Big Ten basketball wins list: Michigan State's Tom Izzo now sits atop star-studded list

Big Ten basketball wins list: Michigan State’s Tom Izzo now sits atop star-studded list

Posted by author February 16, 2025 Basketball

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Michigan State’s Tom Izzo is now the winningest coach in Big Ten history.
Izzo passed Indiana legend Bob Knight with his 354th conference win on Tuesday.
Izzo has led the Spartans to 10 regular season Big Ten titles, 6 conference tournament championships, and a national championship in 2000.

Tom Izzo has added another record to his Hall of Fame career as Michigan State basketball’s coach.

Michigan State beat Illinois, 79-65, on Saturday night at State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois, in another record-setting win for the Spartans’ coach. The vistory was Izzo’s 354th in Big Ten play (in his 30th season in charge at MSU) to surpass Indiana icon Bob Knight for the most conference wins by a coach in conference history.

With the victory, MSU remained near the top the Big Ten standings, half a game behind Michigan and half a game ahead of Purdue, Tuesday’ opponent. Izzo tied the Big Ten record last Saturday when the Spartans stormed back in the second half to beat Oregon at home.

Izzo’s team is in a position to contend for its 11th Big Ten regular-season championship, which would tie the overall record, held by Knight and Purdue’s Ward “Piggy” Lambert. Izzo already holds the record for most overall wins for a Big Ten coach at a school, plus has the most Big Ten tournament wins (six), NCAA tournament wins and Final Four appearances.

Here’s a look at the top five coaches in Big Ten wins.

*Denotes active coaches.

Tom Izzo: 354*

Izzo’s first conference victory came in 1996. Fittingly, he beat Knight’s Hoosiers to notch the first victory under his belt. After two shaky seasons to begin his tenure, Izzo found the right groove in 1997-98 and went 13-3 for his first regular-season conference title.

Michigan State went on to win at least a share of the next three regular-season titles with a 41-7 record during the Big Ten schedule from 1998-01. In that time, Izzo also won his first two conference tournaments, reached two Final Fours and won his only national championship.

Izzo reached another Final Four in 2005, but did not win a Big Ten title again until the end of the 2008-09 season, when he reached the national championship again. MSU repeated as champions in 2010 and took home a third in four years in 2012. MSU also won three straight regular-season titles from 2018-20 and the conference tournament in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2019.

Bob Knight: 353

Knight, who died in 2023, became the conference’s winningest coach 36 years ago during the 1989-90 season. He came in one win off the record, trailing Purdue’s Lambert, and beat the Boilermakers by a point to set the record at 213 wins.

Knight coached Indiana from 1971-2000, becoming one of the sport’s most iconic and successful coaches. Knight won 662 games while coaching Indiana (a record that stood until Izzo passed him in 2022) including 353 conference games. He coached the Hoosiers for another 11 years before an unceremonious exit.

While at Indiana, Knight finished 662-239 and 353-151 in the Big Ten. He won three national championships, 11 Big Ten championships and led the last undefeated team in college basketball, in 1975-76.

Gene Keady: 265

Keady coached at Purdue for 25 years from 1980-2005 and finished his career with the second-most conference wins of any Big Ten coach, only trailing Knight at the time. He finished with a 512-270 record overall and a 265-169 record against Big Ten opponents.

Keady’s Boilermakers won three straight Big Ten titles from 1994-96 and six conference titles overall. Purdue reached the NCAA tournament 17 times under his direction, but never reached a Final Four.

Matt Painter: 237*

The second Purdue coach on this list is their current leader, Painter. He stepped in to take over for Keady in 2005 and did not miss a beat in building a program contending for conference titles each season. He averages just over 12 conference wins per season, trailing only Knight and Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan.

In 20 seasons, Painter is 466-210 overall and 237-127 in Big Ten games. The Boilermakers have won five Big Ten regular-season championships under Painter, including the last two, when they were led by National Player of the Year Zach Edey.

Ward “Piggy” Lambert: 228

The third and final Purdue coach in the Big Ten’s top five is Lambert, who long stood as the most successful coach in the conference for his pre-World War II success. Lambert coached Purdue in the 1916-17 season and from 1918-46. Under his direction, Purdue won 11 Big Ten championships. He helped introduce key facets of modern basketball such as the fast break and also taught the most successful college coach of all time: John Wooden, who played under Lambert from 1930-32 before building a dynasty at future Big Ten school UCLA.