Why Steven Izzo's first college basket is bigger to Tom Izzo, and his son, than you think

EAST LANSING — The last time Steven Izzo took a shot, everyone inside Breslin Center thought it would go in. Including him.

A perfectly on-target 3-pointer from a surprisingly deep distance, near the midcourt logo in front of the Michigan State basketball bench. Fans gasped at the shot choice. From behind, it looked good. It hit nothing but the bottom of the net.

It just didn't go through the rim.

“I thought that one went in,” he recalled Sunday with a laugh. “And the fact that I airballed it, I think I got more recognition for it, because it was such a crazy shot.”

That miss against Penn State got Tom Izzo screaming. Steven’s next attempt 10 days later left his father crying.

The fifth-year senior entered the Spartans’ win with 54.3 seconds to play and his team leading by 18 points. With 33.8 seconds to play, Steven Izzo scored his first collegiate basket and got fouled in the process, completing the three-point play as part of his team’s much-needed 73-55 victory Sunday afternoon.

“Just a moment that I'm always gonna remember. And I'm glad that I got to see it,” Steven Izzo said at his locker after the game, shortly after his teammates doused him with water upon arriving inside. “Everyone said, 'Oh, the roof would come off Breslin.’ I'm glad that I got to give that to the fans, and especially experiencing it with my father. …

“They were going nuts. I couldn’t hear anything. So that is what was crazy for me. I didn't expect it to be like that.”

The proud moment for father and son was a long time coming.

The Hall of Fame coach has not been shy about why he was adding his son as a walk-on back in 2019, even though Steven was a high school reserve at Lansing Catholic who played in 24 varsity games as a senior and averaged 1.5 points in just under 5 minutes per game. It was a chance to make up for all the long days in practice, the long nights watching film, the extended road trips that took Tom Izzo away from his family for the early part of 22-year-old Steven’s life.

The reward? Time spent together unlike the two had before. A chance for Steven to see his dad work up close. An opportunity to, like Tom did as a walk-on basketball player at Northern Michigan, follow his dream.

“We all know exactly where Steven's at and the situation and why he's here,” Tom Izzo said. “But if you're a parent, it's just one of those times that what I was most excited about wasn't for him. I was most excited that our players and our fans cared so much about him that they made that more special for me. It was something I'll never forget.”

In 49 minutes over 43 career appearances going into the Rutgers game, Steven Izzo missed all 13 of his shot attempts and all four of his free-throws.

None of that mattered Sunday. The final stat line couldn’t even tell the complete story: 1-for-1 from the field, 1-for-1 at the free-throw line for 3 points.

It was the roar of the crowd, the father-son hug and the cheers that lingered well past when Tom Izzo carried the game ball back to MSU’s locker room while fighting back his emotion.

“The fans made it amazing. They chant my name all the time. I don't know,” Steven said. “It was experience that I'm never gonna forget and a stress that is off my shoulders.”

After a missed Rutgers free throw at the other end, Steven Izzo ran off a screen from fellow famous walk-on Nick Sanders (son of Barry) and caught a pass from Tre Holloman in the right corner in front of the MSU bench.

Everyone knew what might come next, his teammates already on their feet on the sideline behind him waiting for a chance at redemption from 10 days earlier.

No one could have predicted how Izzo’s first collegiate points would happen.

With Scarlet Knights guard Austin Williams blanketing him on the catch, Izzo dribbled out of the corner with his left hand to the elbow, then delivered a between-the-legs crossover that froze Williams and got MSU’s Jaden Akins pogo-stick bouncing along the sideline.

Where did that move come from?

“Not from my dad,” Steven joked.

“It was actually a hell of a move,” Tom would boast.

Steven took two dribbles down the right side of the lane. Williams backpedaled in front of him. The 5-foot-8, 150-pound Izzo elevated and lofted a high-arcing shot over the 6-4, 205-pound Williams before tumbling to the ground. Izzo never took his eye off the ball as he slid along the baseline, the whistle for the foul call echoing in the silence of the moment.

The ball hung on the back of the rim for seemingly an eternity before finally falling through. Guard Tyson Walker and Andrew Henk, assistant director of basketball operations, were the first to greet and pick Steven up from the floor. His teammates quickly flooded around him. As Breslin went bonkers, he walked over and embraced his dad quickly before coolly making the ensuing free throw that would be MSU’s final points of the win.

“It just kept bouncing. And I was like, 'I think that has a chance.' And I'm just laying there (looking) backwards, so I couldn't see. And then it went in. I was like, 'Oh my God, that's awesome.' And then everyone grabbed me and picked me up and threw me around. It was awesome. Just seeing it bounce in, the weight of the world was off my shoulders. The first thing I had to do was go hug my dad, because I knew that it was a very emotional moment for him. And emotional for me. I got on all my tears out.”

Said Holloman, who got the assist and would later give Steven the ball to dribble out the final seconds of the win at midcourt: “When he made it, it was just exciting and so heavy. I was just super-happy.”

Tom Izzo reflected on his Northern Michigan teammates he had watching Sunday at Breslin, about 35 from his playing days with the Wildcats from 1973-77. He went from a walk-on from Iron Mountain to a Division II All-American point guard to the Spartans’ head coach for the last 29 years. And it gave him pause to see his son do what he did.

“I often think when I see him out there, I'd have gave my right and left arm just to run through the tunnel at a place like Michigan State. I would have. I never got a chance to do that,” Tom Izzo. “But sometimes, you get to live your own dreams through somebody else. And on this day, he was so damn excited. ...

“I didn't know if it would ever happen because I didn't know if I'd be able to get him in again.”

But it did. And the weight lifted that Steven Izzo talked about signified everything that came along with being the son of the head coach who put him on the team, about the encouraging yet stressful reminders that he had yet to score. Though he graduated in three years and started working on his master’s degree last season, he decided to return for one more year with the COVID waiver for the 2020-21 season. And one more opportunity to share a bench and a locker room with his father.

And to give each of them one shining moment that will last the rest of their lives.

“I wasn't gonna base this year on scoring and the pressures of people wanting me to score, people talking about it. I just wanted to take in this last year as a great experience with my dad,” Steven said. “Putting on his jersey means the world to me, and it always has. So I just want to enjoy to the fullest. Now, I have no regrets. I definitely have no stress.

“I could not play, I could not shoot the rest of my life. I'm good.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What made Michigan State basketball's Tom Izzo happiest on son scoring