Izzo Quote

"Learn to listen, listen to Learn"

-Tom Izzo

Confronted by Team, a Spartan Responds

Michigan State's Durrell Summers is one of the most athletic players on his team. Summers is playing his best basketball of his career in leading the Spartans into the Final Four. Before the tournament started, Summers' was dogged by his coaches and teammates for what they described as a poor effort. This article explains how a team meeting helped Summers turn the corner and in turn helped the Spartans reach yet another Final Four. From the Detroit Free Press:

They do not always do things delicately at Michigan State, whether rebounding in bruising fashion or calling out a teammate for playing without enough passion.

Spartans guard Durrell Summers found out that second part after he had been acting as if he were overqualified to play defense.

Summers was benched in the second half of Michigan State’s loss to Minnesota in the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament. Asked if he was worried about Summers’s confidence, Coach Tom Izzo told Michigan State basketball beat reporters, “Confidence has nothing to do with guarding somebody.”

Michigan State’s players were no less blunt at a players-only meeting in which Summers faced a reckoning.

“We all said what we had to say to Durrell, and Durrell sat there and listened and took it like a man, if it was good or bad,” said Draymond Green, a sophomore forward.

Summers can be an explosive offensive player, but he yawned on defense and admitted that he only glanced at scouting reports and rarely absorbed them. He needed Izzo and his teammates to shake him up, and they did, for two days before the N.C.A.A. tournament started.

It was a reordering of Michigan State basketball, which has lost its leading scorer, Kalin Lucas, to injury but gained a star in Summers. A 6-foot-4 junior from Detroit, Summers made 8 of 10 shots and scored 21 points against Tennessee in a 70-69 victory in the Midwest Regional final Sunday to cap a splendid four-game stretch that helped carry Michigan State to the Final Four.

Summers was 1 for 5 in that Big Ten tournament game against Minnesota, but in four N.C.A.A. tournament games, he has made 30 of 54 shots from the field (55 percent) and averaged 20 points a game. He was named the most outstanding player in the Midwest Region.

Lucas, an all-Big Ten guard, ruptured an Achilles’ tendon in a second-round tournament game against Maryland, but now the Spartans are headed to the Final Four with a player who was helping to rupture the team in early March.

“Through the whole tournament, my defense was on a different level,” Summers said. “It actually has been able to translate to my offense; I am so focused in on defense that nothing can break my focus on offense.

“That was a matter of me having to look in a mirror seeing what Coach is asking of me. Coach was telling me you don’t realize how you rub off on other people.”

Izzo was determined not to let Summers skate through. The coach said he had had other players, gifted players, who got away from him without being pushed to their potential. Izzo had no choice, he said, but to push Summers to an uncomfortable edge.

“When you go through a couple of guys like that in the past and it didn’t work out for them, I kind of vowed I’ll never let that happen again,” Izzo said. “Sometimes, people take things casually. And I think a lot of players do. And I’ve probably been harder on him because I think he has more to give. You know, when you have more to give, people are going to push you even harder.”

After the Big Ten tournament, Summers said he started meeting with Izzo and going over ways to increase his value to the team. Naturally, it started with being more devoted to defense. What Summers discovered was that when he played harder on defense, his offense came easier.

On Sunday, he ruined Tennessee with his shooting. The Volunteers concentrated on bearing down on Lucas’s replacement, Korie Lucious, but the Spartans were able to swing the ball toward Summers, who stroked shot after shot. He made 4 of 6 3-pointers, the last one with 2 minutes 47 seconds remaining, giving the Spartans a 69-66 lead. It was Michigan State’s final field goal of the game, and Summers turned to the bench and saw Izzo wink at him as if the player and coach had arrived at the peak together.

“In the beginning, we didn’t understand each other as much,” Summers said. “We talked some things out. We had to. It was tournament time.

“He felt like there were some things I wasn’t doing up to my ability. I eventually saw that. We watched a lot of film together and discussed some things, and I acknowledged that and I have just been trying to be a different player, a different person.”

