1st Sweet 16 for Tom Izzo sent Michigan State basketball to a new high
It was the first of 17, but Tom Izzo's first Sweet 16 trip in 1998 laid the groundwork for Michigan State basketball's path to March Madness royalty.
WASHINGTON – Tom Izzo remembered the bus ride to his first Sweet 16 as Michigan State basketball coach. The heartbreak from his two trips to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament as an assistant coach under Jud Heathcote – the "Clockgate" against Kansas in 1986 and Kenny Anderson’s controversial 3-pointer in 1990 – were in the rearview mirror. So, too, were his first two seasons after taking over for his mentor, both of which ended in second-round exits in the NIT.
The future was in front of the third-year coach and his nascent program in 1998. And it was being televised. “I remember coming over the little hill,” Izzo said Thursday, March 26, reminiscing about the ride to the game in Greensboro, North Carolina.
“All of a sudden, that's when the [broadcast] trucks had saucers that were big. And my guys were looking over, and I said, ‘Ah, it’s no big deal, guys, it's just TV cameras. ' There were so many trucks with so many.
” “It caught us by surprise,” said Lorenzo Guess, who was a freshman guard on that team and is now the Spartans ’ director of strength and conditioning. Inside the Greensboro Coliseum, something bigger awaited: Dean Smith and No. 1 seed North Carolina.
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