Tom Izzo begins his 10th season guiding the Michigan State basketball program, and his 22nd year in East Lansing after serving as Judd Heathcote's top assistant for 12 seasons. When asked to look back on his term as a head coach, Izzo was characteristically modest, yet any list of his accomplishments would be considered close to gaudy. From 1998 to 2001, the Spartans shared the Big Ten regular-season crown three times and won it outright once. They also went to three consecutive Final Fours, securing a national title in 2000, and last season's early exit was the only time in Izzo's tenure that Michigan State failed to reach the Sweet 16. In addition to their success in the Big Ten and NCAA Tournament, one trademark of Izzo's squads has been a non-conference schedule stacked that would make most programs shake in their boots. Last year's battle royal of non-conference games was even more grueling than usual; the Spartans played at Kansas, UCLA, and national champion Syracuse, and then hosted Duke, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. Michigan State didn’t win one of those six games and was 5-6 going into Big Ten conference games. But the hard lessons that were learned in those losses helped lead the Spartans to a 12-4 conference record and a second-place finish. When asked if he planned on scheduling fewer tough teams in the future, Izzo said with a laugh, "I don't know when I'll get smart enough to do that."

Don't expect him to deviate from that plan any time in the future, because the Spartans' track record under Izzo has brought them into the conversation regarding the top programs in the land. More recently the Spartans have perhaps taken a tiny step back from the Dukes and Kentuckys. A reason for this is after their three straight Final Four appearances they experienced the early departure of a number of talented young players who chose to follow their goals of becoming a professional basketball career. Michigan State was hurt by the early exits of players such as freshman Zach Randolph and sophomore Jason Richardson in 2001, super sophomore Marcus Taylor in 2002 and freshman Erazem Lorbek in 2003, and as a result the Spartans' depth suffered. Lorbek actually ended up pulling out of the draft at the last second when he realized he would only be a second round pick, but he had already signed with an agent which made him ineligible to go back to the NCAA. Lorbek then went to go and play in Europe.

This year will be a great deal different though. The Spartans will return all five starters from last year's team and look to keep up the run of improved shooting that helped the team set a number of school and conference records last year. Michigan State was the first team in the history of the Big Ten to lead the conference in field-goal percentage (.522), free-throw percentage (.777), three-point percentage (.434), and scoring offense (71.3 points/game), and they were the only team in the nation to rank in the top 10 in shooting accuracy from the field, three-point arc and free-throw line. Expect more of the same this year out of the Spartans.