DOTCOMP: We’ve Seen This Sweet Michigan State Movie 17 Times … Or Have We?

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Every time Michigan State makes the Sweet 16, I ask Tom Izzo if his latest is as sweet as they used to be. This time when I asked, he almost cried.

“Do they stop getting sweeter?” I asked.

“Nope. Nope,” Izzo said, outside the locker room after Michigan State’s on-brand 77-69 victory over Louisville in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament at KeyBank Center, Saturday. “Nope. Um …”

Then he looked to the floor, and his bottom lip pursed out, and his eyebrows tightened. A moment earlier he spoke happily about his 61st NCAA Tournament win. But this question must have given him flashbacks to the initial, improbable climb to his first one, in 1998.

“They’re all pretty good, huh?” I said.

Short pause. Then his head popped up, and so did his eyebrows with a smile that was more reflective than happy.

“Yeah,” he said.

Then he nodded and looked to the floor again.

“The Sweet 16s are … I guess those are a little bit separators,” he said. “I think getting in the tournament, we just kind of take that for granted at our place. And so do I. So I don’t blame anybody else.

“But you get to the Sweet 16, you’ve got to win two games. And winning two games now is different.

“So, no. The Sweet 16 is what it says. It’s sweet. It’s really sweet.”

Izzo is now officially making another run. When Izzo makes a run, a basketball nation notices. From Charles Barkley, to Dick Vitale, to Jay Bilas, and anyone else who has a note pad, microphone, or a ticket stub, they notice when Mr. Izzo has the Spartans Marching again. A nation has come to expect it, and predict it, and appreciate it. The pundits rarely forecast an early exit, and always anticipate a storybook climb.

“Izzo’s teams never under-achieve,” Barkley said to a panel of nodding heads last night.

A basketball nation knows we all have career arcs and lifespans. Now that Mike Krzyzewski has retired, Izzo has become the face, and soul, of college basketball. And he, like Coach K, can’t go on forever.

So we cherish these runs, as they begin, because they might remind us of when we were in elementary school and we fell in love with Mo Pete, or when we were in college and road tripped to Austin to watch Michigan State beat Duke and Kentucky in the same weekend, or when we sat next to a hospital bed as the Spartans provided one last splash of joy for a loved one. 

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When you’ve done it for 30-plus years, it spans generations. In 1998, when Izzo piloted the Spartans to his first Sweet 16 with a masterful victory over an excellent Princeton team, Izzo grabbed Mateen Cleaves at halfcourt just before the CBS cameras interviewed them, and he yelled in Mateen’s ear above the band music and crowd noise, “I told you we would get here. I TOLD you!”

Back then, the Sweet 16 was a major plateau for Michigan State, and Izzo. And judging by the held-back tears on Saturday night in Western New York, it still is.

When this one was cinched, Izzo stopped pacing the sidelines, and turned to his wife of 34 years, Lupe, and – with his eyes welling up – gave her a thumbs up and smile tight enough to keep his lips from quivering.

When this one was cinched, he didn’t remind his captains that he had promised that they would get here, like he did with Mateen. Izzo thanked his current leaders for mentoring his rookies and guiding them here. The captains expected this. This is their third Sweet 16 in four years. They shed no tears.

The captains’ parents were kids in 1998. Jeremy Fears’ father was 11-years-old when Izzo grabbed Cleaves and reminded him of his promise that day at the Hartford Civic Center.

In 1998, sitcoms ruled TV airwaves, Michael Jordan was still playing basketball, MTV was still a force, and Napster hadn’t yet ruined the music industry.

There was no Facebook, no YouTube, no smart phones, no social media. Obama was 37. Luka Dončić and Ja Morant weren’t born.

That’s how long a basketball nation – Hell, an entire nation – has known Tom Izzo and his Sweet 16s.

These were merely two wins in Buffalo, but they remind us of past campaigns, and make us wonder how high the ceiling is this time. We don’t know. There is mystery, which is the backbone of March Madness.

STORYLINES AND PLOT TWISTS

Each time Izzo makes a run, there are storylines, plot twists. There is character development; a little bit of triumph, a little bit of tragedy; good guys and bad guys. The latest volume is packed with all of them.

The plot twist: Trey Fort has had a rise, a fall, and a resurrection all in a matter of weeks.

The senior transfer was a starter at the beginning of the season. But he was too sloppy on defense to remain a starter. Then he fell out of the playing group. He didn’t play at all in two of the last four games of the regular season. It seemed Michigan State had moved on from him.

But he kept trying. You could see it in his face, whether he played four minutes in a game, or 10, or zero. I saw it in practice. Teammates saw it in the locker room, and in the film room.

In a world of entitlement, he apparently never showed any – which is especially shocking in a college basketball world lobotomized by the transfer portal. And that’s why Izzo grew to love Trey Fort, even if Izzo didn’t (yet) love his game. But that love affair has blossomed.

Fort has always had offensive punch, and the horsepower to rise and fire from medium-range, or dunk it almost any way you want it. But his lateral movement on defense isn’t great. He might not have been aware of that weakness before he came to Michigan State. Izzo needed him to get better in that area. Fort might not have gotten the complete message about it until he lost his starting job, and then started to lose minutes.

