Four dozen and counting

Here's your list:

1. Jason Klein
2. Antonio Smith
3. Mateen Cleaves
4. A.J. Granger
5. Morris Peterson
6. David Thomas
7. Charlie Bell
8. Andre Hutson
9. Aloysius Anoganye
10. Adam Ballinger
11. Jason Andreas
12. Adam Wolfe
13. Alan Anderson
14. Chris Hill
15. Kelvin Torbert
16. Maurice Ager
17. Paul Davis
18. Drew Naymick
19. Delco Rowley
20. Drew Neizel
21. Marquise Gray
22. Idong Ibok
23. Goran Suton
24. Travis Walton
25. Isaiah Dahlman
26. Tom Herzog
27. Raymar Morgan
28. Chris Allen
29. Kalin Lucas
30. Durrell Summers
31. Draymond Green
32. Korie Lucious
33. Delvon Roe
34. Derrick Nix
35. Garrick Sherman

That's the list of players to whom the statement "Every four-year scholarship player who's come into the Michigan State program under Tom Izzo has been to at least one Final Four" applies.  Nearly three dozen guys.  (Technical note: The assumption is that the guys listed from 28-35 will all stay four years.)

I saw the statement phrased slightly differently today by our friend Mr. Brennan (emphasis added):

Oh, and while we're here, it's worth noting that this Final Four extends Izzo's 13-year streak of never having coached a single upperclassman that didn't enjoy a Final Four appearance at least once during his time at Michigan State. And you wonder why Izzo recruits so well.

That statement also checks out.  You can add the names of two players who played three years for Izzo to the list:

36. Brandon Smith
37. Shannon Brown

Plus we've skipped at least five players who came into the program as walk-ons, stayed for at least three years, made substantive contributions on the court during their careers, and advanced to Final Fours:

38. Mat Ishbia
39. Tim Bograkos
40. Matt Trannon
41. Austin Thornton
42. Mike Kebler

But that's not enough.  There have been five Spartans who didn't play even three years under Izzo's tutelage, but still got a Final Four ring:

43. Doug Davis
44. Mike Chappell
45. Jason Richardson
46. Zach Randolph
47. Marcus Taylor

Last, but not least, one player was technically a Jud Heathcote recruit but hung around long enough to see the first Izzo Final Four:

48. Thomas Kelley

Count 'em: 48 Michigan State basketball players who have gone to a Final Four during the Tom Izzo era (hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah hah).

Here is--as best I can tell (reference document is here)--the list of scholarship players who came in under Izzo, played at least one full season, and never went to a Final Four: DaJuan Wiley, Ken Miller, Rashi Johnson, Erazem Lorbek, Maurice Joseph.  Slim pickin's.

This year's NCAA Tournament heroics only expanded the list of Izzo Final Four guys by two (Nix and Sherman), but it greatly expands a subset of the list: Players who have reached at least two Final Fours under Izzo.  There are 22 of those players now: Cleaves, Ishbia, (Brandon) Smith, Bell, Peterson, Richardson, Thomas, Hutson, Granger, Ballinger, Anoganye, Lucas, Lucious, Kebler, Allen, Summers, Morgan, Dahlman, Thornton, Green, Herzog, Roe.  (The number's a little fuzzy: I'm not counting Andreas and Wolfe, since they were redshirts in 2000, but I am counting Kebler and Thornton since they were technically active players last year.)

If that's not building an elite program, I don't know what is.  A kid who is 17 right now and thinking about which college basketball program he'd like to play for has been watching MSU advance to Final Fours since he was 6.  And there are four dozen guys out there telling people about cutting down the nets after a regional final under Tom Izzo.  That's a fairly potent form of ambassadorship.

That's what makes this round of "Is someone going to steal Izzo?" seem fairly ludicrous.  There may be college basketball programs out there with pedigrees that go back further (though the list is short), and there may be schools out there with more money to throw around.  But there's no school that could give Tom Izzo a better base of support for him to achieve the kind of success he strives for--the kind that revolves around lists of four-year players, rather than one-and-done players.

For any high school recruit out there thinking to himself, "Which program gives me the best chance to play on the nation's biggest stage?", the answer has become pretty clear.

For those of us who picked our college destination based on a longer list of considerations (and, in this blogger's case, picked it a full six years before the first Tom Izzo trip to the Final Four), it's been one heckuva ride--and a ride that shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.