Tom Izzo and John Beilein Head Coaches

The State of Michigan has two good basketball minds.   University of Michigan's John Beilein has a combined career coaching record of 626 - 387 entering the 2011-2012 season in 34 years.    Michigan State University's Tom Izzo in his 17th year as head coach has a record of 393 - 163 entering the 2011 -2012 season.  Izzo is in his 30th year of coaching basketball at MSU.

The 2011-2012 season has seen both programs race out to good records in the non-conference part of their schedules.  As of this writing the Spartans stand at 10-2 and this is after dropping the first two games of the season against traditional powerhouses Duke and University of North Carolina.   The Wolverines have played a tougher non-conference schedule this season and have started at 9-2.  They have played top ranked teams like Duke, Memphis and UCLA.

Michigan State's Tom Izzo has leaped to become one of the top Collegiate Coaches in the country in a quick 16 seasons.   Izzo has taken the Spartans to 6 NCAA Final Fours in 13 years.   Coach Izzo has won the National Coach of the year four times already in his career.  The Northern Michigan University graduate has seen several of his assistants leave the MSU program and go on to be successful head coaches at other Division 1 programs.   Izzo has a contract that virtually assures his to be a Spartan for life. 

Michigan's John Beilein has enjoyed success at every coaching stop in his career.  He has turned around the Michigan program in just 4 years and leading them to 2 NCAA Tournament spots in the last 3 years.    With the start of the 2011-2012 season it is almost assured that the Wolverines will be returning to the NCAA Tournament again in 2012.