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By Anne Erickson
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There aren't many college basketball coaches like Tom Izzo, and that's not lost on players and personalities in the sport.
On Thanksgiving Day, Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans pulled off a substantial win over the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Fort Myers Tip-Off Classic in Fort Myers, Fla.
As the head coach of the Spartans for three decades, Izzo has an old-school style of coaching that's still pulling off incredible wins and records. On Thursday, Michigan State led for the majority of the game, but it really took a strong lead in the last few minutes of the lopsided 74-58 win.
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After the game, Jimmy Jackson of Fox Sports spoke with Izzo, and the coach praised the players on both teams.
"I thought the first early part of the game they were taking it to us," Izzo said, according to the Spartans Wire. "They were bumping us on cuts, I didn't think we handled it very well so give credit to them. They were physical with us, and that's normally our game.
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"But, we decided halfway through that we needed to do a better job at cutting. I don't think we were sharp offensively but defensively we got better and we tried to keep up. We kept them off the sidelines like we talked about for the most part. And we rebounded the ball pretty well."
Ahead of the game, Izzo praised UNC freshman Caleb Wilson and talked about the challenge of taking on the team.
"Wilson's a big difference. They've got a legitimate star if you ask me. He's very good," Izzo said on Tuesday following the team's win over East Carolina."
Also, after the game, Izzo got a huge endorsement. The team's star point guard, Jeremy Fears Jr., called him the absolute best coach right now in the sport.
"Jeremy Fears Jr. set the stage for Tom Izzo in the postgame press conference by calling Izzo 'the best coach in the country' as he left the stand," Jack Morgan of ESPN Plus reported.
Fears Jr. had a strong game against UNC. He finished the game with a career-high 19 points and seven assists to lead the Spartans to the victory.
So now, Michigan State is 7-0 and will play its first conference game of the season on Tuesday when the Spartans take on Iowa at the Breslin Center.
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