All-Freshman team.
Associate Head Coach Doug Wojcik earned the award for Assistant Coach of the Year.
Congrats to Shakin’ Bakin’, Helpful Hardwood Man, and Doug!