Quick Case Study: Tom Izzo Coaching Terribly This Year

[DOM_Toretto]

Been saying this all season, gotta give Izzo credit for finally getting the best players in the country, but he has no clue how to use them. He’s wasting this talent and it’s a sin.

Lets do do a little case study of 4 high profile games that went down to the wire yesterday; how deep they played and the minutes logged by their starting 5:

DUKE
8 deep
40, 40, 34, 34, 32
ST. JOHN’S
8 deep
40, 38, 37, 37, 22

MINNESOTA (OT)
7 deep
45, 39, 36, 34, 32
MICHIGAN (OT)
9 deep
43, 42, 39, 36, 28

OKLAHOMA
9 deep
40, 36, 31, 28, 27
TEXAS
7 deep
39, 38, 35, 35, 32

MICHIGAN STATE
11 deep
33, 31, 27, 25, 19
INDIANA
9 deep
37, 35, 31, 29, 26

5 players in this short sample size played the entire game. Izzo hasn’t let a player do that all season long.

Smart coaches - especially ones with elite talent - let their best players play, and go 7 or 8 deep with usually only 1 bench player in double digit minutes. 18 year olds do not really need breathers, that’s what free throws, timeouts, half time, and tv timeouts are for.

MSU has 3 McDonald’s All Americans - only team in the country with more is Duke. Izzo decided to have 4 bench players on the court together late in the 2H when it was crunch time, and he sat Jaren Jackson for most of the 2nd half (only 1 personal foul) only to finally let him back in with under 30 seconds left. Jaren Jackson! Projected lottery pick in this year’s NBA draft. Projected to break the MSU all time block record. And Izzos been doing shit like this all season long. WHY?!?!?

[Heltah Skeltah]

Izzo will have his guys ready come tournament time..he always does. Gotta think he is giving some bench guys minutes in hopes to have a deeper bench if need be in the tourny. No need to go all out in regular season. Only thing that matters is in March

[jjgold]

But he’s winning that’s all you need to know

[Bostongambler]

On the hot seat for all the sex shit that went on there.

[Cougar Bait]

He's already said in interviews he is totally distracted by everything going on with the sex stuff - I can't remember the exact words but something like "I feel bad game planning, like I'm being selfish preparing." Something like that anyway.

Come tourney time MSU will be ready.

[The Hat]

Does this have anything to do with Sparty not covering the spread like you think they should?

Tell me this, how many TEAMS can go 22-3 and manage to play 11 players each game??

Izzo knows EXACTLY what he's doing

[KRIT]

Having too much talent can backfire, you never want to go more than 9 deep in basketball. Players need to play to get in a rhythm. Sparty needs to cut the rotation down. Same goes for Xavier, they play like 10 or 11 deep, it's crazy. While they may have 10-11 solid players, you are taking away minutes from some great players.

[The Hat]

probably see it trimmed down some once Tourney play starts. Those 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th players are being evaluated for reliablity

[DOM_Toretto]

Like clockwork, 6 mins into game at Iowa and MSU is already 9 deep. Izzo put 4 bench players on the court after the 1st media timeout. Makes sense. Bench the top 5 NBA lottery pick Jackson, the preseason national POY Bridges, the point guard Winston and Ward.

Watching the lead disappear right now...
OKAY

[DOM_Toretto]

10 players deep in the 1st half. Unreal. No other coach in the top 25 would do that.

[2daBank]

Izzo will have his guys ready come tournament time..he always does. Gotta think he is giving some bench guys minutes in hopes to have a deeper bench if need be in the tourny. No need to go all out in regular season. Only thing that matters is in March

Exactly. Proof in the pudding and izzo has made some incredible tourney runs with teams not exactly stacked with talent. How anyone can criticize what he does in regular season beyond me. If I had to guess OP bitter cause he laying far to many points on sparty in meaningless regular season games. Sounds like sour grapes. Guy has earned benefit of the doubt where we should all assume these decisions are for the greater good of reaching the ultimate goal!! Could it be just maybe izzo more interested in hanging banners than covering spreads?

[2daBank]

10 players deep in the 1st half. Unreal. No other coach in the top 25 would do that.

How many of those coaches have taken more teams to final 4s??

[DOM_Toretto]

How many of those coaches have taken more teams to final 4s??

Banker I thought you were smarter than this...

Izzo has done a tremendous job overachieving with lesser talent. But he’s got his head in his ass this season and has no clue how to manage top talent.

Take this game for example. I have $0 on it, by the way. But this asshole coach was just bitching about Bridges at halftime and said he probably played Miles too much - Bridges is 5/8 with 15/3/3 in the 1st half! Why not play him all 20 min?!


Bill Self has played Graham all 40 mins for 5 straight games. Izzo has 4 starters better than Graham (& certainly higher recruits than Graham was) and hasn’t let a player play 40min not once this season.

[JJJ]

big game on Saturday against purdue....... we will see if Tom gets his team to the final 4 this year if he does not than horrible coaching job

[DOM_Toretto]

The point is, he’s detrimental to the team.

Izzo’s never had a squad like this with such a huge difference in talent from the starters vs the bench.

He routinely gives up leads with his hockey line changes. The starters don’t get to play together and build that chemistry that they should have.

[2daBank]

Banker I thought you were smarter than this...

Izzo has done a tremendous job overachieving with lesser talent. But he’s got his head in his ass this season and has no clue how to manage top talent.

Take this game for example. I have $0 on it, by the way. But this asshole coach was just bitching about Bridges at halftime and said he probably played Miles too much - Bridges is 5/8 with 15/3/3 in the 1st half! Why not play him all 20 min?!


Bill Self has played Graham all 40 mins for 5 straight games. Izzo has 4 starters better than Graham (& certainly higher recruits than Graham was) and hasn’t let a player play 40min not once this season.

I'm smarter than most. Seems you missing the point. Playing his best players a bunch of minutes is doing his teams championship aspirations no favors. I can't fukkin believe you rather he was more like bill self?!??!? Seriously? I'm not gonna bother looking this up but feel free to tell me izzo postseason record vs selfs, I gonna go out on a limb and say it beyond laughable, self is mister great reg season gone by sweet 16!! Can't believe you had the balls to say "look at bill self"!! I'm
Looking and it hilarious!!

[DOM_Toretto]

I'm smarter than most. Seems you missing the point. Playing his best players a bunch of minutes is doing his teams championship aspirations no favors. I can't fukkin believe you rather he was more like bill self?!??!? Seriously? I'm not gonna bother looking this up but feel free to tell me izzo postseason record vs selfs, I gonna go out on a limb and say it beyond laughable, self is mister great reg season gone by sweet 16!! Can't believe you had the balls to say "look at bill self"!! I'm
Looking and it hilarious!!

A) they have same number of national titles
B) see above re:minutes. Coach K. Shaka Smart. Lon Krueger. John Beilein. That’s just the sample size... if you look at just Coach K and other HOF coaches, nobody is doing what Izzo is doing and ESPECIALLY not with 3 McDonald’s All Americans / Preseason National POY / Multiple NBA lottery picks.

[2daBank]

I'm sure self has more high seed early exits no? You can't honestly tell me with a straight face you rather have self?? Unless of course izzo was in know about the raping,