Izzo admits to previously being "happy as hell" about injuries to opposing players.
From a recent Freep article. He feels the Levert injury was an overuse issue and feels the injury to his Freshmen Bess was as well.
"When you see a thing like LeVert — and here's where I have changed, too, over the last three or four years — in my basement, when the best player on somebody else's team went down, I'm not different than a fan. Hell, I'm happy as hell because I've got to win games," Izzo said Monday at his news conference. "When you go through a bunch of injuries yourself, I wouldn't have wished this (on them), I am not happy.
http://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/michigan-state/spartans/2015/…
January 20th, 2015 at 8:55 AM ^
he would admit that publically.
January 20th, 2015 at 9:06 AM ^
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January 20th, 2015 at 9:21 AM ^
There is no upside for him saying what he said. As a fan I'll admit feeling a sense of relief, or even happiness, when certain players on rival teams have been injured. Especially if I already had a negative perception of the player.
Why a coach would admit that is beyond me. Points for honesty I guess.
January 20th, 2015 at 9:30 AM ^
actually an element of Izzo's personality that I kind of like. It is true. Coaches need to win, and injuries to another team helps them do that. Any other answer would really not only be dishonest, but almost tranparently so. I don't think he is talking about torn ACLs here.
January 20th, 2015 at 12:53 PM ^
a coach could give, what do we make of him saying that he's not that way anymore?
I don't think Beilein would be lying if he gave a different answer.
January 20th, 2015 at 1:11 PM ^
that he has been "happy" about playing teams with injury concerns is different than being "happy that that guy, Caris Levert is injured right now." Of course he is not going to say that he is happy that Caris Levert is injured, and I believe him that the injury to another specific person does not make him happy.
January 20th, 2015 at 12:03 PM ^
mama always said honesty was the best policy
January 20th, 2015 at 2:45 PM ^
Tom Izzo is so arrogant that he thinks he is "untouchble." He thinks that he can "admit" his inner thoughts and not eventually "admit" the wrong thought. Besides, he still said it within the context of using his own team's injuries as an excuse for not performing.
Izzo sounds like an Al Campanis waiting to happen.
January 20th, 2015 at 8:58 AM ^
I'm totally shocked.
January 20th, 2015 at 8:59 AM ^
The guy has sounded like an ass in the past, sounds like an ass now, and will sound like an ass in the future. Not only is being happy about a player's injury truly base, he tops it off by an underhanded criticism of Beilein's coaching (over-use).
Good. One more reason to dislike Izzo.
January 20th, 2015 at 10:23 AM ^
what a tool. to criticise another coach on players' minutes causing injury. i am sure there is science behind the fact that bones get more brittle with increased playing time.
January 20th, 2015 at 8:59 AM ^
January 20th, 2015 at 9:20 AM ^
It's not like he's down in his basement doing voodoo spells so opposing players get hurt, or telling his kids to go out and injure them. The fact is that any coach would be at least a little relieved to not have to worry about the other team's star player, which is also why there is so much gamesmanship when it comes to injury reports. Coaches are purposely vague when it comes to releasing injuries to their players b/c they know that means other coaches have to prep for it, possibly making it wasted time not preparing for different looks with different players.
January 20th, 2015 at 10:08 AM ^
January 20th, 2015 at 10:14 AM ^
get in the way of a good ol' Mgoblog self righteousness party!
January 20th, 2015 at 10:26 AM ^
January 20th, 2015 at 10:25 AM ^
i guess you missed the part of izzo being critical of beilein..
January 20th, 2015 at 11:07 AM ^
He has absolutely no business talking about Levert. He's nothing short of a complete fucking douchebag.
January 20th, 2015 at 9:01 AM ^
So Izziot has really seen the light and now we have the kindler gentler Izziot, don't think so.
January 20th, 2015 at 9:05 AM ^
If there's one single bit of dignity this board can maintain as it spirals toward the mainstream, I hope it's refraining from using childish nicknames of opposing coaches and players.
Was it ever clever when you read scUM, DickRod, Choke, etc on all the opposing boards? It's not clever here either.
January 20th, 2015 at 9:14 AM ^
But Izziot is super witty unlike all those other ones!
January 20th, 2015 at 9:24 AM ^
NO! This is the same idiot coach who complained about us running up the score as we scored towards the end of a game with a 6 or 8 point lead, but this DB beat us by 50+ points and scored over 100 and had Mateen stay in the game to get some type of record. NO!
