Blue-blood ties
Spartans’ matchup with Tar Heels brings family reunion for MSU assistant and son Izzo is forever chasing the sport’s nobility in March. One more to track down: Tar Heels
Chris Solari
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Doug Wojcik started to cry the moment he heard his son’s name on the loudspeakers and shook his hand at midcourt of the Breslin Center.
That was more than 15 months ago, when Michigan State basketball hosted Brown on Dec. 10, 2022. And so much has changed for Paxson Wojcik in the past year.
His address: Paxson moved from the Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island, to the basketball mecca in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
His role: Paxson went from a starter for Brown to a marginally used reserve with the Tar Heels, as his jersey number shifted from No. 0 in brown and red to a Carolina blue-and-white No. 8.
And, of course, his profile, going from nearing the end of his college basketball career to becoming a burgeoning fashion model with a company that has the seal of approval of Kim Kardashian — who has posted photos of Paxson to her monstrously popular Instagram account.
When they meet again in Saturday’s second round of the NCAA tournament, Wojcik's tale won’t be front and center like it was last season in a nonconference game. Instead, CBS' broadcast is more likely to focus on how the Spartans
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Tom Izzo has won a national title, been to eight Final Fours and won 10 regularseason Big Ten championships and six Big Ten tournament titles.
And yet he teared up when his Michigan State basketball team beat Mississippi State on Thursday in the first round of the 2024 NCAA tournament.
He’s in the Basketball Hall of Fame, has made the NCAA tournament 26 consecutive times — a record by a coach at a single school — and is revered by young basketball coaches across the country for the way his teams compete and so often punch above their weight.
And yet he will take the court today against North Carolina as not only an underdog, but as a coach still trying to prove he belongs among the bluebloods.
After so many headliner coaches — Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim, even Jay Wright — have retired in recent years, Izzo stands alone as a sort of dean of the sport.
And yet he is still coaching with a chip on his shoulder, forever the uninvited guest, and still chasing whales. There aren’t many left.
will defend UNC stars Armando Bacot and RJ Davis, and how the Tar Heels plan to slow down MSU’s star guard trio of Tyson Walker, A.J. Hoggard and Jaden Akins.
There also is the bigger prize: A trip to next week’s West region Sweet 16 in Los Angeles is at stake when Paxson’s No. 1-seed UNC squad faces his dad’s ninth-seeded Spartans at 5:30 p.m.
"We've both been pretty busy, so I haven't talked to him much," Paxson said inside the Tar Heel locker room Friday. "But I texted him good luck yesterday before his game, and we spoke on the phone last night. It's been pretty short. He's been busy doing his stuff with his team, and I've been busy with my stuff, too. So we'll see. We'll probably see each other tomorrow.
"We usually talk after games, so I'm sure we'll obviously talk after tomorrow. But I'm not sure how much we'll speak before the game."
But the knowledge MSU’s assistant coach has with the Tar Heels this season and his son’s familiarity with the Spartans’ roster will be pivotal for both teams.
“Obviously, it's really special,” said Paxson, who is averaging 1.6 points in 8.3 minutes a game in 30 appearances (including three starts) this season for the Tar Heels. “Playing at Michigan State last year as a senior at Brown was really cool and a great experience for my family and I. But just with what's at stake in the tournament, and you know loser goes home, obviously there's more on the line.”
MSU defeated Brown last season, 68-50. Paxson scored 10 points in the loss.
Doug Wojcik, who was part of Tom Izzo’s staff from 2003-05, returned to MSU in 2018. Between, he held head coaching jobs at Tulsa and College of Charleston, then assistant stints with Gonzaga and East Carolina. But those two years around the Spartans provided his sons, Paxson and Denham (a junior guard at Harvard), with an up-close view of Izzo’s program.
“It's a father's dream, right?” Doug Wojcik said inside the Spartans’ locker room Friday. “First of all, he plays at North Carolina; and secondly, I coach at Michigan State. So that in itself is a win-win. I was hoping it would be the second weekend. One of our years is going to be over, and his career if we were to win. But it's exciting. Very blessed, very fortunate and grateful.”
Over the past few years, the Wojcik brothers spent their summers working out with MSU’s team and playing in the Moneyball Pro-Am because the Ivy League did not permit summer basketball for its teams. Paxson, however, did not do so in the summer of 2023; that was when he graduated from Brown and immediately moved to UNC and began the transition to the national power.
Despite a grueling schedule since November for MSU (20-14), Doug Wojcik said he was able to see five of the Tar Heels’ games in person, including last Saturday’s loss to North Carolina State in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Washington. Izzo, logically, gave Wojcik the advance scout to prepare to face UNC (28-7).
“We'll be good,” said Doug Wojcik, who handled the prep for MSU-Brown as well. “(Paxson) is good, he's mature. He knows we want to win, I want to win. So we'll see what happens.”
Tom Izzo joked that “Paxson didn't give us the scouting report or anything” for the Tar Heels, but Paxson agreed there are “definitely familiarities between the two programs” because of the family ties.
“He's watched a lot of us from a fan's perspective and from a father's perspective. So I think it's probably different for him digging in and critiquing it from a scouting perspective,” Paxson said. “And then for me, just being able to go home and play pickup with those guys all summer, those are all my my good friends. I know their play styles and stuff.
“But, at this point in the season, everyone knows everyone, everyone's scouting really well. So it's just gonna be a matter of who comes out and plays better.”
As young kids in East Lansing, the Wojcik brothers were close friends with Izzo’s son, Steven. Paxson called Steven “my best friend when I was little.” MSU, fifth-year walk-on guard remembered growing up together in the same neighborhood and his mother, Lupe, and Doug Wojcik taking turns carpooling the boys to school before the Wojciks moved away, with the boys eating breakfast Lupe made on the way.
Steven Izzo also remembered hanging out with the Wojciks during NCAA tournaments before he and the brothers became college basketball players.
“Paxson,” Steven said, “is a Spartan deep down.”
Tom Izzo joked that he and Doug used to take their sons on recruiting trips to high school prospects’ homes to “beg the moms to let their son come to our place by using our kids at bait.” But Izzo also previously said having to face a family member or close friend on the court can be difficult emotionally — and probably will be again for his assistant, a Navy alumnus.
“I guess, if you look at it on the good side, he's going to L.A. either way. Either with me or with Pax. So I guess that's the positive side of it for him,” Izzo said. “It's got to be tough. It really does. He loves his son and loves the program he works for. He'll do his job. He's a military guy. He's going to do his job as best as he can, and emotions will flow as they flow. …
“But I try to look at it as, what a privilege. What a privilege to have your son at a program like he's got him at, and what a privilege to be working at the program he's working at. We're both playing for a lot, and that is a privilege.”
As for the other Wojcik family members — Denham (who will be in Indianapolis recovering from hip surgery) and their mom, Lael — and their rooting interests?
“My brother actually already texted me and said he's rooting from Michigan State, so that was cold,” Paxson said with a chuckle. “But my mom's gonna be pretty torn.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com . Follow him @chrissolari .