With the culture of college basketball shifting beneath him, Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo remains grounded in his passion for the game and his love for each and every player.

Izzo has been leading the Spartans as head coach now for nearly three decades and has an impressive list of accomplishments to show for it, including a Hall of Fame title, 2000 NCAA National Championship, 11 regular-season Big Ten Championships, and a Big Ten-record of 27 straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

Despite all this success and experience, college basketball has seen major changes in the last few years with NIL (name, image and likeness) deals, transfer portal obscurity, and unwavering pressure on players. Nonetheless, Izzo’s passion for the game withstands all these changes and his love for each of his players is keeping him motivated.

“I still have passion, I still have energy, I still want to make a difference,” Izzo said. “I still want to help kids live their dream (like) I got to live mine. All the right reasons.”

Izzo stays grounded in this motivation and it is the very reason that has helped him to stay at Michigan State for so long despite other offers. His mission has proven more difficult in recent years with the NCAA’s current loose rules on player compensation and transfers, which Izzo calls a bad system created by the "adults," giving players an inadequate structure to make these life-altering decisions.

“The players are being forced to navigate that with most of the public attention focused on the negative things of it,” Izzo said. “These kids are under pressure from the day the season starts.”

Despite his frustration with the system, Izzo stresses he isn’t against NIL and he isn’t against the transfer portal, but wants to see guard rails put in place just like can be seen with professional basketball, football and hockey where there are salary caps in place.

“I’m just going to do the best job that I can do of educating the people I have that money isn’t everything,” Izzo said. “I am not against anything except people interfering with our players, people recruiting them right off your team, which is happening a lot.”

This season, Izzo has lost three of his scholarship players to the transfer portal, including Xavier Booker, Gehrig Normand and Tre Holloman. Some he expected and others were surprising (Holloman), but either way Izzo speaks to each player he has or has lost with care saying he loves each guy he has and appreciates each one leaving and what they have done for the Michigan State culture.

“Every kid that left here this year, some I knew were leaving, some I was a little surprised, but every kid that left, I’m still going to support,” Izzo said. “I completely understood two of them. The third one, I didn’t understand as much, but I respect it.”

An emotional reflection came when Izzo spoke about Booker, a player he regarded highly and would always be there when called upon morning, afternoon and night.

“As a student-athlete, he’s done an unbelievable job,” Izzo said about Booker. “I just couldn’t get enough out of him. That’s not all his fault, that’s my job. I get paid for that … I feel bad about 'Book' because I think deep down there is one hell of a basketball player down there and my job is to get that out of him and I didn’t get that done, so I have to take responsibility for it, too.”

It’s rare to hear a coach so quickly and so publicly take responsibility for not getting enough out of a player, especially in an era where most coaches default to moving on to the next bigger, better, and more skilled player.

Gehrig Normand was another player Izzo expected to leave, but still warranted an emotional response.

“I thought that Gehrig was almost homesick the day he got here,” Izzo said about Normand. “He worked his tail off all year. He was on that scout team. He did a phenomenal job. He got a lot better as a basketball player.”

Although Normand ultimately decided to transfer after a tough year with a preseason knee injury, Izzo made it clear the work he put in did not go unnoticed and he will continue to support him and his growth as a basketball player.

Holloman came as a surprise to Izzo, but he acknowledged that Holloman wanted some things he needed, too. Even though he was shocked at first, Izzo pointed out that nothing can surprise him right now. He joked that he checks each night to see if his own kids are in the transfer portal and is thankful they haven’t left yet.

“I talked to him, he talked to me, we went over it, and that’s kind of the way it is,” Izzo said about Holloman. “Every one of those players came in to talk to me before they did that. I talked to a lot of coaches and they find out from (the media) that a kid went in the portal.”

Despite some disheartening player losses, Izzo is also feeling immense pride with what he has seen from freshman guard Jase Richardson, who is pursuing the 2025 NBA Draft (although Izzo mentioned he doesn't think Richardson has "closed any door" yet), and what he got to experience coaching him this past season. Izzo said it was simply fun, watching his player live out his dream of going to the NBA, and feels no sadness in (most likely) losing Richardson to the draft.

"I did not feel sad at all,” Izzo said about Richardson entering the NBA Draft. “Just think of the privilege I’ve had. I had his father (Jason) who won a national championship and two Big Ten championships and his son who won a Big Ten championship and played in the Elite Eight. And they both got to fulfill their dream of going to the NBA. I mean, that is all good.”

The departures don’t seem to be shaking Izzo's foundation as he remains passionate about building a team that is centered around friendships, culture and long-term bonds.

“I still want to have the right fit for the guys I get,” Izzo said. “I still want guys that care about culture. I still want guys that care about relationships, and connectedness. I want winning to be important. I want graduation to be important. I want a lifetime connection to this university to be important. And that's what I’m going to try to do. Those that want that, I’m hoping I get a majority of those. Those that don’t, I have changed my opinion and I respect their ability to do whatever they want to do.”

Izzo stresses that money isn’t everything and he is going to do his best to educate his players on that idea. He believes with a lot of money comes a lot of problems and it is very easy to look at the short term, rather than the long term because there isn't really a process. He believes players need to look at the process, but admits if people don’t want to, he is OK with that now.

“I’m still going to win, I’m still going to get good players, I’m still going to get players that believe,” Izzo said. “I’m going to pay players as much as I can pay them, I’m going to play them as much as I can play them, I’m going to try to do all the things that I can do to give them a chance to live their dream.”

In 30 years as a head coach, Izzo has had to problem-solve and adapt, but when it comes to the transfer portal and the new era of recruiting with NIL, Izzo admits he doesn’t have a solution.