A Vote for Izzo

• Prescott

  Michigan St.'s Tom Izzo is college basketball's best coach, bar none
  
  • Overall, Izzo is now 35-11 in the NCAA tournament, a .761 winning percentage that places him snugly between Coach K and Williams in second place for all active coaches.
  
  • He's now 16-3 on the second day of an NCAA tournament weekend and 6-1 in Elite Eight games, making him a better closer than Mariano Rivera.
  
  • He can do it as the chalk or as the dog. All three times Izzo's team was a No. 1 seed, it made the Final Four. This is the second time he's done it as a 5-seed.
  
  Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/andy_glockner/03/30/tom.izzo/index.html?eref=sihp#ixzz0jgRoXa0W
• UA5straightin2008

  

  http://www.ohiochatter.com/Thread-Tom-Izzo
• KobeStopper

  • He's now 16-3 on the second day of an NCAA tournament weekend and 6-1 in Elite Eight games, making him a better closer than Mariano Rivera.

  I'm not a Duke fan (WVU will roll the Blue Devils on Saturday), but this is absurd. If Tom Izzo is Mariano Rivera, then Coach K is Jesus of Nazareth.
  
  Krzyzewski is 11-1 in NCAA regional final games and 10% of his overall career games coached have come in the NCAA Tournament.
  
  Tom Izzo is a wonderful coach, but he is in no way, shape or form bar none the best coach in the game. Neither is Krzyzewski, but that's my point.
• sleeper

  

  I still think he's the best coach in the game and if we wins the ship this year, GOAT. Well, 2nd GOAT.
• KobeStopper

  ^^Are you saying that Izzo would be ahead of Coach K, Bobby Knight, Adolf Rupp and Dean Smith as the all-time greatest college basketball coach if Izzo were to win the title this season?
  
  I'd be willing to bet that you actually have thought about eating a baby before.
• sleeper

  

  KobeStopper wrote: ^^Are you saying that Izzo would be ahead of Coach K, Bobby Knight, Adolf Rupp and Dean Smith as the all-time greatest college basketball coach if Izzo were to win the title this season?
  
  I'd be willing to bet that you actually have thought about eating a baby before.

  Without a doubt!
• gibby08

  

  Then you are the dumbest motherfucker to ever live on this earth sleeper
• SQ_Crazies

  

  Not the GOAT.
  
  But the best in the game right now IMO as well.
  
  Other guys have some nice records too, but no one does more with less.
• jhay78

  

  SQ_Crazies wrote: Not the GOAT.
  
  But the best in the game right now IMO as well.
  
  Other guys have some nice records too, but no one does more with less.

  +1
• Laley23

  

  Izzo would be ahead of Rupp imo, and arguably ahead of Wooden. Those guys did it when the tournament was like 4 teams and they didnt have to play a major conference school till the finals. I mean 11 championships is 11 championships, but no way UCLA does that in the modern era. The tourney was basically a given for the best team, they had to win like 2 games!
  
  As for Rupp, well lets just say blacks and leave it at that.
• Prescott

  Those guys did it when the tournament was like 4 teams and they didnt have to play a major conference school till the finals.

  What was a major conference then may not be a major conference now. The fact is that when it was smaller tournament only league champions qualified. Is it more difficult to win it all now?? Yes, but not necessarily because of the inclusion of more teams.What is the lowest seeded team ever to win an NCAA Tournament Championship? Villanova as an #8 seed in 1985??
  
  As it is now, the top seeds in each region get a virtual pass to the second round, making it a 32 team tournament. After that, it can get more competitive. I will agree that UCLA's path to the Final Four during the Wooden years was probably less difficult than the paths of the winners of the other regions. But, when UCLA got to the finals they took care of business, usually in a dominating manner.I don't see how you discount what John Wooden accomplished at UCLA.
• Laley23

  

  Im not discrediting it. In fact I was exaggerating, I think the tourney was 25 teams at that point. Im just stating that I DOUBT UCLA wins that many titles in todays game, even with Wooden, so I think Izzo and his accomplishments would be better than Woodens. Same way I think Knight and Ks accomplishments are better despite 8 less championships.
• Prescott

  Im just stating that I DOUBT UCLA wins that many titles in todays game, even with Wooden, so I think Izzo and his accomplishments would be better than Woodens.

  I would agree if Wooden's teams had not been so dominate in the Finals.5 different times UCLA won the championship game by 15 points or more.Two other championship were won by double digits.
  
  I should also mention that 6 of those championship teams were led by dominate big men, Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton.
  
