The Sweet 16 was the end of the line for the Michigan State Spartans, but it won’t be the end for head coach Tom Izzo.
“Trying to win a National Championship: plain and simple,” Izzo said in his postgame press conference when asked where he sees himself in five years after No. 3-seeded Michigan State’s 67-63 loss to the No. 2-seeded UConn Huskies on Friday night. “That’s it. Those things usually start after your last loss. Nowadays, it’s a little more screwed up, but not at Michigan State. After our last loss, we all talked about what we got to do next year and how we got to learn from this. I got to give UConn a lot of credit, but, man, we didn’t look like ourselves, certainly, and that’s got to fall on the coach. I got to get them ready to do that. I’m feeling good. We all talk about retirement, why? What the hell am I going to do?
“The minute I don’t feel good, the minute I don’t feel like I’m giving my AD or president or school every ounce of energy I have every day or that energy drops, you don’t have to worry about it, I don’t steal money. I won’t steal anybody’s time, but it’s sure as hell not going to be now. I got some things to accomplish.”
Michigan State began Friday night’s Sweet 16 matchup down 25-6 but was able to quickly narrow the gap, trailing 35-27 at halftime. The Spartans then took a 45-44 lead with 10:06 remaining in the second half. That said, UConn took the lead for good with 8:58 remaining and never looked back. Granted, Michigan State got within one point on multiple occasions within the final two minutes.
In all, while Michigan State out-rebounded UConn, 34-25, the three-ball was the great equalizer for the Huskies, who knocked down nine three-pointers, compared to the Spartans’ four three-pointers. UConn center Tarris Reed Jr. had a game-high 20 points, while fellow senior Alex Karaban had 17 points, seven rebounds and two blocks.
The Spartans, who were a No. 3 seed in the East Region of the 2026 NCAA Tournament, previously beat the No. 14-seeded North Dakota State Bison in the first round and the No. 6-seeded Louisville Cardinals in the second round. Michigan State finished the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season 27-8 overall and 15-5 in Big Ten play, good for third in the conference.
The 71-year-old Izzo, who just wrapped up his 31st season as Michigan State’s head coach, boasts a career 764-310 record, with his 764 wins ranking 20th among men’s college basketball coaches. The Spartans have made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last 28 seasons — excluding the 2019-20 season when the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic — highlighted by eight appearances in the Final Four and winning the 2000 National Championship.
At the same time, Michigan State last made the Final Four in 2019 and last appeared in the National Championship Game in 2009. Izzo — who has coached the Spartans in some capacity since 1983 (Izzo was an assistant coach under previous Michigan State coach Jud Heathcote for 12 seasons before becoming the Spartans’ head coach in 1995) — is determined to end that drought.
“I said a couple years ago that I’ll find a way to get back there [to the National Championship]. We have knocked on the door twice, [but] we’ve not gotten again. We’ll get again,” Izzo expressed.
