WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — For the second time in three years, Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo had a heated exchange with one of his players during the NCAA tournament.
And it revived the debate of where the line is for hard coaching.
On the final play of the first half against UCLA at Mackey Arena, there seemed to be a miscommunication on defense between MSU’s Malik Hall and Gabe Brown. It led to a open jumper made by Jaime Jaquez Jr. to end the half.
Brown and Hall shared a brief exchange about the mishap on defense as MSU was going into the tunnel to go to their locker room.
But that’s when Izzo got up close with Brown, beginning a back-and-forth.
As Brown turned away, Izzo grabbed Brown’s arm. As Brown pulled away and continues up the tunnel, Izzo then tried to hold on to the back of Brown’s jersey.
Izzo was asked about Brown after the Spartans’ 86-80 overtime loss ended the Spartans’ season. He chuckled at the second question of his press conference and told the reporter, “You guys are beautiful,” before explaining their exchange.
“He missed a play and I told him. He walked away and I told him to come back,” Izzo said. “We went through this a couple of years ago. A game like that, that’s the question you’re going to ask me? I guess I’ll answer it because the media has the right to ask whatever question.
“But we’ll get him in here and you can ask him. It was a normal nothing. It’s just that this day and age everything is something. It was over a missed switch that we had talked about.”
The NCAA did not make Brown available after the game.
Despite the Spartans holding an 11-point lead at the break, the TBS halftime show, featuring TNT NBA stars Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, along with longtime college basketball insider Andy Katz, focused on Izzo’s reaction. Barkley didn’t seem to have a problem with it, while Smith bristled at the idea of Izzo grabbing Brown.
It was in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2019 when Izzo raised eyebrows by screaming at then-freshman Aaron Henry during a break in the action.
The exchange didn’t seem to bother Henry.
“It wasn’t like he was going at me, but it was almost like he was helping me because I wasn’t getting it through my head,” Henry said before the 2019-20 season. “I wasn’t playing hard. He was just trying to get me to understand it. I can’t be mad at him for it. … I don’t know if he knew I was prepared for it, but I guess he saw I was prepared for it.
“I’m gonna accept everything he says, because he doesn’t want anything for me but the best.”
Several former MSU players quickly defended their former coach on social media, including Draymond Green and Delvon Roe.
Contact Kirkland Crawford: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @HiKirkHere.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.