Michigan St. Is Starting To Get It At The Right Time

Michigan State is coming together at the right time after beating Maryland yesterday on a buzzer beater by backup point guard Korie Lucious. Coach Tom Izzo always seems to get his teams to play together and to take ownership of their team at the right time of the year. After a season of ups and downs and players not playing up to potential, the Spartans are starting to understand what Izzo has been urging all year long. This is from the Detroit Free Press:

Attached to the Michigan State locker room at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena is a small room with cement block walls and a black table against the far wall.

At halftime of the Spartans second-round game against Maryland on Sunday, point guard Kalin Lucas sat on that table, his left foot wrapped in ice. He had been told moments earlier that his Achilles tendon was likely torn, and tears rolled down his face.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo would later say that what happened next was one of his "prouder moments" as a coach. One by one, Lucas' teammates lined up to enter that small room. Among them was Korie Lucious, the 5-foot-11, sophomore guard who would become the team's primary ball-handler and director with Lucas out. He hugged Lucas and repeated what many of the Spartans had told the fallen guard: "I got your back. All us here got your back."

A half of basketball later, Lucious was on his back on the court, his teammates and even Sparty, the school's faux-muscled mascot, piled on top of him. Lucious' three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Spartans an 85-83 victory and the school's ninth trip to the Sweet 16 in the last 13 years. But, as Izzo and his players would say later, the team won not because of a single shot, but rather because all the players finally believed what they said to Lucas at halftime.

"It's no secret that if you put us in this situation three weeks ago, we wouldn't have won this game," said forward Draymond Green, whose three-pointer with 20 seconds left was part of a dramatic finish that included four baskets in the final 35 seconds, including two brave drives by Maryland's Greivis Vasquez, all of which could have been game-winners. "It was a matter of us becoming closer as teammates and better teammates to each other. With us doing that you can pull off games like this."

Any discord was buried deep in delirium, and why shouldn't it be?

College basketball remains the realm of the juvenescent, where teambuilding and maturity are not just catchwords. Every team, every kid is a work in progress, even one coached by Izzo, with his long history of driving the Spartans deep into the Dance.

"I don't wan to get too dramatic -- it is the [second round] of the NCAA tournament -- but where this win really ranks high is me having been telling this team a little bit about why you have got to be a better teammate and why you have togetherness," Izzo said.

Summers, the talented but at times undisciplined junior guard, scored 26 points, including 6-of-7 on three-pointers, but his finest moment came when he approached Izzo postgame. "I still got a long ways to go, Coach," he said, and his coach smiled.

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In reading an additional article on Sunday in the Detroit Free Press, Summers actually requested a one on one meeting with the coaching staff to clear his mind. Summers has been in Coach Izzo's 'doghouse' all year for not giving a full concentrated effort this year. Even Summers and his teammates admit he has not been there mentally for much of the season. Here is the a little from the article:

"When a player initiates it, it's a big difference," assistant coach Mark Montgomery said. "Durrell wanted to get some things off his chest, off his mind. We sat down and talked about it. He wants to contribute. He knows he is more valuable on the court. His focus -- you could hear it in his voice. You can see it in his body language."

Montgomery said Summers has been a different player since, in "practices, meetings, walk-throughs." He did not have a great game against New Mexico State, missing 10 of 15 shots after a hot start. But as Montgomery said, "he was taking the ball aggressive to the basket, trying to draw contact. He acknowledged coaching. He acknowledged what Coach Izzo was saying. When your head is clear, you hear and think clearly."

Summers said his only real request of the coaches was to "just keep coaching me the way they have," which was like asking a rattlesnake to bite the exact same spot. Summers has not been a very coachable player this season. And maybe that's why he called the meeting: He wanted Izzo to know he still wanted to be coached.

