Tom Izzo has produced a legendary career guiding Michigan State, toppling program and Big Ten records over the years. On Tuesday, he added one more honor to his trophy case.

With the full B1G honors released, Izzo was officially named the B1G Coach of the Year for the 2024-25 season. It is the 4th COY honor for Izzo’s time with the Spartans but is his first since capturing the award in 2012, over a decade ago.

“I really appreciate it. That award came a few times early in my career, and it’s been a long time,” said Izzo on BTN about receiving the honor. “I think my team deserves this award… If there’s ever a year when that is true, this is true. We’ve had an incredible year, but we’ve done a lot of things together. It’s truly a group effort that does this.”

With the award, Izzo has now captured the honor in 4 different decades of his career (1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s). His first honor came in 1998 at the end of his 3rd season leading the Spartans.

Asked about the significance of the award, Izzo admitted it means a bit more this year after recent performances. Michigan State finished the regular season unranked for 4 straight seasons before a top-10 breakthrough and outright Big Ten title this year.

“Hell yeah,” said Izzo about the award becoming more meaningful later in his career. “Everybody knows that you get certain ages, you’re on the back 9, if you can survive in these jobs anymore. I think it’s more meaningful, too, that people start thinking maybe the game has passed you by. It’s good to know that the game hasn’t passed me by until I quit working.”

Now, the Spartans can set their sights on the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed in Indianapolis. MSU last won the conference tournament in 2019, and the last time the program won an outright regular-season title and the conference tournament in the same year was in 1999.