- Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo is set to face Mississippi’s Chris Beard in a Sweet 16 matchup.
- The Spartans aim to leverage their depth and rebounding prowess against the Rebels, who boast a balanced scoring attack.
- The winner of the matchup will advance to the Elite Eight, moving one step closer to the Final Four.
ATLANTA — Roses tend to fly whenever opposing coaches prepare to face Tom Izzo. And Mississippi’s Chris Beard delivered plenty of them Thursday.
Yet Michigan State basketball’s Hall of Fame coach paid Beard perhaps the highest compliment possible to Beard. And it had nothing to do with X’s and O’s.
Izzo, during his NCAA tournament news conference, was asked about the last time he faced Beard — that was in the 2019 Final Four, when Beard was at Texas Tech — and whether the Spartans’ staff watched that game back for any type of intel they could use in Friday night’s Sweet 16 matchup.
“I’m crazy, but I’m not a masochist,” Izzo said. “Why would I want to go back and watch something when I got my butt kicked?” He added, “Yeah, we lost. So it sucked.”
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Don’t let him kid you, Izzo watched some.
Because though time moves on, as do players and coaches from job to job, leaders carry their cardinal tenets from season to season and program to program. And just as South region No. 2 seed MSU (29-6) hopes to continue to maximize its depth to adhere to Izzo’s “defend, rebound and run” ethos, Beard’s aggressive defense followed him from Texas Tech to Texas and now Ole Miss. And it is one of the biggest concerns as Izzo prepares for the 6-seed Rebels (24-11) when they tip off at 7:09 p.m. Friday (CBS) at State Farm Arena.
“They’re tough, physical,” MSU junior guard Tre Holloman said Thursday. “They don’t want teams to punk them.”
Mississippi ranks 38th nationally in turnovers forced per game (14.2) and advanced by knocking off 11-seed North Carolina and 3-seed Iowa State in Milwaukee last weekend.
And to hear Beard — a former Bob Knight assistant at Texas Tech — talk about Izzo, it is a reminder just how much the 70-year-old MSU coach has influenced the game in his 30 seasons, all while remaining as passionate as he was when he took over for Jud Heathcote in 1995.
“He’s impacted the game in so many ways,” Beard said Thursday of Izzo. “It’s like when I worked for coach Knight, there was never anybody I talked to in the basketball world that didn’t have some type of connection. Even if they never met coach Knight, maybe they saw his first clinic, maybe they ran his offense, maybe they loved one of his stories or press conferences.
“It’s the same thing with coach Izzo. To me, he’s (on the) Mount Rushmore of this sport.”
The loss to Beard and Red Raiders was the last time MSU reached the Final Four — Izzo’s eighth and Beard’s only one. The Red Raiders’ 61-51 victory in Minneapolis would be the next-to-last March Madness game for nearly two years, with the pandemic shutting down the 2020 tournament before it began, just as Izzo had a team surging toward another potential long run.
After four years of mediocre results, the Spartans surged back this season and won the Big Ten by three games. That, Izzo said, “was shocking” to him. But he also believes this group has a chance to get to next week’s Final Four (or beyond) in San Antonio.
But first, it must focus on a Mississippi team that Beard said also has “strength in numbers,” with six players scoring in double figures.
“Once you win a national championship, winning a tournament game means nothing. To our fans, it doesn’t mean much, but to me it doesn’t mean as much,” Izzo said. “Finishing third in the Big Ten a couple times or fifth was OK because maybe we weren’t that good, but it just doesn’t turn me on, it doesn’t do anything for me.
“So I have to figure out a way to try to win championships. … At the same time, unfortunately, I’m going to play against a team that I think has a similar philosophy as mine. So I know we’re going to play against a tough team. I know they’re going to be physical. I know they’re going to play hard. I know they’re going to be somewhat disciplined.”
Chris Solari’s March Madness prediction for Michigan State basketball vs. Mississippi
Expect the Spartans to come out stronger than they did in their two games in Cleveland, with a premium put on not avoiding a sluggish start because playing behind against Ole Miss won’t be an optimal position. Ball movement and communication will be key to avoiding turnovers, and Jase Richardson shakes off his clunker against New Mexico and the MSU big men attack the smaller Rebels in the paint to draw fouls and advance to what could be a historic Sunday in the Elite Eight. The pick: MSU 77, Mississippi 72.
Contact Chris Solari:[email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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