Players Coaching Themselves

Good article in the Detroit Free Press on Michigan St. forward Draymond Green. Green is one of head coach Tom Izzo's favorite players because of his willingness to take constructive criticism and be a coach on the floor to his teammates. Green, who is only a sophomore, was given the position of captain by Izzo because of his leadership qualities. Here is a little from the article:

Izzo loves this because he wants players coaching themselves as much as coaches coaching them. Following the Spartans' quarterfinal loss in the Big Ten tournament last week, Izzo sat back in his seat at the postgame postmortem unabashedly beaming at Green's uncompromising assessment of the Spartans' difficulties.

"I've said this a lot, but it's still true," Izzo said. "It's about ownership -- players taking charge and assuming responsibility for their own destiny. Any coach wants players who obsess about winning more than anything else, and Draymond is one of those guys."

Sleepover could be a defining moment for Michigan State

This is an article from the Detroit Free Press about the Michigan State players taking ownership of their team by planning a team outing:

LANSING -- Folks at Michigan State usually have big smiles on their faces when they turn the calendar to March. After all, the Spartans have gone 54-21 during March under coach Tom Izzo since after the 1997-98 season.

Izzo was more excited to discuss what his team did in late February while meeting with the media Monday.

In past seasons, Izzo has come up with something out of the ordinary -- having players wear football pads or smashing game tapes -- that is looked back on as a defining moment in the year.

The players might have created their own defining moment this season Friday when they suggested having a team sleepover at the Breslin Center as a way of coming together before the most important time of year. It was their idea, and everyone -- including Izzo and his staff -- bought in.

The idea emerged from a discussion with players Raymar Morgan, Draymond Green, Isaiah Dahlman and Kalin Lucas while watching film comparing their first game against Purdue this season with film against the Boilermakers from the previous season.

"Like Raymar (Morgan) said, there was no sound on the film and you could see there was more communication and togetherness" on the tape from the previous season, Izzo said. "Draymond said, 'We gotta do something off the wall.' "

Green then suggested the sleepover, but not at someone's house. He wanted to have it on the main court. Student managers, equipment managers, the players and coaches all showed up.
They played video games, checkers, ate pizzas and then went to bed around 2 a.m. in sleeping bags on the hardwood.

"It was one for my book if I ever write one 20 years from now," Izzo said. "I've never seen anything like that. In my high school, we all lived so close together it was like having a sleepover every night.

"Kalin right away jumped up and said, 'Yeah, that's a great idea.' And Zeke (Dahlman) said, 'Yeah, we'll have a tournament of checkers and Xbox and ping-pong.'

"Was it good for us from a back standpoint? Probably not. Was it good for us from a rest standpoint? Probably not. Was it good for us from a togetherness standpoint? One of the great team-building events, and the best part is it goes back to my original thing I've believed in my whole career here: It was a player decision."

And while Izzo loves the fact that people around the department and campus feel excited at this time of year, he wants to make sure his team understands they have to do their part to build on the program's past success.

"I do think we have a good system in March," Izzo said. "I do think our managers get excited in March. They know they're going to have to work more hours and be in there more on film. But, the games are not won by me, the secretaries, the managers or anybody else.

"Players have to realize the respect they gain in March is earned by what they do and not by the guys that did it before them. That is maybe the one factor for this team -- there's a bit of entitlement."

Special Teams in Basketball

Here is an article from Tom Izzo called "Special Teams for Championship Teams"



As the head coach at Michigan State University, I have never hidden my fondness for the gridiron. Football and its strategies have always played a big part in my coaching philosophy. My best friend since childhood is Steve Mariucci (former 49ers and Lions head coach) and I find nothing more enjoyable than watching a "Green and White" victory on a fall Saturday at Spartan Stadium. Therefore, it seems only appropriate that one of the areas that I feel has led to the success of our championship program is and area emphasized by all great football teams. Hall of Fame coaches , from Vince Lombardi to Mike Ditka, have all stressed the importance and impact that "Special Teams" have on the outcome of battles waged on the football field. In the Michigan State basketball program, we firmly believe that our "Special Teams" have been a key ingredient in our four consecutive Big Ten titles, three consecutive Final Four appearances, and the 2000 National Championship.