  Your point is well made, but I disagree.
• SQ_Crazies

  

  I agree Laley.
• Laley23

  

  Prescott wrote:

  Im just stating that I DOUBT UCLA wins that many titles in todays game, even with Wooden, so I think Izzo and his accomplishments would be better than Woodens.

  I would agree if Wooden's teams had not been so dominate in the Finals.5 different times UCLA won the championship game by 15 points or more.Two other championship were won by double digits.
  
  I should also mention that 6 of those championship teams were led by dominate big men, Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton.
  
  Your point is well made, but I disagree.

  I think Walton and Alcinder would have been able to get it done, and I suppose since they were both from the West they would have chosen UCLA. I guess I just think with todays game, media exposure, amount of great programs and the travel of the tourney being more than a couple miles, and all the talent he got may have gone elsewhere. There is no denying what he accomplished though.
• Prescott

  Alcinder

  I believe Alcindor went to Power Memorial high school in NYC.
• SQ_Crazies

  

  Prescott wrote:

  Alcinder

  I believe Alcindor went to Power Memorial high school in NYC.

  Correct, they went like 75-2 or something while he was in high school.
• SQ_Crazies

  

  79-2 actually, just looked it up.
  
  Another tidbit I learned from looking that up--he weighed 12 lbs 10 ounces when he was born. I bet his mama was hurrrrrrrrrrrtin'! And his REAL first name is Ferdinand, didn't know that--might be useful for trivia someday. Can't blame him for goin' with Lew. Ferdinand Alcindor..lol
• Laley23

  

  Prescott wrote:

  Alcinder

  I believe Alcindor went to Power Memorial high school in NYC.

  didnt know that. Was under the impression he was from Cali. I guess that adds to my (quite possibly retarded assumption) that he wouldnt have gone to UCLA today all the way from NYC.
• TheMightyGators

  I think Izzo is a tremendous coach, and could be argued he's the best in the game today. I also think Bob Stoops is one of the best coaches in college football. Izzo now has 1 NC in 6 trips to the final four. Stoops is 1-3 in BCS NC games. Pretty similar, but a lot of people have completely different views on them. And getting to the final 4 isn't any tougher than getting into the BCS NC game, imo.
  
  Izzo=Stoops and that isn't a bad thing in my opinion.
• killer_ewok

  

  TheMightyGators wrote: I think Izzo is a tremendous coach, and could be argued he's the best in the game today. I also think Bob Stoops is one of the best coaches in college football. Izzo now has 1 NC in 6 trips to the final four. Stoops is 1-3 in BCS NC games. Pretty similar, but a lot of people have completely different views on them. And getting to the final 4 isn't any tougher than getting into the BCS NC game, imo.
  
  Izzo=Stoops and that isn't a bad thing in my opinion.

  Doug Gottlieb talked about that exact comparison on Mike and Mike in the Morning the other day. Izzo gets pats on the back and Stoops gets criticized like crazy even though they have similar resumes. The other point that was made was Stoops has to have his team at the top of their game at least 95% of the time just to get to the title game while Izzo's team just needs to be decent and then can get "hot" for a couple weeks to get to the title game and even then it's not a guarantee you're playing one of the top few teams in the country whereas it's a lock that you'll be playing one of the top 2 or 3 teams in the country in the BCS title game.
  
  It does make you think.
• Cleveland Buck

  

  Stoops is a great coach, and he doesn't really get criticized much. Tressel gets criticized with a better resume than Stoops, but most of the backlash about Stoops around here is from Buckeye fans trying to defend Tressel. As for comparing Izzo to Stoops, I think it is a fair comparison.
• killer_ewok

  

  Cleveland Buck wrote: Stoops is a great coach, and he doesn't really get criticized much. Tressel gets criticized with a better resume than Stoops, but most of the backlash about Stoops around here is from Buckeye fans trying to defend Tressel. As for comparing Izzo to Stoops, I think it is a fair comparison.

  I guess that depends on what your definition of "much" is. I think that Stoops has been criticized quite a bit over the last couple years. Maybe the media was late to the party but I think that his big game "aura" definitely took a serious hit in the eyes of the national media recently.
• Rebel_ I.N.S.

  

  Stoops isn't liked in the national media like Izzo is that why Izzo isn't thrown under the bus by the media & Stoops is.
• sleeper

  

  10 teams get BCS games each year, only 4 teams get to the final four.
  
  Izzo isn't Stoops, and you can take that to the bank.