Spartans' Izzo Gives Hilarious Comments on Michigan Rivalry
The mid-court controversy concerning the Michigan State-Michigan men's basketball altercation from Senior Day continues to linger more than a week after the event took place.
Spartans coach Tom Izzo, who has been barraged with questions about it since it occurred, was once again asked about the scuffle when he joined "The Pac McAfee Show" on Monday.
"Well, timeout. I wasn't proud of it," Izzo said, regarding Tre Holloman shoving the two Michigan freshmen. "I gotta do my job. And I didn't even know what happened. But you gotta flash back to the Fab 5 sitting with their butt on that thing, rubbing it on it. There was a lot of things people don't know. When you've been here 30 years -- I was actually here 40 because I was here as an assistant.
"So, there was a lot more to it; I talked to my players about it. But I don't condone anything that is that crazy. I'm not that crazy. And I didn't condone it, but I felt like after I heard what happened, after I saw the voice stuff, there was a lot more to it than the average person would know.
"So, I just wanted to make sure they know everybody's got a tradition. Can you imagine, guys -- you guys, you played football, both of you [McAfee and A.J. Hawk] -- can you imagine the banner at Michigan that they touch every time they come out if our football team stood under it and didn't let them do it? There would be 100,000 fans fighting you. So, that's just the way it is."
Izzo would go on to close out the topic with an all-time quote.
"A rivalry -- John Beilein used to ask me, and one day I said, 'Well, you gotta hate your rivals.' You can respect them; you can't like them," Izzo said. "Do you like your wife's ex-boyfriend? I mean, it's illegal to do that."
Don't laugh Coach 😂😂
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 17, 2025
"You're supposed to hate your rivals" ~ Tom Izzo#PMSLive https://t.co/Su4IdjT2wZ pic.twitter.com/79GZUd1blx
With both Michigan State and Michigan now gearing up for the NCAA Tournament, hopefully, discussions around what occurred on March 9 can be put to the side.
One thing to note, though: The Spartans and Wolverines will be playing in the same region.
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