Knowing that so many games are decided by six points or less, and that the majority of NCAA Tournament games are decided by even less, we decided to focus on five areas that would make up our "Special Teams." It is our goal to have our "Special Teams" produce fifteen to twenty points per game. If we can achieve this goal, close games can become very comfortable wins and, more importantly, devastating losses can be turned into exciting victories.



The Five Areas of Our "Special Teams" are:



1. Jump ball situations

2. BOB's

3. SOB's

4. Free throw situations

5. After time-out plays.



Jump Ball- Get the Game Started Right


We want to set the tone and tempo of the game from the opening tip. Our scouting report will cover if we can control the tip or, if we lose the tip, which direction our opponent tends to tip the ball. For example, if we feel that we cannot win the tip and our opponent consistently tips the ball to the backcourt, then we will set up a play to steal the tip and run a set action in order to get a high percentage shot immediately. Our mindset is to begin every game in the "attack mode" and score our first basket before the defense has time to set up. You would be surprised at how many times a defense can be caught off guard on the very first possession of the game. If you can control the tip, I would suggest coming up with two different quick hitters your team can run and feels confident in. We end every game-day shoot around executing our tip play, always concluding the practice on a made basket. It's great for a team's confidence to know that they have a plan to start every game with a quick lead.



Baseline Out of Bounds- Attack When They Relax


We take great pride in scoring on what we call our "BLOBS" (baseline out-of-bounds). You will be pleasantly surprised at how many baskets you will score if your team develops the mentality that they have a great offensive advantage when taking the ball out along the baseline. We work on our BLOBS every day, spending ten minutes of practice time. We execute our BLOBS at game speed, calling out which option we want the shot coming from. We will also scrimmage live on BLOBS, with each team getting five opportunities to score. Again, we constantly emphasize how important this aspect of the game is to our team's success. In many cases we will put in special plays for each opponent. If our opponent had a difficult time guarding a BLOB in their previous game, we may "steel" that play and put it in for that specific game. One thing we always do in this situation is review that play on game day and inform our players that we will run that BLOB on the first out-of-bounds opportunity.

Sideline Out of Bounds- Get an Open Three

Many teams' main objective in their sideline out-of-bounds is tto get the ball into play safely. Again we differ in this philosophy because we want to use every potential scoring opportunity to attack the defense in a situation that they might not spend a lot of practice time on. At Michigan State, we try to run our variety of SLOBS to get a quick, open three-point shot. Many teams defend SLOBS by flattening their defense and we have found great success in screening this defensive set and bringing our shooters to an open area for a high-percentage three-point shot. SLOBS are a great time to catch the defense relaxing and reward your offensive executions with a great-looking shot from the three-point line.

Free Throw Situations- Truning a Miss into Points

A main emphasis in our championship program has been on dominating our offensive backboards. In many games, our best offense has been the missed shot. Obviously, it would be great if our team never missed a free throw, but since even the best teams only shoot 75 percent from the free throw line, we decided to also emphasize attacking the offensive glass during a free throw situation. I'm sure every coach can recall a game that was won or lost on an offensive put back off a missed free throw. Although there are many different techniques or actions you could use to attack the glass on free throw situations, the most important point is that you get your players to go to the boards and go hard. Just like the chart we use to determine the percentage of how often we go to the offensive boards in our offensive sets, we also use the same chart for our free throw situations.

After Time-Out Plays- Execution and Discipline

There may be nothing more frustrating for a coach than to call or diagram a play during a time-out only to have it improperly executed on the floor. To combat this problem and to increase the focus and execution of our after-time-out plays, we will periodically call time-out during practice to diagram and set up a play. We will do this at any time during practice, during a drill, after sprints, or even when the team is shooting free throws. The players grow accustomed to increasing their concentration and executing a play during this important time.

