Michigan State’s Tom Izzo passes Knight for most Big Ten wins
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Michigan State’s Tom Izzo followed one of the most disappointing losses of his coaching career with a record-setting victory.
The No. 11 Spartans came from behind to beat Illinois 79-65 on Saturday night for Izzo’s 354th career Big Ten victory, breaking former Indiana coach Bob Knight’s record of 353 conference wins.
“What a win,” Izzo said. “You talk about the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
“We disappointed so many people [Tuesday] when we lost to Indiana at home. It was one of the worst defeats of my career because of the way we played. To pick ourselves off the ground after that loss and win in this environment after falling behind by 16 points [in the first half] was incredible.”
Izzo and Illinois coach Brad Underwood are friends who talk often and respect each other’s programs.
But that didn’t lessen the sting of losing to the Spartans for Underwood. Michigan State outscored the Illini 42-24 in the second half and finished the game with a 15-point run over the final 8 1/2 minutes.
“It stinks,” he said.
Former Illinois star Terrence Shannon Jr., whose No. 1 jersey was raised to the rafters at the State Farm Center during a halftime ceremony, went to the Michigan State locker room after the game to congratulate Izzo.
“That was really classy. I told Terrence if he hadn’t played here, I’d have done it a lot sooner,” Izzo said.
Michigan State freshman Jase Richardson made the night extra special for Izzo by scoring 11 points.
Richardson is the son of former Michigan State star Jason Richardson, who was a key member of the Spartans’ 2000 NCAA championship team. Jase is the first son of a former player to play for Izzo.
Izzo tied Knight Feb. 8 when Michigan State rallied in the second half to defeat Oregon 86-74.
The Spartans failed badly in their first attempt to get the milestone victory for their coach, losing 71-67 at home to Indiana and lame-duck coach Mike Woodson.
“We had an opportunity [Tuesday) for a special night,” Izzo said. “But the players didn’t play well, and the coaches didn’t coach well. That’s a bad combination against a team that’s desperate for a win.”
Izzo, who celebrated his 70th birthday on Jan. 30, is now 354-173 in Big Ten play in 30 seasons. He’s 727-300 overall since replacing Jud Heathcote in 1995 after serving as an assistant to Heathcote from 1983-95.
A 2016 inductee into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Izzo has a record 26 straight NCAA tournament appearances and eight trips to the Final Four on his resume, which also includes 10 Big Ten regular-season titles and six Big Ten Tournament championships.
Last season, Izzo became the first Big Ten coach to win 700 games at the same school.
Knight, who died in 2023, was the coach at Indiana from 1971 until 2000, winning three NCAA tournament championships.
“I’d give up the Big Ten wins record for two more NCAA Tournament championships,” Izzo said.
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Big Ten basketball wins list: Michigan State’s Tom Izzo now sits atop star-studded list
Tom Izzo has added another record to his Hall of Fame career as Michigan State basketball’s coach.
Michigan State beat Illinois, 79-65, on Saturday night at State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois, in another record-setting win for the Spartans’ coach. The vistory was Izzo’s 354th in Big Ten play (in his 30th season in charge at MSU) to surpass Indiana icon Bob Knight for the most conference wins by a coach in conference history.
With the victory, MSU remained near the top the Big Ten standings, half a game behind Michigan and half a game ahead of Purdue, Tuesday’ opponent. Izzo tied the Big Ten record last Saturday when the Spartans stormed back in the second half to beat Oregon at home.
Izzo’s team is in a position to contend for its 11th Big Ten regular-season championship, which would tie the overall record, held by Knight and Purdue’s Ward “Piggy” Lambert. Izzo already holds the record for most overall wins for a Big Ten coach at a school, plus has the most Big Ten tournament wins (six), NCAA tournament wins and Final Four appearances.
Here’s a look at the top five coaches in Big Ten wins.
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*Denotes active coaches.
Izzo’s first conference victory came in 1996. Fittingly, he beat Knight’s Hoosiers to notch the first victory under his belt. After two shaky seasons to begin his tenure, Izzo found the right groove in 1997-98 and went 13-3 for his first regular-season conference title.
Michigan State went on to win at least a share of the next three regular-season titles with a 41-7 record during the Big Ten schedule from 1998-01. In that time, Izzo also won his first two conference tournaments, reached two Final Fours and won his only national championship.
Izzo reached another Final Four in 2005, but did not win a Big Ten title again until the end of the 2008-09 season, when he reached the national championship again. MSU repeated as champions in 2010 and took home a third in four years in 2012. MSU also won three straight regular-season titles from 2018-20 and the conference tournament in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2019.
RACKING UP THE WINS:Which teams Michigan State coach Tom Izzo beat the most on road to Big Ten wins record
Knight, who died in 2023, became the conference’s winningest coach 36 years ago during the 1989-90 season. He came in one win off the record, trailing Purdue’s Lambert, and beat the Boilermakers by a point to set the record at 213 wins.
Knight coached Indiana from 1971-2000, becoming one of the sport’s most iconic and successful coaches. Knight won 662 games while coaching Indiana (a record that stood until Izzo passed him in 2022) including 353 conference games. He coached the Hoosiers for another 11 years before an unceremonious exit.
While at Indiana, Knight finished 662-239 and 353-151 in the Big Ten. He won three national championships, 11 Big Ten championships and led the last undefeated team in college basketball, in 1975-76.
