Only four coaches in the history of college basketball have won more NCAA Tournament games than Tom Izzo. So it's safe to say he understands what it takes to advance at the most important time of the season.
With 52 tournament victories, eight Final Four appearances and a national title in 2000, Izzo has earned the moniker that often replaces his last name with the month of March. He's also had success with varying levels of talent. Of his trips to the Final Four, Izzo has taken 1-seeds, 2-seeds and 5-seeds. He's even advanced as a 7-seed, reaching the national semifinal in 2015 after wins over a 2-seed, 3-seed and a 4-seed along the way.
He's never done it like this, though, not as a double-digit seed. Michigan State drew an 11-seed this time around. He's certainly never done it from a play-in game. When the Spartans take on UCLA at 9:57 p.m. Thursday at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind., it will be the first time they've played in the First Four.
It's a long way from getting back to the Final Four — Michigan State will have to win five games over the next two weekends — but if there was a year for Izzo to add another first, this might be it.
"In this year of the pandemic and this year of 2020, that's now 2021, I might as well experience some more new things," Izzo said on Tuesday. "Never played in the play-in game, that's a new thing. Never played three games to get out of the weekend. That's a new thing. There's a lot a new things, but just think if you accomplish them. They'll be really cool new things."
Ending up at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the Final Four would qualify as a long shot for the Spartans. Of course, that would be the case for any team playing an extra game. However, it's hardly unprecedented.
In the first year of the First Four, VCU rolled all the way to the Final Four as an 11-seed. They beat USC to open the tournament then knocked off No. 6 Georgetown and No. 3 Purdue. The next weekend included a win over No. 10 Florida State before the Rams knocked off No. 1 Kansas in the regional final.
The run ended in the Final Four against Butler, but it was clear that playing in the First Four didn't equal an early exit. In fact, for some teams, it adds some fire.
"Fortunately we've won five games," then-VCU coach Shaka Smart said entering the 2011 Final Four. "For five games we've been the underdog. We continue to be the underdog. ... If we win (against Butler), we'll continue to be the underdog. We'll use that as much as we can."
Other First Four teams have had success coming out of the play-in games as well, with three reaching the Sweet 16. LaSalle won twice in 2013 before getting knocked out by Wichita State, Tennessee got a pair of wins in 2014 before losing to Michigan in the regional semifinal. Syracuse did the same in 2018, getting past Michigan State in the second round before losing to Duke in the Sweet 16.
Four more teams have followed up the play-in victory with another win before getting eliminated.
For Michigan State to be the next team to string together some wins out of the First Four, its approach of winning the weekend will be stretched.
"Normally we're going in and you're preparing for two games," Izzo said. "Now you go in and you're probably underdogs in all three games and so it's a little harder to look ahead. I still want to win the weekend, that weekend just became a little longer."
It's an approach that has worked for Izzo and the Spartans. They have a 23-6 record in the second game of an NCAA Tournament weekend, with five of the six losses coming to No. 1 seeds or eventual national champions.
That changes this time around with the extra game, but considering the Spartans played seven times in final 16 days of the regular season and beat Illinois and Michigan — both 1-seeds — as well as No. 2-seeded Ohio State, they're prepared to get it done this weekend.
"When you see the last two weeks of the season and how we played, you do get excited," Izzo said. "When you can play with a Michigan, Ohio State, Illinois — I mean, you could argue Illinois has been playing as well as anybody and we beat them the soundest of the three when they were fully loaded. So, I think we have some potential for (a run). I see that in our team."
Michigan State (15-12) isn't playing a practice squad. UCLA isn't sure it belongs in the First Four, either and is desperate to turn things around, entering the tournament on a four-game skid.
The Bruins (17-9) will play a style similar to the Spartans, and as Izzo said, matchups are critical in a tournament setting. Michigan State has taken care of UCLA in each of the past two seasons, beating the Bruins last year in the Maui Invitational and knocking them off in the Las Vegas Invitational the year before.
This is a different team, though, and the Spartans are not looking past the Bruins.
"We're just trying to express (to the younger players) that the 'my bads' have to go," said junior Aaron Henry, who played on Michigan State's 2019 Final Four team. "We don't have time to just say, 'Oh, this is my fault.' 'My fault' will end up with me going home.
"But it's a new day, it's a new season. That's how we're going to approach it."
The winner hopes to become the next VCU. The Spartans think they can be that team and they think they've shown it over the last few weeks.
They'll have the chance now to prove it.
"I'm not worried about facing anybody in this tournament," Izzo said. "I don't feel comfortable with UCLA and BYU or Texas, but I don't feel afraid of UCLA, BYU or Texas, or anybody else because we truly, truly have played the best teams in the country on a night-in and night-out basis and especially in the last two to three weeks."
