While Tom Izzo prepares his team to focus on their first, West Coast trip to play first-year members of the Big Ten, USC and UCLA, he is on the doorstep of history yet again.

Sitting at 725 wins, Coach Izzo has 352 within the Big Ten. This ranks second since taking over in 1995/96 season. Recently, it’s been made aware that he is on knocking on the proverbial door for the all-time Big Ten wins leader behind the legendary Hall of Famer and long-time Indiana Hoosier Head Coach, the late Bob Knight, at 353. Izzo has tremendous respect for Knight and how he transformed Indiana and elevated the conference to new, competitive heights. He already passed Knight in wins at one Big Ten School when he reached 663, eclipsing 700 late last season.

When he sat down with FOX Sports’ John Fanta earlier in January for an exclusive interview, Izzo had this excerpt about the record and Coach Knight:

“I was a Bob Knight fan and to think that we here at Michigan State could accomplish something like that is mind-boggling to me and wilder than anything I thought it could be when I got into this profession. It supersedes all my dreams and goals.”

He mentioned other legends he deeply admired in Knight, John Thompson (HOF Georgetown Head Coach & NBA Champion) and Gene Keady (long-time Purdue Head Coach and HOFer). “To be in the same breath with a guy like that? Bob was great to me, and I have so much respect and admiration for him and what he’s done.”

To expand the scope of the potential timing of tying and setting the record, is one out of a Hollywood script–surreal might be the best way to describe it. Standing in his way of the timing aspect, of what will certainly fall as a matter of when and not if, is Saturday at USC led by Eric Musselman which would tie the mark. Then the following Tuesday at UCLA with Mick Cronin at the helm, another veteran coach, would set the record. Cronin had the following to say about how he drew from Izzo to his own approach while starting at UCLA, in a 2019 interview:

“I told Dan (Guerrero, athletic director) in my interview that if I could do half of what Tom Izzo’s done at Michigan State, that that’s my goal at UCLA. To run a program, run it the right way, win the right way, graduate players, everything, they’re about team. Guys still make the NBA. They’ve got guys all over the NBA. And their guys win in the NBA because they’re taught winning in college.

“And I really did tell Dan that in the interview. There’s a way to run an elite program to make your university proud, not just to win games. It’s the way Coach Izzo has run his program for 25 years. So, the problem is he’s 25 years in and I’m six games in or seven games in, as far as building what we’re all about.”

Why would breaking it at UCLA be such an intimate moment, not just for Izzo, but for legendary coaches still pacing the sideline? Well, cut from the old-school mentality would be the obvious fact that Pauley Pavilion is the Meca of college basketball success thanks to THE legend himself, John Wooden. For many, that would be appreciative enough in that spotlight- the holy grail of success and the benchmark many coaches chase to set for their own program. However, I am convinced it’s deeper–one of Wooden’s best players, students and lover of life and everything in it, would be Bill Walton, who tragically and suddenly passed away last year after a secret battle of cancer.

We hear a lot about transformation coaches who become the most successful, majority of times and of sustained success. Coaches who prepare their players for life beyond the court, for families, careers and emphasizing contributions to the community and building a foundation in effort to leaving a legacy they can be proud of. Man, I cannot think of a more perfect example than Walton who embodied everything a coach wishes a player would mature to be, as a person. Sure, he may have been made fun of for his truly happy-go-lucky, hipster like personality, but he was unapologetically himself, which is why he was deeply revered and boy, was there not a boring telecast when he was on the headset. While he is no longer with us physically, his play as a Bruin and ability to expand our own horizons through the game on TV would certainly touch Coach Izzo in the purest of ways. In fact, Coach Izzo had an early run-in with Walton, shortly after winning the 2000 NCAA Championship and being invited to the Wooden awards, in which he got to meet Coach Wooden and Walton, and he speaks on it as defining success in a sit-down interview with Graham Bensinger:

“I remember this, I learned this early about success. He [Wooden] said ‘Hi Tom Izzo,’ and I turned to my players, and I said to them ‘He knows my name!’ and Wooden then said, ‘Welcome to the fraternity of 40.’ I looked around, confused and said ‘Thanks,’ and I thought to myself, what the hell is the Fraternity have to do with this?”

“I then walked over to Bill Walton and said, ‘Hey Bill, what did he mean by the Fraternity of 40?’ and Bill said ‘Well, there are 40 guys who have won a National Championship and you’re one of them.’ My God as he was talking, I was growing and soon I was 6’11”–Wow I felt good! I started to turn around and walk away and then Bill says, “By the way Tom, John has 10 of them.’ I left there feeling 3’6” and I realized I haven’t done nothing yet.’

Will destiny, fate and history fall in line for Big Ten win no. 354 to develop at UCLA? We can only tune in and find out. Although poetic in itself, there certainly won’t be many who will be less content if it were to happen back at MSU, where they would face Oregon and Indiana. However way it does unfold, Coach Izzo is ascending another historical milestone, of which, there will not be many left to conquer going forward. Already a Naismith HOF himself and a National Champion, he has had simply one goal in recent years, of which he has been anything but bashful about, and that is “Just win one [title] more.” Perhaps that this season’s motto is an indirect tribute to his running win count and this Big Ten record as he looks to his top 10 ranked team and an evolving March contender in echoing “Strength in numbers,” and he certainly has plenty of numbers in that column. Now, it is up to this year’s team to “put their print in the sand,” yet again, in a historic 30-year run for Coach Izzo and MSU basketball.