The two coaches have combined for more than 1,500 victories. A few more could earn them a meeting next weekend.
Michigan State's Tom Izzo, left, and Tennessee's Rick Barnes before the Maui Relief charity game at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich. CHARLOTTE — They are among the last representatives of the old guard. At a time when longtime men’s college basketball peers are stepping away from the sport’s evolving landscape, they coach on, having combined for more than 1,500 victories. One is in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The other almost certainly will be.
The ninth-seeded Spartans play North Carolina , the top seed in the West Region, in the first game Saturday night at Spectrum Center. Tennessee , the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region, will meet seventh-seeded Texas , where Barnes won a school-record 402 games from 1998 through 2015.“I just talked to this morning, in fact,” said Izzo, who has directed Michigan State to 26 consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament, the longest such streak in the sport’s history.
The paths of Izzo and Barnes crossed sporadically over the next several decades, with both coming together in 2006 for a “Operation Hardwood II” to coach soldiers in Kuwait in a March Madness-like tournament. They not only bonded with each other on the long flight.“In this business, we’re kind of the same era,” said Barnes, 69, whose 804 wins are the second most among active coaches behind Kentucky’s John Calipari. “Going over there , we all loved it. You talk about coaching.
“It’s always tough playing people that you know,” Barnes said. “In all honesty, do you want to match up with your friends — like talking about Tom, I don’t particularly look forward to that,” Barnes said. “I don’t look forward to it, but we all know we have a job to do, and when we toss it up, we’re going to try to do what we do, and that’s try to win a basketball game.”
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