Focus, work ethic sends Michigan State to Final Four

Big time performance from Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans yesterday in their 64-52 win over top seeded Louisville. I posted last week about how Coach Izzo stated that he thought his team was starting to 'get it' in terms of how to be winners. A couple of articles from espn.com and the Detroit Free Press show the mental preparation that the Spartans took into Sunday. According to the coach and players the victory started at their shootaround yesterday morning:

At 10 Sunday morning, the Michigan State basketball team reported for its walkthrough in a basement ballroom of the downtown Hilton.

What the Spartans showed their coach in that room was a monumental focus on the mission to reach the Final Four in their home state.

"They were locked in like they were in the army," Tom Izzo marveled. "I felt like saluting them.
"I went from worrying about things to leaving there saying, 'We're going to win the game.'"

Said freshman Draymond Green:

“We had a walk-through this morning,” freshman Draymond Green said. “Coach told us, ‘I can see it in somebody’s eyes when they’re ready, and I think they’re ready to play.’ And he could see it when we walked through the door before the walk-through, that we were gonna win this game.”

Senior captain Travis Walton was instrumental in helping his team gain the right mindset going into the game. His leadership has been noted in this blog before and continues to impress me everytime I read something on him:

Credit for taking Louisville forward Terrance Williams out of the game goes largely to Walton, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Despite giving away 6 inches, the rugged senior guard declared to his coaches Friday night, "I got Williams."

"The job he did on Williams was incredible," Izzo said.

If the Spartans had lost, he would have become the only four-year player in the Izzo Era not to have reached a Final Four -- a streak he did not want to see end on his watch. Michigan State staffers said Walton single-handedly demanded that his teammates approach this game with total focus.

"I had pressure," Walton said. "Seniors had pressure. Our underclassmen had pressure to deliver this last class and get them to the Final Four so Coach can go on the road, anywhere he goes, and say ... 'You know what, I know you watched the Final Four on TV, I know you dream about going there. If you come to Michigan State University ... we're going to get you to a Final Four.'

"And now he can say that to every person, look them in the eyes and not have to say, 'There was one player I did not get [to the Final Four].' ... Thank you, Coach, and our coaching staff."

Izzo thinks Spartans are 'starting to get it'

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo is happy about the way his team is playing:

"I've been seeing little things over the past week that's telling me that maybe they're starting to get it."

As this article in the Detroit Free Press states, nothing pleases a coach more than the players "taking ownership" of their tournament destiny:

"I've always maintained that you must have players coach themselves," Izzo said. "That was what stood out about the great teams we had here in the past. They didn't have to worry about me yelling at them, because it got to a point where Mateen (Cleaves) or Antonio (Smith) would do it. They have to police themselves, keep themselves in check."

During practice last Tuesday, Izzo was unusually quiet. The players knew he was upset with their poor performance days earlier in the Big Ten tournament. They expected the customary chorus from the four-letter aria. But Izzo merely observed. And that made the players angry.

Had he given up on them?

Had he figure what's the use?

But that was Izzo's plan: to see how the players would respond.

He got the reaction he sought. The players were the vocal ones, calling out one another for a blown defensive assignment. The normally soft-spoken Kalin Lucas upbraided senior captain

Travis Walton for not being in the right spot in an offensive set.

The players were more vocal in the huddle during time-outs against the Trojans. They didn't wait to be asked for input. Lucas told teammates that he would get them the ball where they needed it -- and they had better stick the shot!

"It was fun to see Kalin," Izzo said. "He really went at some people. He kept saying, 'Let me have the ball, and I'll get people a basket.' That was the first real time he's kind of talked like that. He wanted it. That was a big plus."

Walton gave Chris Allen a verbal lashing following a lazy pass that resulted in an easy USC lay-up in the second half that seemingly shifted the momentum in the Trojans' favor.

"This was one of our best communicating games," Walton said. "We were constantly talking about where we needed to be. And what needed to be done. Coach would still get on us, but there were times when he didn't have to because we were getting on each other about not making mistakes."

After his poor pass, Allen returned to the bench and wrapped his arm around Izzo, assuring him that he got the message.

