Legends congratulate Michigan State's Tom Izzo after breaking Bob Knight's record
02/16/2025 12:23 PM
Michigan State basketball stumbled in Tom Izzo’s first chance to break Bob Knight’s record for Big Ten wins earlier in the week, but the Spartans didn’t give away a second chance on Saturday. Michigan State walked into Illinois and picked up a massive 79-65 road win with an excellent second half on the defensive end, giving Izzo his 354th win in conference play to break the record.
After the game, plenty of coaching legends and some of the biggest figures in college basketball congratulated Izzo in a video posted by the team on social media.
SECOND TO NONE. pic.twitter.com/nRNoDV4Nme
— Michigan State Men’s Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) February 16, 2025
It’s great to see some of the biggest names, current and former, come together to honor a legend of the sport who is still coaching at a very high level.
Izzo’s defensive wizardry was on full display on Saturday night against an explosive Illinois offense. After the Illini torched the Spartans in the first half, Michigan State held them to just 24 second half points to run away with the game. Illinois scored their final basket of the game with 8:29 remaining to take a 65-64 lead, and Izzo’s club closed the game on a 15-0 run from there.
If this Michigan State basketball team can bring that kind of defensive intensity for 40 minutes a night through the rest of the season, there’s no question that they can compete for a Big Ten Championship and make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. The Spartans have one of the best defenses in the country and that was on full display in the big win.
It’s somewhat unfortunate that Izzo didn’t get to break this record in front of his home fans in East Lansing after Indiana pulled off a stunning upset earlier in the week. However, this record is a culmination of plenty of great coaching jobs done by one of the best ever. If he can keep going at this rate, it doesn’t look like Izzo is going to be done winning Big Ten games anytime soon.
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