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Tom Izzo

Long-shot Travis Trice, like his coach, wins big for Michigan State

Nicole Auerbach
USA TODAY Sports
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo with star guard Travis Trice. "(Trice) was too skinny," Izzo said. "He was too small. He was too this and too that. But, unbelievable family, a dad who's a coach, just an ability to win."

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Tom Izzo is, in his mind, still just a kid who grew up in a blue-collar community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He still considers himself a "long shot" to have landed the head coaching job at the program he's now synonymous with.

As a player, Izzo says he was literally the last guy to make the team at Northern Michigan University, a Division II school. He was a walk-on, the end of the bench of the freshman team. But he kept chipping away at varsity, working his way up as attrition hit the team, be it in terms of grades or off-court problems. He traveled with varsity to Dayton for the final game of his freshman year. Izzo got his first start about five games into his sophomore season — against Michigan State, of all teams.

Izzo's path to coaching the Spartans was a winding one. He coached a high school team for a year, and worked as an assistant at his alma mater for four.

A part-time assistant coaching gig at Michigan State led to a two-month stint as an assistant at Tulsa, and then a quick return to the Spartans. When coach Jud Heathcote retired in 1995, Izzo became the head coach.

"It was such a shock I got the Michigan State job," Izzo said.

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Twenty years later, it's hard to fathom the Spartans basketball program without Izzo at the helm. But he still does think about it from time to time, appreciating the unlikeliness of a kid from Iron Mountain, Mich., ending up here, one of the most successful coaches of one of the most storied programs of the last two decades.

In a nutshell, that's why Izzo loves his senior guard, Travis Trice.

"As a coach, you kind of fall in love with the guys that remind you more of yourself," Izzo said. "I think Travis has as a good a chance of leading us to an Elite Eight, maybe a Final Four, as I did in getting this job. We're kind of long shots."

The only way Izzo even found Trice — a 5-11, 160-pound three-star recruit out of Ohio — to begin recruiting him was because Trice played on the same AAU team as Branden Dawson, a bigger, stronger Spartans target.

"(Trice) was too skinny," Izzo said. "He was too small. He was too this and too that. But, unbelievable family, a dad who's a coach, just an ability to win."

So Trice ended up at Michigan State, too.

It's been a wild four years for him with this program. He's been a reserve, mostly, until this, his breakout senior season in which he's led the Spartans in scoring (15.3 points a game, and also 5.1 assists). More important, he's elevated his play from the Big Ten tournament on, carrying this team to the precipice of the Final Four.

"I know people who wanted to go to Division I and didn't get an opportunity to go," Trice said. "So I'm just blessed and appreciative of it. I just try and take one day at a time, really."

During his four years here, he's battled injuries — from a painful blister that grew on top of another painful blister last season to a mysterious brain infection his sophomore year — like no other current college basketball player has. And he's emerged from them, healthy and motivated.

Now, Trice is the star of the Spartans in the midst of what Izzo has called the most improbable and potentially rewarding NCAA tournament run of his coaching career.

"Coach has said (Trice) has the 'little man syndrome,' where he's always trying to impress people, show people he's able be in the position he's in now," Dawson said. "People have always doubted him, said he was too small, not strong enough, not fast enough, couldn't create his own shot.

"Just playing alongside him the last few years, it's amazing to see him now compete against the best guards in the country."

Not just play them — beat them. He's got another change Sunday, as he takes on Louisville's vaunted backcourt for a chance to book a ticket to the Final Four in Indianapolis next weekend.

It seems like a long shot, indeed. But if anyone knows how well those long odds sometimes work out — it's Izzo. It's this Spartans program. It's Trice.​

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