79 Tom Izzo Quotes On Coaching, Leadership, Basketball, Success & Life

The top Coach Tom Izzo quotes:

Tom Izzo is currently the head coach for the Michigan State University men's basketball team. Izzo is known for his success at Michigan State and for building it into a winning program.

Coach Izzo has a career winning percentage of around 70% and he led the Michigan State Spartans to a NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship in 2000.

Izzo has led the Spartans to eight Final Four appearances, ten Big Ten regular-season championships, and six Big Ten Tournament championships.

Coach Izzo has been named the Big Ten Coach of the Year three times and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.

He is known for his intense coaching style and his emphasis on toughness and teamwork. He is widely regarded as one of the top college basketball coaches.

---

You also might like:

• Coach K On Leadership, Success, and Teamwork >>

• 88 Draymond Green Quotes On Basketball, Defense, Heart & Work Ethic  >>

---

 

 

Tom Izzo Basketball Quotes

1. "We've gone to Final Fours as one seeds, we've gone there as five seeds. I think every Final Four we've been in we've had the most losses, just because sometimes scheduling, sometimes poor coaching, whatever the case may be."

2. "I'd do anything with the U.S.A. team in the Olympics from being the head coach, which probably isn't going to happen, to being an assistant, to being a manager or waterboy."

 

 

3. "I think if you play against guys that are as good or better than you and you're fighting for something, that's either going to make you or break you."

4. "You can't like your rival, but you can respect your rival."

5. "The one-and-done thing is a phenomenon. I don't know if it's going to last, if it's going to be that way all the time. It's going to be something that we're all going to have to deal with. But I don't think it's the norm."

6. "There are not a lot of things in life that have a definitive ending. Playing careers are one of them."

7. "Most of the time people play zone because they've got lazy guys."

8. "I'm leaning more and more towards three points from a 3-point shooter is worth one more than a basket from the center."

9. "Redshirt years, even though they are painful to go through, when you do go through them, if you are a driven guy, you can get a lot out of them."

10. "I guess watching film could be easy. But watching film, if you're doing it by yourself, you got to really figure out what you're looking at."

 

 

11. "I just think some things are bigger than basketball."

12. "I guess I was a decent basketball player - pass first, pass second, shoot third... pretty good defensively."

13. "I have a great appreciation for walk-ons."

14. "You've got to be a sneakerhead if you're a coach and you're dealing with 16 to 22-year-olds and selfishly, I kind of like them myself."

More quotes: 73 Coach John Wooden Quotes And Sayings About Basketball And Life >>

 

 

Best Tom Izzo Quotes On Coaching And Leadership

15. "I think we all are coaches in our own respect because we have to try to figure out a way to help make people better than we really are, and that's what leaders do."

16. "You tell your players all the time: 'Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.' I think I'm in a position where I can help be part of the solution that's even way bigger than basketball."

 

 

17. "Really good leaders help others become better than they are."

18. "I think unless you trust someone to tell you what you're doing wrong, you don't really sometimes realize what you're doing."

19. "Being a good leader is feeling what's needed to be said."

20. "There is nothing, nothing, nothing like experience - nothing. You can't coach it, you can't teach it, you can't do it - there is nothing like experience."

21. "It's not my job to judge one of my athletes. Everybody is different. Some are the partying type, some are the studying type, some are ultra-religious, some might be gay. Put it this way: If you can play ball, that's all I care about."

22. "With the new social media way of doing things, kids are seeing things a lot more, a lot quicker. So I think we as coaches have to adjust to it some way."

23. "If I'm going to be responsible to get blamed for something, I'd like to have the ability to do something about it."

 

 

24. "I think kids are making a lot of bad decisions because we're teaching them that the minute something goes tough, to get the hell out of dodge."

25. "The most important part of my job is, as they say, taking a boy and making him a man. But my other most rewarding part is taking a guy that maybe isn't in an element that is going to make him successful to life to help bring him into it."

26. "We're past the days of Vince Lombardi, where you say jump and I ask: 'How high?' But you still have to find a way to get your guys to jump, get them to trust you."

27. "We can all be leaders."

28. "I am an educator, my degree's in education."

29. "I've taken the blame when I deserve the blame."

30. "When I grew up, you trusted anyone of authority. Kids don't trust people any more, and I don't blame them. We have to earn their trust, and it takes time."

31. "Coaches tell you things for a reason. If they tell you to keep your head up, there's a reason. If they tell you to get the ball ready to shoot, there's a reason."

32. "The price of leadership is strange."

 

 

33. "I haven't always recruited for the best talent. I've taken a few guys who would fit for different reasons. Leadership. Toughness."

