Michigan State coach Tom Izzo breaks Bob Knight's Big Ten's win record with victory over Illinois

Tom Izzo is now the winningest-head coach in the Big Ten.

The longtime Michigan State leader broke Bob Knight’s record on Saturday night with the Spartans’ 79-65 win over Illinois at the State Farm Center. That officially marked Izzo’s 354th conference win, which broke a tie with Knight.

Izzo now holds a career Big Ten record of 354-173.

"He's gonna downplay regardless, that's kind of the guy he is," sophomore Coen Carr said before the game on Monday, <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/michigan-state/spartans/2025/02/11/tom-izzo-michigan-state-basketball-bob-knight-record-indiana-hoosiers-preview/78394291007/">via the Detroit Free Press</a>. "We kind of have made a little pact or whatever, so it means something to us. It means a lot to us and to the coaches, we definitely are thinking about it. But we still want to go out there and win the game and do what we need to do."

Knight dominated at Indiana for decades. The longtime coach led the Hoosiers to three national titles and five Final Fours during his 23 seasons in Bloomington. He finished there with a 659-242 overall record. Knight died in 2023.

Izzo matched Knight’s record with an emotional comeback win over Oregon last week. He had a chance to break the record on Tuesday night at home over Indiana, too, but the Hoosiers snuck out a 71-67 upset win.

"I have memories of him kind of sneaking up on me my first game down [at Indiana] and telling me how bad the officials are going to be. And he did it right in front of the officials – and the four of them laughed, and I was scared to death," Izzo said of Knight, who served as a mentor to him early on in his career, <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/michigan-state/spartans/2025/02/11/tom-izzo-michigan-state-basketball-bob-knight-record-indiana-hoosiers-preview/78394291007/">via the Detroit Free Press</a>. "Of course, the first win was against them, and we weren't that good and we found a way to win that game. That was a great memory. And probably one of my best memories is when we beat him down there the year we won the championship. And he told me that we were good enough to win a championship after the game, and he was great about everything."

Izzo was hired at Michigan State in 1995. He’s led the Spartans to the NCAA tournament in all but two seasons where that was possible, and he won a national championship in 2000 — which was the last title a Big Ten team has won. The Spartans have won 10 regular season conference titles and reached the Final Four eight times on his watch. Izzo was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.

With the win on Tuesday, Izzo now holds a 727-300 career record. The 70-year-old trails only seven other active coaches in the sport on the all-time wins list. Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski still holds the men’s Division-I record with 1,202 career wins.

On Saturday, Michigan State's history-clinching game started a little shaky, with the Spartans falling behind the Illini in the first half. But Michigan State outscored Illinois 42-24 in the second half to take the win.

Spartan forward Jaxon Kohler put up a double-double in the away win, with 10 rebounds and a game-high 23 points. With the win, Michigan State spoiled the jersey retirement night for Terrence Shannon Jr. — which, given that the team unveiled his jersey upside down, wasn't too hard to do.

Michigan State now sits at 19-5 on the season, and are right with No. 7 Purdue and No. 20 Michigan at the top of the Big Ten race. The Spartans will take on those two teams next, playing Purdue on Tuesday and Michigan on Friday.