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 Jamie Feick (Philadelphia 76ers - 1996), Mateen Cleaves (Detroit Pistons - 2000), Morris Peterson (Toronto Raptors - 2000), Jason Richardson (Golden State Warriors - 2001), Zach Randolph (Portland Trail Blazers - 2001), Andre Hutson (Milwaukee Bucks - 2001), Marcus Taylor (Minnesota Timberwolves - 2002), Erazem Lorbek (Indiana Pacers - 2005), Shannon Brown (Cleveland Cavaliers - 2006), Maurice Ager (Dallas Mavericks - 2006), Paul Davis (Los Angeles Clippers - 2006), Goran Suton (Utah Jazz - 2009), Draymond Green (Golden State Warriors - 2012), Adreian Payne (Atlanta Hawks - 2014), Gary Harris (Chicago Bulls - 2014), Branden Dawson (New Orleans Pelicans - 2015), Denzel Valentine (Chicago Bulls - 2016), and Deyonta Davis (Boston Celtics - 2016).
There are also many assistant coach that have worked with Izzo that made their own career as a head coach in other schools: Tom Crean (formerly coach at Indiana and Marquette, currently at Georgia), Mark Montgomery (currently at Northern Illinois), Brian Gregory (formerly coach at Georgia Tech and Dayton, currently at South Florida), Jim Boylen (formerly coach at Utah), Stan Heath (formerly coach at Kent State, Arkansas, and South Florida), Stan Joplin (formerly coach at Toledo), Doug Wojcik (formerly coach 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 God 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.”
Return to the previous page| Birth Date: | 30 Jan, 1955 |
| Age: | 65 yrs |
| Occupations: | Basketball player Basketball coach |
| Citizenship: | United States of America |
| Birth Place: | Iron Mountain |
| Gender: | Male |
| Description: | American basketball coach and former player |
| Net Worth 2021: | 13 million |