34. "All that being a college coach has done, is it's reaffirmed the need to take care of our young people. They're the ones that are going to make a difference. We spend a lot of time blaming them for stuff, and not enough time mentoring them and helping them stand on their own two feet."

35. "When you know your players are doing the right things in the locker room, the dorm room, on the plane, it makes you more relaxed."

Guided Meditation: Pregame Guided Meditation For Basketball Players >>

 

 

Tom Izzo On Success And Winning

36. "All I've got to make sure I do is what's best for my team and the university I work at. I want to do that each and every day."

 

 

37. "Championships and great seasons are won in locker rooms."

38. "There's efforts to win games and there's efforts to win championships."

39. "You have to learn how to compete."

40. "I think any time you're playing for a championship, that's a whole other area. You play for the one and done, then you get a chance to play for a banner. That what I live for."

41. "What I want to do is put Michigan State University in rare air."

42. "I learned that every opportunity is one that has to be seized."

43. "Going into the Hall of Fame isn't something I even dreamed about so it's hard to think about what it will be like until I get there."

 

 

44. "Remember, talent doesn't win championships, talent doesn't win games."

45. "Players play, tough players win."

You might like: How To Boost Your Confidence In Basketball | 10 Tips  >>

 

 

Tom Izzo Quotes About Life

46. "We all think there's greener things on the other side. We all take for granted what we have. I don't care who we are."

47. "Time doesn't heal, time helps heal and learning helps heal."

 

 

48. "You've got to fight through some adversity. You've got to have some tough times. You've got to have some rainy days."

49. "The one thing that my parents have told me and I try to tell my kids it doesn't matter how much fame, money, and anything else you have, friends, marriage, it doesn't, none of it matters compared to your health, cause without it nothing matters."

50. "You've got to deal with sometimes what life throws at you, and life has thrown some things at me and life has thrown some incredible things at me."

51. "I try to tell my guys, don't wish your way out of high school. You never get to go back to high school. Don't wish your way out of college; you never go back to be a college student. You may go back to get more education, but you don't get the four years of being a college student."

52. "Listen, I learn lessons, too."

53. "I'll go to the grocery store or gas station, and someone says, 'What are you doing here? You pump your own gas?' Yeah, I pump my own gas - take my trash out, too."

54. "I have my own goals and dreams and I have my own aspirations of what I want to do."

55. "Looking at the big picture, I know God put me in the right spot, with the right mentor."

 

 

56. "If you ever get a chance to do something outside the box... I say step outside the box."

57. "The one thing I'm learning about these phones and this Twitter generation, I don't think anybody cares about what happened in years past."

58. "I've had incredible mentors, people around me, my whole life."

59. "Timing in life can be cruel and it can be funny."

Read also: The Complete Guide to Getting in the Zone in Basketball >>

 

 

Coach Izzo Quotes About Work Ethic

60. "If you take three steps forward and one step back, once in a while I can live with that. If you take two steps forward and three steps back, that's not a good deal for me."

61. "It's easy to become a better basketball player but harder to become a better teammate or person."

62. "I hope I get remembered as a working man, not anybody that just had everything."

   

63. "I've never run from anything in my life, nothing."

64. "Usually players make the most progress in the summer between their freshmen and sophomore seasons."

65. "Today's society wants to skip the process. And I hate that."

You might like: How to Mentally Prepare For a Basketball Game (5-Step Routine) >>

 

 

Tom Izzo Discipline Quotes

66. "Discipline is the highest form of love. If you really love someone, you have to give them the level of discipline they need."

67. "Do the little things right to reach the big goals."

  

68. "What is the difference between good and great? "Sacrifice."

69. "Discipline is the greatest form of love you can show someone. Great players crave discipline."

You might like: How To Shoot Better In Basketball | 13 Tips To Improve Your Shooting >>

 

 

Other Tom Izzo Quotes

70. "I've learned that people that question you are going to question you, the haters are going to hate you."

71. "I could do just about anything - put zippers in coats or put heels on shoes."

72. "My dad and uncles probably taught me more than any institutions." 

73. "A good deal is when it's a good deal for both parties."

74. "Fear sometimes is a good thing, especially with accountability stuff."

75. "A player gets into the Hall because of his abilities. A coach gets in because of his players' ability."

76. "I'm worried about what betters the game and what betters the student-athlete."

77. "I love tradition."

78. "We are in the trophy generation.Give them a trophy for 23rd place. That makes the parents happy."

79. "We want men here, not just players. Players are a dime a dozen."

More motivational basketball quotes:

• Kobe Bryant | Michael Jordan | Steph Curry | LeBron James | Kyrie Irving | Kevin Durant | Allen Iverson | Shaq | Larry Bird | Phil Jackson | John Wooden | Coach Pat Summitt | Coach Jim Valvano | All