Michigan State coach Tom Izzo led the No. 12 Spartans to an 80-51 blowout win over the USC Trojans at Breslin Center on Monday evening. The victory was Izzo’s No. 750 win in his storied career, but the sideshows from the game threatened to overwhelm his accomplishment.
On one hand, Izzo was furious at former MSU star Paul Davis for a statement made to the officials that necessitated his ejection, and on the other hand, the outspoken Spartans coach appeared to argue with sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. and senior forward Jaxon Kohler during the game.
Tom Izzo Addresses Courtside Arguments With MSU Stars
During his postgame news conference, Izzo first gave a tongue-in-cheek answer when a reporter asked him about the lively courtside arguments with Fears and Kohler.
“Believe it or not, we’re going out to dinner tonight and I asked him (Fears) where he’d like to go and I didn’t agree with the place he wanted to go, so I told him he was full of it,” Izzo said.
Izzo then proceeded to give a serious answer to the question, referencing an incident during Michigan State’s loss to the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday. During the game, Cornhuskers forward Braden Frager taunted Fears with a gunshot celebration after scoring a three-pointer, leading to a technical foul being called.
“I’ll be very honest with you. Some things happened at Nebraska, as you all know and I want a player celebrating with his teammates,” Izzo said. “I don’t want him celebrating to somebody else. A couple of times, that seemed to happen tonight with a couple of different players. So, I was just trying to nip that in the bud.
“Because I don’t want that. The greatest captains, the greatest leaders and the greatest quarterbacks rally everybody on his team, okay? And then they rally the fans, I’m cool with that. I don’t need anybody coaching the other team. There’s nothing more fun than when a player comes at me. I right away say, ‘That S.O.B really cares.’ No big deal.”
Fears was shot in the leg in Dec. 2023 in Illinois, and the celebration by Frager referenced by Izzo divided opinions among college basketball fans on X after the Nebraska forward further taunted the MSU star in an Instagram post after the game.
On3 reporter Robin Washut revealed on X on Sunday that Frager had since deleted the incendiary post on Instagram and had reached out to Fears to apologize for the controversial celebration.