NCAA: Don't worry about Izzo

By John McManus Sports Central Columnist You make the Final Four and fall just short of winning another national championship. Then within weeks, you lose nearly your entire rotation either to graduation or early departures to the NBA Draft and it seems like your powerhouse basketball program has all but fallen apart. Sound familiar?

Well, it should because it's happened to two of the top coaches in the game within the last two and a half years.

It is a debatable point, but you can certainly make a case that Tom Izzo and Mike Krzyzewski have dominated the world of college basketball since the start of the 1998-99 season. In three seasons, the two men have combined for:

* Two national championships * Five Final Fours * Six number one seeds in the NCAA Tournament * A 27-4 record in the NCAA Tournament * Six conference titles (in arguably the two toughest conferences in the nation)

Think about it, three years! That's dominance, and both coaches deserve a lot of the credit.

However, Izzo is now faced with weathering the storm of a mass exodus similar to what Krzyzewski had to face after the 1999 Final Four.

Coach K kept the Duke program afloat with a stellar effort during the 1999-2000 season and capped that off with a national title in 2000-01. Now Izzo needs to pull it off for Michigan State.

Don't get me wrong, Izzo has nothing more to prove. He is already among the elite in his profession.

Nonetheless, the 2001-02 season will give him the opportunity to truly show his greatness as a coach, and he will. Michigan State will not take a huge fall like many are already predicting. I wouldn't be shocked if they land a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament like Duke did in 2000. Don't put it past Izzo.

Sure, Charlie Bell, Andre Hutson, David Thomas, Mike Chappell, Zach Randolph, and Jason Richardson are all gone, but expect to see Aloysius Anagonye, Adam Ballinger and, most importantly, Marcus Taylor step it up for Michigan State much like Chris Carrawell, Shane Battier, and Nate James did for Duke in 2000. And while Izzo doesn't have the super recruiting class (with the likes of Jason Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mike Dunleavy and crew) coming in, he does have two super incoming freshmen in Kelvin Torbert and Alan Anderson.

Izzo is looking to bring in a homerun recruiting class for the 2002-03 season, but between now and then, he'll be just fine.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.