"We're starting to gain more confidence in each other," Allen said. "We can say what needs to be said to each other because we're all committed to winning."

The Maturation of a Point Guard

Article this morning in the Detroit Free Press on the developing leadership of Michigan St. point guard Kalin Lucas, who coach Tom Izzo says could be one of the best he has every had. It is a great article about the coach and the point guard being on the same page. Here is a portion of it:

It was the spring of 2008 when Izzo caught the first glimpse that his young guard might be for real. Michigan State was playing rival Wisconsin in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis. The game was tied. Thirty seconds were left. Lucas had the ball.

As he tried to pass, a defender slipped in, swiped it and raced to the other end for a lay-up. MSU lost by two. When the team reached the tunnel as it walked off the court, Lucas began howling:

"It's my fault. It's my fault." He collapsed as he stumbled into the locker room, sobbing.

"I had never seen that from Kalin," Izzo recalled. "Ever."

It was painful. It was enlightening. And he considered it Lucas' first defining moment.

Last week was the second.

MSU was playing Penn State at home. As in the Wisconsin game the year before, the Spartans had blown a big lead. Again, Lucas had the ball at the end. He was on the free-throw line. Twelve seconds were left. MSU trailed by a point.

Lucas missed a free throw to tie it. MSU lost. In the locker room, Lucas broke down, but not in the guttural way he had in Indy. This time he was seething. Partly because he'd missed a crucial shot down the stretch and partly because he hadn't kept a promise to himself he'd made in December, after MSU lost to North Carolina by 30.

The night after that thrashing, he and roommate -- and teammate -- Durrell Summers went to dinner and promised each other they would never be embarrassed again as long as they were at MSU.

Penn State had won by only four, but something didn't feel right about the way it went down. The team lost its way during a 6-minute stretch late in the first half. Championships teams didn't do that. Or if they did, they made plays at the end.

Lucas spent the rest of that day and evening in knots. Finally, about midnight, he pulled out his cell phone and sent a text message to Izzo: "It will never happen again."

Izzo returned his text the next morning: "I want you to trust me."

The coach called it the second defining moment.

After the Carolina loss, the Spartans had ripped off 11 straight wins. Now it was time to respond again. Three days after the Penn State loss, MSU blitzed Minnesota by 29 points. The team did it without Lucas' jump shot.

"I don't have an answer for what happened," he said afterward.

But he didn't need one. A year ago, he might've sulked if he had a poor shooting night. Against Minnesota, however, he shrugged it off, helped shut down the Gophers' starting backcourt -- holding it to 2-for-13 shooting -- and kept feeding Summers, who dropped in threes from all over the court. His roommate scored 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting. And Lucas had helped make it happen.

Hard Work Paying Off

EAST LANSING, Mich. --

Kalin Lucas has practically lived in a gym at Michigan State recently, and he's found a home as a sensational scorer.

The lighting-quick guard continued his offensive surge, scoring 22 points to lead the Spartans (No. 12 ESPN/USA Today, No. 8 AP) to a 75-62 win over the defending national champion Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday.

"Morning, noon and night, I've been coming in to get a lot of shots up," Lucas said. "I've just been shooting, shooting and shooting even before and after practice."

Spartans coach Tom Izzo is pleased the hard work has paid off.

"It's always fun when guys put something into it and get something out of it," Izzo said. "If he continues to grow, he's going to put himself in a good position and us, too."

Leadership at the Point Guard

From Sports Illusrated:

If there is one point coach Tom Izzo wants to get across to Kalin Lucas, his sophomore guard, it's that the 6-foot dynamo-who Izzo says is the quickest player he has ever coached- has to become a better leader if the Spartans are to reach their potential this season. "I harp on it no more than 50 times a day," says Izzo, who wants to see him become more vocal on and off the court.

Lucas is getting the message. When he wasn't working on his outside shot or getting to know his teammates better this summer, Lucas was studying game film "so when I talk to guys, I know what I'm talking about."