On a cold, rainy spring night five years ago, the room was dripping with superstars. The guest of honor was USA basketball boss Jerry Colangelo. The dinner speaker was Mike Krzyzewski. Kobe Bryant sent a video tribute. Jay Bilas served as emcee.
Naturally, Tom Izzo stole the show. The same could happen Sunday, even though Coach K, Rick Pitino and Gonzaga’s Mark Few are also fighting to get the Final Four.
If your teams are already back in class, you could do worse than adopt Izzo and the seventh-seeded Michigan State Spartans. They meet Pitino and No. 4 Louisville in the East regional championship. They’re the sentimental favorites nearly everywhere they go.
That 2009 dinner was billed as a celebration of the gold medal Team USA reclaimed at the previous summer’s Beijing Olympics. But all anybody wanted to talk about that night was the improbable, emotional ride Izzo and his Spartans had concluded a week earlier at the Final Four in Detroit.
They made it to that season’s final weekend with a dramatic upset of No. 1 overall seed Louisville in the West Regional. Izzo and Pitino, two of the best coaches of their generation – especially at tournament time – had never met in the NCAAs before.