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Where does Michigan State Rank among the National Elite?

March 17, 2010 at 3:00 pm | Big Ten, College Basketball
By: Paul M. Banks

By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net,

This year’s NCAA tournament will see Arizona, North Carolina, UCLA and Indiana missing from the dance card. Those four tradition rich programs have produced 22 National Championships and 144 tournament appearances. So what are the benchmarks, the numbers, the standards of entry into the same class as the four historically elite programs I just mentioned?

Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, whose program has been in the national conversation for the last 10 years or so, offered a couple definitions. Izzo has led his Spartans to 6 Elite Eights in 9 years, 5 final fours in 11 years. However, his most impressive statistic is the fact that every player he’s coached for all four years at State has been to at least one Final Four.

“The old adage is true: it’s harder to stay there than to get there. There’s more outside distractions, not the media, but for the players: agents, different things they deal with, and recruiting is getting harder. I think there’s more cheating, I think it’s getting worse as we make more money- let’s be honest about it,” Izzo said.

So what is the gold standard?

“There’s NEVER an off-season when you’re at a a school like ours; which means the school doesn’t recruit to itself like a Kentucky or Kansas or Carolina does. We’re not Michigan, Ohio State or Penn State football; those are all 100 year deals. But you still have to stay up to those standards,” Izzo said.

I asked for further clarification on what the term “recruit to itself” means. Basically, it seems like the benchmark is having more people come to you than you coming to them.

“The program {Michigan St.} does not recruit to itself, but I’m not sure it ever will and there’s only 5 or 6 programs that do that. Do I think we’re in that next tier? Yeah I do, the UConns, Texas, Florida, UCLA’s a different bird because they were so good for so long. But I have to be out every day of the summer. I think I’ve missed two days in 14 years. Those programs {the top tier} they work, but they can be out 10-12 days in the summer. And that’s not gonna change, not in my era. Because what I’m trying to build, they built at Kentucky and Carolina in 50 and 70 years. What I’m hoping to do is get to that point where the basement and first floor are so good. Maybe one of my guys comes in from there and takes it up another level down the road,” Izzo responded before later articulating about what growth he himself has left to achieve:

“My next step is to learn to enjoy what we have, because we proved now that we’ve sustained it, and that was a big deal because if you can do it for 10-12 years or more, you should be able to say, yeah we weren’t a shot in the dark. And I’m not sure I’ve learned to do that. Players got to learn new things, so do coaches,” he said.

Essentially, Tom Izzo regards his program as not within the top tier of elite programs, but in the second tier right beneath it. Is the pantheon the ultimate goal for him?

“It bothers me enough to drive me, but it doesn’t eat me alive. And makes me want to say let’s win the third national championship, let’s be elite in that way; not many coaches have done that. The comparisons to the Dukes and Carolinas, that stuff is ultimately out of my control.”

Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, an Upper Midwest sports webzine. He’s also a member of the Football Writers Association of America, the United States Basketball Writers Association and a sports writer for the Washington Times.com Communities and Walter Football.com