Tom Izzo Quotes

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Tom Izzo

Profession : Coach

Birth : January 30, 1955

I'm a pizza guy, so yes, I love cheese!

Tom Izzo

Coaches tell you things for a reason. If they tell you to keep your head up, there's a reason. If they tell you to get the ball ready to shoot, there's a reason.

Tom Izzo

I'm worried about what betters the game and what betters the student-athlete.

Tom Izzo

What is a leader? How can you be successful without one, whether it's corporately or whether it's team-wise or whether it's school-wise, whether it's community-wise or whether it's nation-wise?

Tom Izzo

I think we all are coaches in our own respect because we have to try to figure out a way to help make people better than we really are, and that's what leaders do.

Tom Izzo

All that being a college coach has done, is it's reaffirmed the need to take care of our young people. They're the ones that are going to make a difference. We spend a lot of time blaming them for stuff, and not enough time mentoring them and helping them stand on their own two feet.

Tom Izzo

There is nothing, nothing, nothing like experience - nothing. You can't coach it, you can't teach it, you can't do it - there is nothing like experience.

Tom Izzo

Sometimes if you have two or three at the top it makes the league look good, of course. But the real value of a league is what are teams 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

Tom Izzo

I get out a lot recruiting. Sometimes it's long distance, sometimes it close.

Tom Izzo

When your two major sports, your two revenue sports, are going well, that bodes well for the whole university.

Tom Izzo

You've got to be a sneakerhead if you're a coach and you're dealing with 16 to 22-year-olds and selfishly, I kind of like them myself.

Tom Izzo

Words can't truly express what Mike Garland means to me. We've been friends since we met the first night in college and basically have lived the rest of our professional lives together. To say he's just my friend doesn't even scratch the surface of our relationship. He's my brother for life.

Tom Izzo

A player gets into the Hall because of his abilities. A coach gets in because of his players' ability.

Tom Izzo

Two years in a row, I went to Kuwait for a week. I lived in the barracks with U.S. troops; that was pretty interesting.

Tom Izzo

In the NBA, you never know who you will play for, who is coaching you, what the general managers are like.

Tom Izzo

When you know your players are doing the right things in the locker room, the dorm room, on the plane, it makes you more relaxed.

Tom Izzo

I spent years sleeping with both eyes open.

Tom Izzo

We're past the days of Vince Lombardi, where you say jump and I ask: 'How high?' But you still have to find a way to get your guys to jump, get them to trust you.

Tom Izzo

When I grew up, you trusted anyone of authority. Kids don't trust people any more, and I don't blame them. We have to earn their trust, and it takes time.

Tom Izzo

Timing in life can be cruel and it can be funny.

Tom Izzo