Tom Izzo: Gophers 'could be No. 1 in the league next year'

After Thursday's 77-67 victory over Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament at Target Center in Minneapolis, Michigan State men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo opened his postgame press conference with a series of complements for the U.

“First I’d like to give credit to Minnesota,” Izzo said. “They played well. (Gophers coach Ben Johnson has) done an unbelievable job with the program. They could be the No. 1 team in the league next year. So hat’s off to them.”

That's quite a compliment from a coach that knows exactly what it takes to be the top team in the Big Ten, not to mention a coach that's won six Big Ten Tournament titles and will be looking for his seventh as the Spartans advanced to take on Purdue at 11 a.m. on Friday back at Target Center. 

Izzo said he's close with Johnson and wants to be a mentor of sorts to other coaches as they embark on their coaching journeys, just like other coaches helped him when he took the helm at Michigan State in 1995. 

“I try to do some of that with Ben because I believe in him,” Izzo said, “and I believe what he’s done.”

The Gophers are poised to return almost their entire team from this season should everyone decide to stay. It remains to be seen how that plays out in the offseason, but all five of the Gophers starters from this season have remaining eligibility. 

Elijah Hawkins and Mike Mitchell Jr. are both juniors. Cam Christie is just a freshman. Pharrel Payne is a sophomore. Senior Dawson Garcia has a year of eligibility remaining should he want to use it. There's plenty of reasons to see optimism. 

“All he has to do is hold this team together, and they’ll come in as, if not the favorite, one of the favorites,” Izzo said of Johnson and the U before walking through the improvement he’s seen from the likes of Christie, Mitchell, Parker Fox, who also has a year of eligibility remaining, and Garcia. “… I just thought when we got close a couple times we were down, they came with a great play. I mean, (Johnson) did a marvelous job of managing the game. At the end, we made a couple more plays than they did.

“But the guy deserves a lot of credit. When you look at him, being a Minnesota kid, there’s going to be a lot of great years ahead for him.”

Johnson said Izzo is someone who’s made him a better coach. Izzo recruited Johnson out of high school, and again when he transferred from Northwestern to Minnesota, and even though Johnson never suited up for the Spartans, the two have remained close over the years.

“(Izzo) has been unbelievable with me, as well as other coaches, but a guy in the league normally doesn’t do that,” Johnson said. “He takes the time out to always check in and call, and he pays attention. I’m able to use him as a sounding board.”