Tom Izzo How Good Is He?

[Uconn92387]

I like Tom Izzo I think he's a good coach and I also respect the hell out of Mich St. With that said if you look at his coaching in big games he kind of comes up short. His only title was 16 years ago in 2000. He's been to 7 final fours. Out of those 7 only 2 championship game appearances and 5 losses in semi-final games. So how good is he?

 

[James]

he's a legendary coach , a hall of famer... the guy hasn't missed the tournament since 98. he hasn't had a bad season since his first.

 

[Yankees32123]

He's the 2nd best coach in the country behind K. So yeah, he's very good.

 

[superjohn]

He's great, needs that second title to pad his resume though. They are always there but have been steamrolled in a few big games.

 

[BUConn10]

He's no Jim Calhoun that's for sure.

 

[80shusky]

Tom Izzo is a great coach. It's hard to win national championships. If it wasn't Squid would win one every year with the talent he has.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

It's easy as a UConn fan to forget how difficult it is to win a national championship. We've been EXTREMELY fortunate.
Tom Izzo is a legendary coach.

 

[MexicoHusky]

My beef with Izzo is his style of play. I don't know if he's bad at coaching guards or he just can't recruit high level guard play. But he's always trying to run offense with bigger slower players. Get some speed and ball handling.

 

[Tenspro2002]

He gets more teams to the Final Four than you would expect based on their seeding. We denied him another in 2014.

That said, it begs the question: are his teams actually "Final Four" good and they just underperform during the regular season, or does he truly get merely decent teams to overachieve in March?

 

[champs99and04]

He's the 2nd best coach in the country behind K. So yeah, he's very good.

No he's not. He's pretty clearly behind Pitino, IMO. I think he's about on par with somebody like Boeheim.

 

[Devland]

No he's not. He's pretty clearly behind Pitino, IMO. I think he's about on par with somebody like Boeheim.

That low?

 

[mauconnfan]

No he's not. He's pretty clearly behind Pitino, IMO. I think he's about on par with somebody like Boeheim.

Nah he's a better coach than Boeheim and fairly easily. Not sure as you said, #2 or not. But clearly he's a Top 5 guy for those still coaching and can be thrown in with Pitino as 2,3.

 

[Paesano]

Boeheim and Pitino have had way more talent to work with. Boeheim sucks compared to Izzo. Pitino has done more with better players. They are probably pretty even as coaches. As human beings it isn't even close. Pitino is a cheating snake. Izzo does it the right way. Unfortunately, the right way doesn't win a lot of championships unless you are Calhoun. What we witnessed was miraculous. It was probably the nuns....

 

[MexicoHusky]

I always liked what KO said in the post game after beating MSU. He was asked about matching up with such a tough physical team like MSU. His reaponse was freakin' awesome. Something along the lines of, were tough too. But mentally tough. It's not a wrestling match. It's basketball.


I sometimes feel Izzo is more concerned about playing physical than he is about playing basketball. The last sentence is me...not KO

 

[champs99and04]

Nah he's a better coach than Boeheim and fairly easily. Not sure as you said, #2 or not. But clearly he's a Top 5 guy for those still coaching and can be thrown in with Pitino as 2,3.

If you compare Izzo's resume to Boeheim's the last decade and a half, they are not much different. Izzo has a couple more final fours, but Boeheim's teams, at least recently, have struck me as better overall.

Izzo 'does more with less' is a bit oversold. He gets players. Not McDonald's all-Americans, necessarily, but Boeheim doesn't get that many either.

 

[champs99and04]

Boeheim and Pitino have had way more talent to work with. Boeheim sucks compared to Izzo. Pitino has done more with better players. They are probably pretty even as coaches. As human beings it isn't even close. Pitino is a cheating snake. Izzo does it the right way. Unfortunately, the right way doesn't win a lot of championships unless you are Calhoun. What we witnessed was miraculous. It was probably the nuns....

Why do you say Pitino has had way more talent? Maybe when he was at Kentucky, since he's been at Louisville it's been a pretty similar approach to Izzo.

 

[mauconnfan]

Why do you say Pitino has had way more talent? Maybe when he was at Kentucky, since he's been at Louisville it's been a pretty similar approach to Izzo.

Pitino has done great with some less than heralded players much like JC. Maybe not as many or as much but at least similar.

Boeheim has consistently gotten better players than most and has done less with them throughout his career. Some of his best years in the Big East was while teams like UConn, Seton Hall and Nova were finding themselves and thereafter, while the Cuse was still good, he didn't win as much as the better coaches found a way to beat him. He's one of the greats on record alone but not even Top 10 in my mind.

 

[BUConn10]

I'm also in the Pitino > Izzo camp

 

[superjohn]

If you compare Izzo's resume to Boeheim's the last decade and a half, they are not much different. Izzo has a couple more final fours, but Boeheim's teams, at least recently, have struck me as better overall.

Izzo 'does more with less' is a bit oversold. He gets players. Not McDonald's all-Americans, necessarily, but Boeheim doesn't get that many either.

The Izzo doesn't get talent thing is nonsense, he doesn't get talent like K and Cal but he has had more McDonald's all-americans than Calhoun had in his whole career. Also, Pitino is clearly ahead of Izzo.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Saying a guy isn't a great coach because he has too many losses in the final 4...WHAT?!? Counter-intuitive

 

[JSB60]

I think Izzo is an excellent coach, but Pitino is better. Pitino has had great players, but his Providence Final Four team might have been the least talented I've ever seen.

 

[Waquoit]

I'm also in the Pitino > Izzo camp

Right, and it's not close.

 

[CallMeBruce]

I like Tom Izzo I think he's a good coach and I also respect the hell out of Mich St. With that said if you look at his coaching in big games he kind of comes up short. His only title was 16 years ago in 2000. He's been to 7 final fours. Out of those 7 only 2 championship game appearances and 5 losses in semi-final games. So how good is he?

"He's been to too many final fours" is a new one.

 

[Brochacho]

"He's been to too many final fours" is a new one.

Just recycled from the "UConn is a better program than Kansas" posts, no?

 

[JonnyRI]

"He's been to too many final fours" is a new one.

Like the line from Major League (when I think the Yankees were crushing homers off them mid season):

"Too far? How would it be too far?"