Despite coaching him for four years in college, Tom Izzo still admitted recently that he wasn't a believer of Draymond Green at some point back then. The Hall of Fame coach did not understand what he was capable of, and also did not know how good he could be.

The veteran Michigan State head coach appeared on the latest episode of Fox Sports' The Sidelines podcast, where he discussed how it was like having Green under his wings and talked about how great it turned out to be. Izzo also shared how proud he is of the Golden State Warriors forward, especially now that they have a strong chance of once again making it to the finals.

“He does all the things that take good teams and make them elite because they’re winning plays, and that’s what he did for us, especially the last two years,”

“I knew he had a high basketball IQ — I didn’t know it was an off-the-charts one. And then he started working harder, and he had a couple of intangibles that those analytic guys can’t measure. He’s tougher than nails, ya know. He’s a confident kid — almost sometimes too confident — but he’s a very confident kid, and his will to win is off the charts. In this day and age when it’s all about me and the Twitter world, as I call it, he’s one of those throwbacks that winning is more important than his own stats.”

Izzo continued his praise for his former player by saying he is one of the best when it comes to creating a winning atmosphere for a team.

“I think his coaches agree, I would agree, I think he would agree now, if you’ve got to put a team together — there’s the LeBrons [LeBron James], who are phenomenal, and KDs [Kevin Durant] and Currys [Stephen Curry], but if you want to put a guy in there that will help create the winning atmosphere, I think Draymond Green ranks in the top couple in the entire league.”

It can be recalled that they made it together to at least an NCAA second round appearance in four consecutive seasons, where Green played an important role for the Spartans, increasing his production from 3.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in his freshman year to 16.2 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game as a senior. He is also one of only a handful of players today that stayed in college for four years before declaring for the NBA Draft.

With the strong praise he has drawn from the widely-respected coach, it not only strengthens his case as a legitimate star in the NBA, but it also further proves what was already obvious — that he has turned his doubters to believers, since his college days.