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Article: Michigan State coach has walked in Illini's shoes Izzo's Spartans struggled early two seasons ago before winning national title
- Article from:
- The Pantagraph Bloomington, IL
- Article date:
- February 3, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2002 The Pantagraph Bloomington, IL. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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CHAMPAIGN - Tom Izzo can feel Bill Self's pain.
Coming off a Final Four season in 1998-99, Michigan State was
hailed from coast-to-coast as the team to beat. But on Dec. 30, 1999,
the Spartans suffered a stunning 53-49 loss to Wright State. It was
their fourth setback before Big Ten Conference play had even begun.
Suddenly, all felt wrong for Izzo, Michigan State's intense coach.
"I had (Mateen) Cleaves, who was as tough minded as they get, and
he did a better job of that (handling expectations) than I did. It's
hard," said Izzo.
By the way, Michigan State did, err, Wright its way. The Spartans
went on to win the national title.
Illinois, which came up a game short of last year's Final Four, ...