You can be a solid defender without having great lateral movement, if you become an expert on the scouting report, and major in film study. That’s been part of Fort’s process. He’s not an expert yet, but he has been doing his homework.

Respect earned.

Meanwhile, he lacked an understanding of how some of the basic principles of Michigan State’s defensive system fit. It has taken awhile. There was a time when coaches might have doubted that he would get it before the season ended. It took Jaden Akins more than a season. Maybe more than two seasons. There have been some Spartan players who never gained enough of a grasp of all the expectations and varied intricacies. And here we were expecting Fort to lock it down in five months.

Izzo could have accepted mediocre defense from Fort, played him the prescribed minutes, seen the attention to detail dwindle throughout the team, lose more games, get a worse seed, and lost in the first round. That’s the easy route.

Or you could hold him to the inconvenient standard, with the possibility that he never crawled back into the playing group. The decision was non-negotiable for Izzo.

“If you don’t guard at this time of year, you’re not going anywhere,” Izzo said.

Fort had the intelligence and character to gain an understanding and respect for the culture at Michigan State. He cranked up the effort and focus.

“What he’s done is he’s become a much, much, much better defensive player,” Izzo said.

Away from the ball, he’s no longer late when chasing a cutter. He’s down in his stance, better at anticipating movements, eyes in the right place, reacting on time, and chasing with desperation.

“Doug (Wojcik) has continuously prodded me to stick with him,” Izzo said of his lead assistant, who is despot when it comes to defensive commandments. “So has Jeremy (Fears) and so has Coen (Carr) and so has Coop (Carson Cooper).”

That’s why they have all gone nuts to watch Fort’s offensive surge come in the past three games, cresting with a three huge 3-pointers and 12 pivotal points against Louisville on Saturday. And then when others who had taken minutes from Fort in recent months had trouble taking care of the ball (Jordan Scott) or had given up a pair of 3-pointers on defense (Kur Teng), the job trickled down into Fort’s hands. And this time, his hands were capable.

I swear some coaches can’t feel the hearts of their players. But Izzo can. As frustrated as he was with Fort’s remedial defense in previous weeks, he was equally touched to see Fort finally, heroically, experience Saturday’s storybook success.

“This is tear-jerking for me because I’m watching guys grow in front of me like it’s supposed to happen,” Izzo said.

That partly explains the wells of emotion. It wasn’t just about the Sweet 16. It was about the sugar along the way.

A FULL-BLOWN ACTION HERO

The character development: Coen Carr has been previously cast – not by his own choosing or Izzo’s – in a supporting role. He’s been a wildly entertaining supporting specimen, but a support player nonetheless.

Against Louisville, Carr became a full-blown action hero. There were the usual dunks. But he hit the boards hungrier than ever. March can do that to you, when you play for Izzo. Carr had a career-high 10 rebounds, and recorded his first double-double.

He’s not a reliable shooter, but he’s smart and selective. He canned two 3-pointers in this game, because, well, the action hero had to.

Izzo and his braintrust devised gadgets and gimmicks for Carr to soar and finish an alley-oop dunk which may have looked like a garden variety Carr alley-oop but was actually disguised as an alley-oop for Cooper. And when the Louisville defense collapsed toward Cooper during a screen-and-roll down the lane, Carr came in behind the crowd from the baseline and finished the dunk for a 40-33 lead early in the first half.

We saw that screen-and-roll decoy action again with 7:42 left. Louisville was a little wiser to it this time, but Carr received the pass from Jeremy Fears in deep, and finished in traffic from four feet while being fouled. Carr’s finished the 3-point play with a free throw, making it 58-50, providing a major push for the Spartans.

Izzo called on Carr to be a defensive stopper against Louisville’s formidable power guard, Ryan Conwell. Conwell managed to score 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting. But when Carr was on him, Carr made it difficult.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for those (Louisville) guards,” Izzo said. “I thought we did a hell of a job to kind of keep them contained for most of the day.”

But there was that time Conwell got loose for a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 63-53 with 5:10 left, just when it looked like Michigan State was gaining some separation.

“Coen!” Izzo yelled. “Trail! Trail!”

Carr was supposed to trail Conwell through the screens, and not get picked.

“Trail!” Izzo yelled again as the Spartans got back on defense.

Then there was a stoppage in play.

“Get over here!” Izzo yelled to Carr.

“You were supposed to trail!” Izzo said.

“I was trailing, coach,” Carr yelled back. “I was trailing!”

There was no time for Carr to explain how he got picked off and Conwell gained separation.

Izzo drew Carr close, put a hand on each side of Carr’s face, like Pacino did with Fredo. But instead of issuing a death sentence, The Tomfather trusted Carr’s words as truth.

“I really did,” Izzo said. “And even though I knew it was wrong, I accepted it because he played so damn good and got all those rebounds.”

Izzo smiled love into Carr’s eyes and sent him back onto the court, knowing the intentions were pure and that it wouldn’t happen again.

“The hands to his cheeks?” Izzo said, when asked about the Pacino moment. “That was my way of giving him a hug.”

