Winningest Big Ten basketball coaches: Michigan State's Tom Izzo can move past Bob Knight
With a win Tuesday night against Indiana, Michigan State men’s basketball can continue what has been a stellar and surprising 2024-25 season, improving its record to 20-4, remaining firmly in the hunt for a Big Ten regular-season championship and strengthening its argument for a top-three seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
Spartans coach Tom Izzo will have a little something extra to gain — a place atop a list that includes some of the best coaches in the sport’s history.
If No. 11 Michigan State knocks off Mike Woodson and the Hoosiers on Tuesday, it will be Izzo's 354th career victory in conference play — breaking a tie with Bob Knight for the most ever by a Big Ten coach.
Izzo’s achievement would be all the more notable because of who it came against — an Indiana program that Knight, who died in November 2023, coached for 29 seasons. Izzo's first-ever Big Ten game came against Knight and the Hoosiers on Jan. 4, 1996, a game the Spartans won 65-60.
Since taking over for Jud Heathcote in 1995, Izzo has gone 726-299 overall and 353-172 in Big Ten games. Among active coaches, the 70-year-old Izzo is eighth in career victories.
The Spartans have been a model of consistent success under Izzo’s watch, making the NCAA Tournament 26 consecutive times (soon to be 27), winning at least one game in the tournament 20 times, advancing to at least the Sweet 16 15 times, making eight Final Fours and, most notably, winning the national championship in 2000.
Izzo’s eight Final Fours are the fifth-most ever by a coach. Twenty-five years later, Michigan State is still the last Big Ten team to win a men’s basketball NCAA title.
Winningest coaches in Big Ten basketball history
Izzo will likely hold on to the record for some time, as Knight is 88 victories ahead of Gene Keady, the coach with the third-most career Big Ten wins. His last stint as head coach ended at Purdue in 2005.
Perhaps the biggest threat to Izzo’s newfound place atop the list is Purdue coach Matt Painter, who as of Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025 has 237 career Big Ten wins and is only 54 years old. The Boilermakers have averaged 13.7 conference wins over the past 10 full seasons, meaning Painter could surpass Izzo in nine years — if his program continues winning games at that pace.
Here’s a look at the Big Ten men’s basketball coaches with the most career conference wins:
- T-1. Tom Izzo, Michigan State (353)
- T-1. Bob Knight, Indiana (353)
- 3. Gene Keady, Purdue (265)
- 4. Matt Painter, Purdue (237)
- 5. Ward Lambert, Purdue (228)
- 6. Lou Henson, Illinois (214)
- 7. Branch McCracken, Indiana (210)
- 8. Jud Heathcote, Michigan State (182)
- 9. Harry Combes, Illinois (174)
- 10. Bo Ryan, Wisconsin (172)