Keady coached at Purdue for 25 years from 1980-2005 and finished his career with the second-most conference wins of any Big Ten coach, only trailing Knight at the time. He finished with a 512-270 record overall and a 265-169 record against Big Ten opponents.
Keady’s Boilermakers won three straight Big Ten titles from 1994-96 and six conference titles overall. Purdue reached the NCAA tournament 17 times under his direction, but never reached a Final Four.
The second Purdue coach on this list is their current leader, Painter. He stepped in to take over for Keady in 2005 and did not miss a beat in building a program contending for conference titles each season. He averages just over 12 conference wins per season, trailing only Knight and Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan.
In 20 seasons, Painter is 466-210 overall and 237-127 in Big Ten games. The Boilermakers have won five Big Ten regular-season championships under Painter, including the last two, when they were led by National Player of the Year Zach Edey.
The third and final Purdue coach in the Big Ten’s top five is Lambert, who long stood as the most successful coach in the conference for his pre-World War II success. Lambert coached Purdue in the 1916-17 season and from 1918-46. Under his direction, Purdue won 11 Big Ten championships. He helped introduce key facets of modern basketball such as the fast break and also taught the most successful college coach of all time: John Wooden, who played under Lambert from 1930-32 before building a dynasty at future Big Ten school UCLA.
Tom Izzo: 354*
Bob Knight: 353
Gene Keady: 265
Matt Painter: 237*
Ward “Piggy” Lambert: 228
Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State basketball’s 79-65 win at Illinois
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Whatever becomes of this Michigan State basketball season, in the Big Ten or beyond, Saturday night’s 79-65 win at Illinois will be the game that made big things seem possible again.
There were a lot of legitimate questions about this MSU team after Tuesday night’s home loss to Indiana, a third loss in four games.
MSU’s basketball team answered many of them definitively Saturday night at Illinois: The Spartans are not a group that’s going to be steamrolled, or one that’s going to give in to a predictable buzzsaw. Or a team whose demise we should predict prematurely.
If the second half against Oregon last weekend was a top-five night all-time at Breslin Center, this was a top-five road performance all-time in the Tom Izzo era.
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A game the Spartans trailed 31-15 — with everything going wrong at one of the more unforgiving venues in college basketball — finished with MSU holding the Illini scoreless for the final 8:29, while putting away a statement win. MSU scored the last 15 points and dominated the glass down the stretch.
Izzo won’t have to wait any longer to break Bob Knight’s Big Ten wins record — it’s his now, his 354th conference win coming in Izzo-like fashion. MSU is back in the Big Ten race. It’s not just the 11-3 record — it’s who the Spartans showed they could beat and where.
The last time these teams met, Jan. 19 at Breslin Center, it felt like MSU was hanging on against the better team at times. This time, after the start, it felt like MSU was coming.
This might have been a put-up-or-shut-up night — more in how MSU responded and played than if it won or lost. The Spartans put up. The Illini, at least, are going to have to pipe down.
Jaxon Kohler has had some good moments this season — five double-doubles, for example, as he’s become the program’s best rebounder since Xavier Tillman. But there’s also still plenty of frustration for him offensively — his shot just won’t fall consistently, inside or out.
Saturday night at Illinois, in a game MSU absolutely needed more from Kohler, we saw what he could be for MSU’s team and program over the next 14 months. We saw the shot — which usually looks good when it leaves his hand — start to find the net, time after time. We saw his tenacity on the glass again in the biggest moments, including two offensive rebounds on one possession, which ended with a Kohler put-back while being fouled for an old-fashioned 3-point play.
He was pretty dang good on the standard 3s, too. Kohler hit 4 of 5 3-point tries — his first pulling the Spartans to within striking distance for the first time, 35-28, his last a danger from the corner late in the shot clock to put the Spartans ahead 77-65. He hit 9 of 13 shots overall, including two buckets on post moves, the sort of shots that were his bread and butter coming out of high school, to finish with a career-high 23 points, to go with 10 rebounds. Make that six double-doubles, this was by far the most significant.
It’s hard to quantify just what it’ll mean for Kohler and for MSU if he becomes a reliable offensive weapon and if that outside shot begins to stretch defenses — teams are giving it to him right now. We saw it late in Kenny Goins’ career. Same for A.J. Granger many years earlier. Those guys opened up MSU’s offense and hit some huge shots on great teams. Those teams were great, in part, because they had that element offensively.
Kohler has to build on this. But he showed up in huge way in the most difficult setting against one of the more talented opponents MSU will see, in a game the team and program badly needed.
From Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper (whose plus-minus was a whopping plus-26), to Tre Holloman and Coen Carr (who teamed up with Kohler to carry MSU late in the first half), and Jaden Akins down the stretch (after a rough first 30 minutes) — there was a lot of gumption from the Spartans on Saturday night. Jase Richardson had some important buckets. Xavier Booker made a dent during a first-half stretch, including a 3 when it was sorely needed.
Saturday night was proof of mental fortitude. This MSU team has some shortcomings — but toughness isn’t one of them. MSU won because it was the tougher team — on the glass in the second half, in getting the shots it wanted offensively and preventing them defensively.
With Purdue, Michigan, Maryland and Wisconsin up next, that might be the most important attribute this team can have. Suddenly, what’s ahead doesn’t feel like a death march.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @Graham_Couch.