Very next possession, Carr hit that 3-pointer from the left corner to make it 66-53 with 4:41 left. Carr trotted past the Michigan State bench. Izzo held out a hand. Carr slapped him five. 

YOU COULD SENSE A FEEL-GOOD ENDING

A little bit of triumph: Handling North Dakota State, and then surviving the elbows, body blows, forearm shivers of a Louisville team that was thick and bent on matching and exceeding Michigan State’s reputation as a physical bully was wrought with accomplishment.

Carson Cooper’s nose was bloodied in the first five minutes. Both he and Jaxon Kohler were visibly more gassed than usual just 12 minutes into the game. Cooper was clubbed twice on the back of the neck by strikes that would be illegal in a cage fight. But his will only grew stronger. And so did Kohler’s.

Kohler took a knock to the noggin and hit two free throws after the striped authorities finally cracked down on crime and issued a flagrant two foul to the Cardinals.

On the ensuing possession, Izzo’s offensive coordinator Jon Boravich dialed up a staggered horns screen-and-slip (with Cooper slipping down the lane), followed by Kohler picking and popping at the top of the key. Louisville’s harried defense had to guard Cooper on the slip, and then had to thwart Fears coming off Kohler’s hard screen.

Louisville had to use three men to account for Cooper and Fears on that action. But the Cardinals couldn’t get back out to Kohler in time. He busted a 3-pointer from the top of the key on the simple pick-and-pop portion of the play. That made it 63-50 with 6:33 left, and this thing gained the pulses of a feel-good ending. 

BLIND, NORMAL, CRAZY?

A little bit of tragedy: This would take place in the Louisville locker room. One team had to lose everything in order for the Spartans to feel the joy of advancing. That’s what makes this tournament different than all the pro sports. There is no “next year” for Conwell and the Cardinal seniors.

“These postgame speeches to your team are the ones that you dread the most,” said Louisville coach Pat Kelsey, “especially talking to your team for the last time. I told them that’s the last time that this group will be together in one place, probably forever, and it’s hard because a season’s a lifetime. You go through so much together. You fight together. And we fought.”

And the good guys and bad guys: If you’re a Spartan fan and a believer in the Izzo doctrine, the lines are clear. There are programs that flip an entire roster with player rentals. Sometimes the roster transfusions lead to bodily rejections, selfishness and failure. Sometimes a lineup of rentals works for a year, maybe two.

Anyone remember when Kansas State was the poster child for proper widespread portaling in 2023 when the Wildcats inched past Michigan State in overtime in the Sweet 16? Kansas State coach Jerome Tang was the toast of transfer intelligence. His team was full of them, among the first to tread directly in that direction.

Well, he was fired last month. He never established a culture, never got players to buy into love for the front of the jersey on a regular basis when he changed the names and faces every year.

It remains to be seen what becomes of Free Agent U in Ann Arbor, but anyone who appreciates a semblance of traditional college basketball and long-term culture development knows that Michigan State is among the last bastions standing. That’s part of the reason why Izzo is the face of the whole sport.

“I appreciate what my boss told me a long time ago,” Izzo said, quoting his personal don, Heathcote the Wise.

“He said your job is to be a steward of the game. I don’t think right now enough coaches are standing up to be stewards of the game, and a steward of the game means to try to do what’s best for the player. And we’ll see as time goes.”

Izzo believes transfers would be better-served if they had to sit out a year and get acclimated to their new school and program. He said the near-tragic journey of Trey Fort wouldn’t have been packed with such anxiety if he hadn’t felt the pressure to complete all of his programming in one season. And if players had to sit out a year, they might be more inclined to buckle down and fight through adversity at their original school and, who knows, make progress toward a meaningful degree.

Sure, there are some programs where players fit in immediately and prosper. But are there far more examples of failures, and arrested development?

It doesn’t matter because immediate eligibility will always hold up in court, now that it’s been established.

Of course one of the heroes of this week’s story, Fort, is a product of the portal. But Izzo didn’t want to tap into the portal and pursue him. He had to, after Jase Richardson turned pro and Tre Holloman surprisingly, abruptly entered the portal within a few days of one another, last spring. Thirteen months ago, Izzo expected to have Richardson and Holloman on this team. And he recruited toward a 2026 roster that included them. When they left, he was forced to hit the portal.

There are only 22 seniors nationwide at Power Five schools who have spent all four years at one school. Michigan State has two of them in Kohler and Cooper.

Next year, Carr and Fears will be in the same category, although Fears will have an extra year of eligibility having red-shirted in 2024.

“Those four guys could have all left, but didn’t leave,” Izzo said.

Izzo is growing to love Fort. But he already loved Holloman.

“Deep down, I respect the guys that left,” Izzo said. “I understand why some of them did. Some guys that left called some of my guys and told them not to leave.”

We can guess who that might have been.

“This is what it’s all about: this is the greatest part of being a coach,” Izzo said. “When you get to share a moment with guys that stuck with you and you stuck with them. We’re a very connected group. If you can’t see it, you’re blind. If you think that’s normal, you’re crazy.”