Tom Izzo Quotes

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Tom Izzo

Profession : Coach

Birth : January 30, 1955

Really good leaders help others become better than they are.

Tom Izzo

It's not my job to judge one of my athletes. Everybody is different. Some are the partying type, some are the studying type, some are ultra-religious, some might be gay. Put it this way: If you can play ball, that's all I care about.

Tom Izzo

If you ever get a chance to do something outside the box... I say step outside the box.

Tom Izzo

I'll go to the grocery store or gas station, and someone says, 'What are you doing here? You pump your own gas?' Yeah, I pump my own gas - take my trash out, too.

Tom Izzo

You have to get to Mackinac Island once or twice and, of course, coming up to the Mackinac Bridge is just awesome to me.

Tom Izzo

There's efforts to win games and there's efforts to win championships.

Tom Izzo

We all think there's greener things on the other side. We all take for granted what we have. I don't care who we are.

Tom Izzo

Remember, talent doesn't win championships, talent doesn't win games.

Tom Izzo

Looking at the big picture, I know God put me in the right spot, with the right mentor.

Tom Izzo

I've had incredible mentors, people around me, my whole life.

Tom Izzo

You've got to fight through some adversity. You've got to have some tough times. You've got to have some rainy days.

Tom Izzo

It's easy to become a better basketball player but harder to become a better teammate or person.

Tom Izzo

I'm not a football coach; sometimes I'd like to be - you can grab guys by the facemask, you can yell at the refs, nobody cares.

Tom Izzo

As white Americans, we sometimes think it's enough to say that we aren't racist. But that's selfish - that's just being worried about ourselves.

Tom Izzo

I've learned that people that question you are going to question you, the haters are going to hate you.

Tom Izzo

With the new social media way of doing things, kids are seeing things a lot more, a lot quicker. So I think we as coaches have to adjust to it some way.

Tom Izzo

We've gone to Final Fours as one seeds, we've gone there as five seeds. I think every Final Four we've been in we've had the most losses, just because sometimes scheduling, sometimes poor coaching, whatever the case may be.

Tom Izzo

The one-and-done thing is a phenomenon. I don't know if it's going to last, if it's going to be that way all the time. It's going to be something that we're all going to have to deal with. But I don't think it's the norm.

Tom Izzo

I'd do anything with the U.S.A. team in the Olympics from being the head coach, which probably isn't going to happen, to being an assistant, to being a manager or waterboy.

Tom Izzo

I just think there's something about being in the Olympics, even though I think it's been tarnished a little bit by commercialization.

Tom Izzo