Michigan State's Tom Izzo Sets New Big Ten Record

This is just the latest in a long line of Big Ten records for the Spartans' head coach, who began his career at Michigan State in 1995. Izzo is the conference's leader in total games coached (990), career wins (701), Big Ten tournament championships (6), NCAA Tournament appearances (25) and Final Four appearances (8). His 29 years at Michigan State also ties Knight and Purdue's Ward "Piggy" Lambert for the most at a Big Ten school.

Izzo's 339 career wins in Big Ten Conference games are second only to Knight, who won 353 league games as head coach of the Hoosiers. Izzo is also second all-time in regular season Big Ten championships (10), trailing only the 11 won by Knight and Lambert each. Izzo's career winning percentage in Big Ten games (.673) is fourth all-time trailing only Wisconsin's Bo Ryan (.717), Knight (.700) and Lambert (.685).

As he continues to stack milestones and achievements, Izzo has made an excellent case for being considered the greatest men's basketball head coach in the history of the Big Ten Conference. It would be hard to argue for anyone else, other than Knight, who's three national championships at Indiana (1976, 1981, 1986) may be the determining factor compared to the single national title Izzo won with the Spartans in 2000. Regardless, Izzo just took over the top spot in another category from Knight, and could continue to lay siege to the legendary Hoosiers head coach's claim as the Big Ten's best in the years to come.

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