Another Izzo-coached Michigan State team has Final Four potential

• The Spartans are tied in the Big Ten with the team they%27ll face Tuesday %u2014 the Hoosiers
• Opposing coaches aren%27t surprised that Tom Izzo-coached teams find late-season success
• Entering Big Ten play%2C Michigan State isn%27t always ranked in the top 10

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Tom Izzo sat in his office late last week, a few days removed from what he called his program's best win in three years. He was in a good mood, as one might expect from a coach after thoroughly beating his in-state rival, and he was feeling chatty.

The subject turned to Izzo himself and how his teams are so good — and so tough to beat — come February. How his teams nearly always compete for Big Ten championships even, in a season such as this one, where they are initially expected to take a back seat to Indiana and Michigan. The Spartans are 22-4 (11-2 Big Ten), tied with the team they'll face Tuesday night — the Hoosiers — atop the Big Ten standings.

Opposing coaches aren't surprised that Izzo-coached teams find late-season success; they've see it happen for years. They credit the coaching, the talent and the consistency within the program. Former players think the system is simply built for Big Ten success.

"One of the reasons people say we get better is because every Final Four we've been in, except one, I think we had the most losses (of Final Four teams)," Izzo said. "It's because of the scheduling. We build up the scheduling. Some years, it's been so brutal, it's scary. I've looked at the schedule when I do it, and I go, 'Oh, that sucks.' Then I look at it when it comes, and I'm like, 'What am I thinking?' Last year, we opened up with Duke and Carolina (which were both losses). I think that always puts you down a little bit off the bat.

"If we had played Northern Michigan and Eastern Michigan, we would have been ranked fifth, sixth, the whole time — like Michigan has, they've been a top five, seven team. Indiana has been that. You almost act like they aren't getting better. Maybe they are getting better, but you don't see it as easy as ours."

So, early-season losses are the key to late-season success?

"Our schedule, I don't think every year, but over time, it's been as good as anybody's in the nonconference," Izzo continued. "If we think we're better than we are, we get our brains beat in by somebody, and I don't have to coach it. It's kind of self-inflicted. That's one thing. It does give you somewhat of a barometer. Usually what I get, and the reason I do it, is I get teams from different conferences. Every conference plays a little differently. Some are softer and more athletic. Some are bigger, it seems like. Some are more athletic.

"I think that gives me a better view of what could happen in the tournament. … I might not play Texas in the tournament, but maybe I'll play Tennessee or Oklahoma who's played Texas and I can get an (idea). That's what's always worked for me."

This season, the Spartans opened their season with a four-point loss to Connecticut at military base in Germany. They came back to beat Kansas on a neutral site in Atlanta, but then fell to Miami later in November in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. Those losses kept the team off the nation's radar, but since the Miami loss, Michigan State has reeled off a pair of six-game winning streaks and is riding a five-game win streak heading into Tuesday's game against Indiana.

In the months of February and March, including the Big Ten tournament (but not the NCAA tournament), Izzo's career record is 126-65 (.660). Looking simply at the years his teams made the Final Four, his record in that span is 61-15 (.802). This season, the Spartans are 5-0 so far.

Another strategy Izzo uses involves Christmas; Izzo said he always uses Dec. 25 as a benchmark for the season. Get to Christmas, then evaluate. Where are we? What do we really need to work on? In the past, he'd take essentially the whole holiday week to work with his players, put them through the wringer of two-a-days and demanding practices. With the Big Ten season starting a little earlier now, that hasn't been the case lately. Still, Christmas is the right time to revisit the team's bigger picture.

"You can really work on what your weaknesses are, because by then you really know what your weaknesses are," he said.

Entering Big Ten play, Michigan State isn't always ranked in the top 10. The national conversation doesn't always include the Spartans. But, like last season where they began 0-2 then finished with a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, the Spartans do figure out how to get better. Former Michigan State star Mateen Cleaves, a member of the 2000 national championship team, said he likes it that way.

"You've got to earn your respect," Cleaves said. "That's how we do it here. Don't give us nothing. I like the way we do it, the old-fashioned way. It just works."

Said Michigan State President Lou Anna K. Simon: "It is a matter of getting the best out of people individually and getting the best out of people together. … Tom began the season believing we could win a national championship and another Big Ten championship, and that's what he told them. Their job together was to get there."

Simon said what she admires in Izzo is the blue-collar work ethic he brings to the program. He finds talented young men, and then he develops them as people and basketball players, she said.

Indeed, Izzo is quite adept at finding the right players for his system.

"His style of play is just made for Big Ten basketball — tough, physical, guards that rebound the basketball and bigs that want to pound you," said former Spartan Steve Smith, who played at Michigan State from 1987-91, when Izzo was an assistant there. Smith now works an analyst for NBA TV and the Big Ten Network. "They rebound, they push and they wear you down mentally. He keeps his teams so tough and focused on the prize.

"Tom's staff, they use the same blueprint. It kind of reminds me of the Miami Heat or the Boston Celtics with Doc Rivers. You can just plug guys into the same system you believe in. It's a simple system, but they just wear you down mentally with their toughness and always doing the little things."

Opposing Big Ten coaches agree, and both Indiana coach Tom Crean and Michigan coach John Beilein say they haven't been surprised by what Michigan State is doing this season. These coaches have all seen Keith Appling improve and the Spartans' frontcourt push people around. They've seen Branden Dawson return from his ACL injury and Gary Harris emerge as one of the league's top freshmen. But it's not just the players' skills that impress the other coaches.

"There's no shortage of talent," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "But when it comes down to playing Michigan State, it's mental toughness. They have great mental toughness. They're finding ways, and they're winning games while they're banged up. That's a great sign for their team heading into March."