East Lansing — As the glow of its outright Big Ten championship set in last Thursday at Iowa, the Michigan State men’s basketball had a visitor. It only took a few seconds for the players to start chanting his name.

However, at 70 years old, there will eventually come a time when Izzo decides to ride off into the sunset, and I'm sure he is thinking about his legacy and who is successor might be, and it's something I still enjoy speculating about with fans and colleagues.

Michigan State basketball's Tom Izzo won his fourth Big Ten coach of the year award Tuesday, the oldest in league history to do so.

In 30 years as Michigan State’s head coach, Izzo owns a career record of 733-300, with his 360 Big Ten wins — and counting — the most by a coach in conference history. Izzo’s 11th conference title tied Indiana’s Bob Knight and Purdue’s Ward “Piggy” Lambert for the most in Big Ten history.

Michigan State’s Tom Izzo was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the fourth time, among the other conference awards announced Tuesday.

To go along with his championship, Tom Izzo has officially been named the 2025 Big Ten Coach of the Year, winning the highest honor a head coach can win in the conference.

Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo has seen several of his friends retire from the game. Izzo is not ready to join them.

Tom Izzo did it again. Just when you thought his era of Big Ten dominance might be coming to an end, he pushed this year’s Spartans to a 17-3 conference record, a 26-5 overall mark and an 11th Big Ten regular season title — winning the league by three games over second-place Maryland and Michigan.