Darrius Morris Repsonds to Izzo Post Game Comments
Thewolverine.com has posted an article with Darius Morris's response to Tom Izzo's post-game comments.
http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1197855
To summarize he took the high-road saying Izzo just made emotional comments after a hard fought game and he greatly respects Izzo. He goes on to say that trash talk in a rivalry is nothing new. Personally, I would have been okay with him calling Izzo the hypocritical asshat that he is. Either way, classy response.
Impressed Way to not stoop to State's level. I want to +1 Morris
as you said, a classy response
I don't think what Izzo said was that bad to begin with and probably got over exaggerated. I think looking back, Izzo might change what he said a little bit, though probably not much. Morris not continuing it is good in my book. He has other things to focus on right now and this puts that way on the back burner where it now belongs.
I wouldn't be surprised if Izzo regrets what he said, but honestly, when you're 56 years old and have been in this business a long time, you should have enough of a filter in place to never spout out like that in the first place. A kid who turned 20 two months ago is already more mature in front of the press.
That's exactly right. A+ to Darius and the staff for instructing him on PR. His quotes in the article are perfect: emphasizing his respect for Izzo while making it clear that he thinks Izzo is full of shit.
You've got to hand it to a 20-year-old with all those mics stuck in his face by vultures trying to elicit "controversial remarks", leading to a "media firestorm", leading to people clicking on and watching and buying said media.
"But at the same time, going for a layup with three seconds left, he talked a lot of stuff the whole game, including at our place – maybe he deserved it"
So saying Morris deserved to get a ball thrown in his face because he scored with 2 seconds left is not that bad?
I saw at least one article that quoted Izzo as saying "maybe we deserved it," which would make sense in the context of his statement, as well as completely flip the meaning of the comment. Plus, the only video I've seen of the pressor was the hard-to-hear one posted on UMHoops, so I can't say one way or the other.
On the other hand, given that I've seen one article that quoted "we" and plenty of others that quoted "he," I'll go with the majority rule here. Plus, I'm all for finding more reasons to dislike Izzo.
But did anyone else see the "we" quotation? I can't remember where I saw it.
article. Don't remember where.
Maybe we're thinking of different articles, but this is from one written by Jim Comparoni of SpartanMag.com ( http://michiganstate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1196627 ):
When informed that Lucas threw the ball at Morris after the game, Izzo said: "I'm not for that, so I'll straighten that out. But at the same time, going for a lay-up with three seconds left, he talked a lot of stuff all game, including at our place. Maybe (we) deserve it. So let's get the rivalry (pounds the podium) really going."
Hardly an unbiased source. In any case, the audio certainly sounds like Izzo said "he".
If I saw the youtube video correctly, he did not get a ball "thrown at his face." It was flipped towards him. It's not like Lucas wound up and tried to break his nose.
Izzo was being a little bit petty, but I don't have a problem with anything that happened on the floor on either side. Bring back the chippiness, bring back the fire.
I haven't seen the actual "ball throwing" exchange yet, do you have a link handy? I found a video from up in the stands, but it's pretty hard to tell what's going on.
Seriously? You are acting like the ball exploded on contact. Plus, I think he was saying that he might have deserved it for talking shit.
Izzo meant Morris deserved to get that layup?
Nah.
Nice job Darius.
Mateen Cleaves definitely qualifies as "talking a lot of stuff the whole game," yet Izzo named his son after Cleaves. How's that for hypocritical?
Izzo is being trashed by everyone for what he said allready. All Morris can do by coming down on Izzo is make himself look bad and add validity to what Izzo said.
Here's the thing: Darius Morris did not say anything disrespectful toward Izzo, and in fact praised him in his response to Izzo's juvenile criticisms.
So, IMO, Morris did nothing to "add validity" to Izzo's claims, while explaining his side in a very calm and well-stated manner.
But thanks for being a big fat Negative Nancy.
I guess I wasn't clear enough in my post. What I meant to say is that IF Morris had come out and complained or attacked Izzo in some way in responce people could have said it added valididity.
clear enough.
Next time I'll try harder to distinguish what you're really attempting to say.
They say the test of a man's character is not when things are going well, but when they go against him. And now we can see Coach Izzo's true level of class.
I have heard the claims from the minority around here about Morris showing bad body language, super selfish behavior, and not being about the team, but I don't see it. He continues to handle himself really well despite having had a really difficult job as point guard of this team, and I'm thrilled to have him as our point guard for hopefully 2 more years.
Isn't there only one R in Darius?
I still thought the perfect response would have been something to the effect of "I'm coached to play whistle to whistle. Maybe they're not. There was no whistle."
but this is good too. He couldn't really go wrong outside of slamming Izzo.
It's also nice that Morris politely called out Izzo for being a hypocrite:
"It was happening last year, too, when they were beating us by 50 and throwing lobs," he said. "I didn't really hear too much complaining about it, or you didn't hear Coach [John] Beilein talking about it..."
Stay classy Darius Morris.
did he, at any point, mock Izzo's short stature by holding his hand at chest level?
In some cultures (South America I think) it is considered rude to demonstrate something's height that way holding your hand horizontally, so you have to hold it vertically (like shaking hands)
Classy kid - Liking him more every day.
Great quotes. Make good points but shows restraint. Very savvy for a college sophomore. What a great guy to have.
AKA the road less taken by sparty and one taken more often by a 20 yr old from Michigan.
I saw at least one article that quoted Izzo as saying "maybe we deserved it"
Then those writers are either lazy or just plain stupid. The drop was played, at least locally, all over the airwaves for a few days here. In the context of what Izzo was saying, it's impossible to contrive a "we". He was laying out why it was acceptable for Kalin to shove the ball in Darius' face.
“I’ll straighten that out but at the same time, going for a layup with 3 seconds left and talking a lot stuff all game, including at our place, maybe he deserved it.”
http://www.umhoops.com/2011/03/05/video-tom-izzo-after-michigan-loss/
2:11ish. Audio sucks so you'll need tomb-like silence or head phones to hear what Mumblety-peg is saying.
been elevated on my list of "least fave Spartans". List as follows:
1. Spartan Bob
2. Those 2 hockey goons
3. Mateen Cleaves
4. Whiny Tommy Izzo
5. Drew Stanton (redeeming quality-never beat us, but still a tool)
Not sure how Cleaves and Stanton make your list but Dantonio doesn't...