Tom Izzo biography, married, wife, net worth, salary, hall of fame

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Thomas “Tom” Michael Izzo was born on January 30, 1955 in Iron Mountain, Michigan. He grew up in Iron Mountain and became best friends with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mariucci">Steve Mariucci</a>, who is a former NFL <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mariucci">coach</a>. He did his schooling in “Iron Mountain High”, and he represented his school, together with his friend <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mariucci">Steve</a>, in multiple sports like basketball, football and athletics. After finishing the high school, he joined in 1973 the “Northern Michigan State University” located in Marquette. He represented his college basketball team from 1973 till 1977, playing as a guard, and setting a record for minutes played during his senior year.

He started his coaching career as the head basketball coach at “Ishpeming High School”. After this experience, lasted one year, he moved back to his college “Northern Michigan University”, where he worked as an assistant coach for 4 years, starting from 1979 till 1983. In 1983, he also started working as a part-time assistant coach at “Michigan State University”. He continued to work as a coach and assistant coach in different colleges during the 1980’s. In 1990, he was appointed as an associate to head Coach, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jud_Heathcote">Jud Heathcote</a> in MSU. He became a head coach for MSU in 1995, following the retirement of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jud_Heathcote">Jud Heathcote</a>.

Izzo’s first two championship seasons as the head coach of MSU were average. The team finished 6th in 1996 season, and 7th in 1997 season. After two average seasons, MSU bounced back to win the Big Ten championships in 1998 with a record of 13 victories and 3 defeats. More victories came for Izzo when MSU won the Championship title at Big Ten basketball championships tournament in 1999. MSU won the NCAA championships for the second time in 2000 under Izzo. 82% of players coached by Izzo have graduated from MSU with a degree, which is a unique record. He surpassed his mentor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jud_Heathcote">Jud Heathcote</a> for most number of victories in the history of college basketball in 2009. Under Izzo, MSU won four championship titles in Big Ten Tournaments and seven titles in Big Ten Championships.

He is associated with MSU for having been for 21 straight years their coach, while he still continues coaching them. He has coached MSU to more than 500 wins. He was approached by many other basketball teams like Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks, but he refused the offers and stayed with Michigan State. In 2013, he was given 5th place by USA Today newspaper in the list of the angriest coach in college basketball. He still feels that it was an honor to part of angriest coaches list.

Izzo has been the head coach of the USA Basketball men's team that reached the4th place at the 2003 Pan American Games. Prior to that, he had been assistant coach of the team that had a 5–0 record and won the gold medal at the 2001 “Goodwill Games”. Izzo also served on the Collegiate Committee of USA Basketball's 2005–2008 Quadrennium Committees.

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His coaching is aggressive which is common among other basketball coaches. Izzo's basket philosophy is based on a strong guard play, tough play, and focus on the rebounding. He conducts rigorous coaching schedule before major tournaments, and he is known for making his players tough. Coach Izzo is famous for his "war" rebounding drill, in which the players wear football helmets and shoulder pad (we can see a clear commingling with the football philosophy that contributed in forming Izzo’s ideas). Because of this kind of training, his teams are very good in rebounding. His motto is "Players Play – Tough Players Win". His other coaching philosophies include, "he doesn't determine playing time, players do" and "A player-coached team is better than a coach-coached team." Izzo is also known for scheduling extremely tough non-conference schedules as preparation for the NCAA tournament in March.

There are many famous basketball players that played for coach Izzo, many of which reached the NBA. Among them there are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Feick">Jamie Feick</a> (Philadelphia 76ers - 1996), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mateen_Cleaves">Mateen Cleaves</a> (Detroit Pistons - 2000), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Peterson">Morris Peterson</a> (Toronto Raptors - 2000), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Richardson">Jason Richardson</a> (Golden State Warriors - 2001), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Randolph">Zach Randolph</a> (Portland Trail Blazers - 2001), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Hutson">Andre Hutson</a> (Milwaukee Bucks - 2001), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Taylor">Marcus Taylor</a> (Minnesota Timberwolves - 2002), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erazem_Lorbek">Erazem Lorbek</a> (Indiana Pacers - 2005), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Brown">Shannon Brown</a> (Cleveland Cavaliers - 2006), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ager">Maurice Ager</a> (Dallas Mavericks - 2006), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Davis_(basketball)">Paul Davis</a> (Los Angeles Clippers - 2006), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goran_Suton">Goran Suton</a> (Utah Jazz - 2009), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draymond_Green">Draymond Green</a> (Golden State Warriors - 2012), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adreian_Payne">Adreian Payne</a> (Atlanta Hawks - 2014), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Harris">Gary Harris</a> (Chicago Bulls - 2014), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branden_Dawson">Branden Dawson</a> (New Orleans Pelicans - 2015), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denzel_Valentine">Denzel Valentine</a> (Chicago Bulls - 2016), and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deyonta_Davis">Deyonta Davis</a> (Boston Celtics - 2016).

There are also many assistant coach that have worked with Izzo that made their own career as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Crean_(basketball)">head coach</a> in other schools: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Crean_(basketball)">Tom Crean</a> (formerly coach at Indiana and Marquette, currently at Georgia), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Montgomery_(basketball)">Mark Montgomery</a> (currently at Northern Illinois), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Gregory">Brian Gregory</a> (formerly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Gregory">coach</a> at Georgia Tech and Dayton, currently at South Florida), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Boylen">Jim Boylen</a> (formerly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Boylen">coach</a> at Utah), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Heath">Stan Heath</a> (formerly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Heath">coach</a> at Kent State, Arkansas, and South Florida), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Joplin">Stan Joplin</a> (formerly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Joplin">coach</a> at Toledo), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Wojcik">Doug Wojcik</a> (formerly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Wojcik">coach</a> at Tulsa, and Charleston).

He was added to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2016 for his services in the field of Basketball. Tom Izzo has a net worth of $13 million dollars and he earns a nice salary of $3 million dollars for his coaching role in MSU.

He married his wife Lupe Marinez in 1992, and he has 2 children with her. Talking about her coaching role, and about how it affected his life, coach Izzo said in an interview of USA Today: "I've got a lot of regrets. Thank <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God">God</a> I got married later (in life). I was 36 -- I was trying to get my professional life straightened out. The good news is my kids have been brought up in this. My daughter … has been to every Final Four. She's traveled around the world. We went to Australia, Europe. That's my way of being able to justify it. I mean, sure, financially we're all set, and that's a big thing, I guess. It's what everybody hopes for, to have your family secure.”

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