Michigan State University Athletics
Izzo Faces Former Assistant Crean In NCAA Tournament
3/14/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 14, 2007
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - Tom Crean was an anonymous graduate assistant at Michigan State in 1990 when he rented a room for $200 per month from equally unknown Spartans assistant Tom Izzo.
Nearly two decades -- and a combined five Final Fours -- later, Crean coaches against his mentor, former landlord and close friend for the first time Thursday when No. 8 seed Marquette plays the ninth-seeded Spartans in the first round of the East Regional.
"This will be the first time in my life that I'm not rooting for him to win," Crean said Wednesday. "This will be the first time in my life I'm not rooting for Michigan State to win."
Their teams have more in common. Players said the coaches have similar philosophies, emphasize the same hustle stat -- offensive rebounding -- and Izzo said he and Crean recently traded plays and ideas.
"That was stupid on both our parts," Izzo deadpanned. "But you do what you do during the year, and I'm sure in a lot of ways it's going to take more than what I do to win this game. It's going to be more than what I do to win this game. It's going to take the players."
Perhaps, but the most compelling storyline is the bond between the Michigan natives. It grew tight when they spent the 1989-90 season on former Spartans coach Jud Heathcote's staff, sharing Izzo's tiny apartment with current State assistant Jim Boylen.
"We didn't have two nickels to rub together," Crean said, laughing.
Countered Izzo: "When I think back, I undercharged him. I was in the poorhouse myself. ... Me, him and Boylen, we lived together like `The Three Stooges.'"
Crean left after that season for a four-year stint at Western Kentucky and then one year at Pittsburgh, while Izzo remained in East Lansing.
"He was one of the first people to give me the time of day as a young coach," Crean said. "I looked up to him in a real idol-hero kind of way, but as time went on, our friendship just grew, and we became peers. Tom allowed that to happen."
When Heathcote retired in 1995, Izzo added Crean to his staff, and the two helped guide Michigan State to the 1999 Final Four. Marquette hired Crean in 2000, the year Izzo won his first national title with the Spartans. Michigan State also reached the Final Four in 2001 and '05.
Crean is coaching the Golden Eagles in his fourth NCAA tournament in eight seasons, a string that includes a Final Four run in 2003 with Dwyane Wade.
"If you look at his team this year, it's a lot like our (2005) Final Four team," Izzo said. "They have very good guard play, they fastbreak on makes and misses, a lot like our championship team did. ... I think he's modeled his team the same way as the one he helped model when he was at Michigan State."
It's unlikely that Marquette will have injured guard Jerel McNeal, who has missed three games with an injured right thumb and has been ruled out for the first round. He would have matched up with all-Big Ten guard Drew Neitzel, who shifted from point guard and averaged 18.1 points and 4.3 assists.
McNeal said he will be in uniform on the bench Thursday, but admitted he's not at 100 percent.
"Jerel thinks he's going to play," Crean said. "There's a part of me that thinks it's a real possibility, but he'd have to get clearance from the doctors, and I'm just not sure that's going to happen."
Michigan State enters its 10th straight NCAA tournament having lost three of four, including two losses to the Wisconsin team it previously dethroned from No. 1.
"We were looking forward to playing a team that doesn't really know our stuff much," Neitzel said. "Then we drew Marquette with coach Crean, so that's kind of out the window."