January 20th, 2015 at 10:03 AM ^
Wabbit Season!
January 20th, 2015 at 10:01 AM ^
that instead of resorting to cute pet names, you just subscribe to the term that cuts through all that stuff, is universally recognized and knows no boundary of race, creed, religion or school affiliation - asshole.
January 20th, 2015 at 10:39 AM ^
Are we consistent about this? There have been a lot of "Mork Dantonio" and "Kirk Coupons" posts.
January 20th, 2015 at 10:47 AM ^
Kork Coupons.
January 20th, 2015 at 11:03 AM ^
I think those are pretty lame also, though not nearly as bad because they're not as obviosuly derogatory/stupid and are only used occasionally.
January 20th, 2015 at 11:55 AM ^
the names you listed above have all be used on this board with some degree of regularity...perhaps not as much DickRod...substitute that with Joke. This blog is not above the fray in that regard.
January 20th, 2015 at 4:09 PM ^
So nicknames for your rival should be a compliment? For the life of me, I don't know why some are so touchy about something as harmless as a nickname with a jab toward a rival.
They'll always be Ohio and little brother to me. The funny part is Staee fans get upset when they're called Ohio, and Buckeyes don't really seem to care.
January 20th, 2015 at 1:23 PM ^
January 20th, 2015 at 9:18 AM ^
stop watching that gif. He looks like he wants to murder someone.
January 20th, 2015 at 9:00 AM ^
January 20th, 2015 at 9:01 AM ^
He was being honest, and never said he was wishing for kids to get hurt. Plus he seems to have changed his tune. Those of us that coach high school sports are seeing more and more overuse injuries as kids specialize early-whether it's stress fractures, tendonitis, or whatever. I think I even remember seeing something in SI last year about a rash of Tommy John surgeries in boys barely into their teens-way more innings and curveballs than their arms can stand.
I think Izzo is dead on in his comments, and agree with him completely. Can't imagine saying that ever about Dantonio...
January 20th, 2015 at 9:08 AM ^
know that another team's player is "overused"? What does that mean anyway? Does that cause ankles to go out for 18-20 year old kids?
Neither you nor Izzo knows, so why comment?
January 20th, 2015 at 9:24 AM ^
You don't properly understand what an overuse injury is. It doesn't mean that a "player is overused" but is generally a result of repetitive microtrauma. Doesn't mean Beilein played him too much.
January 20th, 2015 at 10:04 AM ^
Caris's injury or should be commenting in any event.
January 20th, 2015 at 9:35 AM ^
foot. It had nothing to do with overuse. The stress fracture he had previously you could say it is possible. But to blame Beilein and indirectly Sanderson is bs. These kids play constantly from when they are very young and the damage could easily be done before they step foot on campus. Not surprising Izzo would do this. He had to say that he has learned better but obviously Beilein hasn't.
January 20th, 2015 at 9:09 AM ^
Do you realize you're saying that we should give him credit for no longer wishing injury to unpaid collegiate athletes? I also want credit for not doing terrible things.
Give credit where it's due. Not here.
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January 20th, 2015 at 9:20 AM ^
When he was talking about overuse, I thought it was pretty clear he meant that Caris had been working really hard on his game with Stauskas over the summer, and that all this work probably contributed to his injury. I didn't see criticism of Beilien in there anywhere. I'm saying he's dead on about overuse injuries in all sports increasing, hence the baseball example. (I am a tennis coach, and have seen more shoulder and elbow injuries in the past couple years than before-again, overuse is the major contributor.)
Again, he never said he wished injury to kids, just that he used to be happy when he heard about them because it made opponents weaker. Granted, still doesn't make him Mother Theresa, but I think there is a difference. Anyway, not worth arguing about, just my opinion.
January 20th, 2015 at 9:24 AM ^
January 20th, 2015 at 9:26 AM ^
Where are you quoting "wish" from? The only time Izzo was quoted as using that word was in the following statement. You're clearly taking something way out of context.
"When you go through a bunch of injuries yourself, I wouldn't have wished this (on them), I am not happy."
January 20th, 2015 at 9:29 AM ^
January 20th, 2015 at 9:29 AM ^
Do we care whether
A) he was happy about kids getting injured or
B) he wished injury to kids?
You think there's a difference. Seems like garbage to me.
He directly criticizes Beiien near the end of the article by basically saying that he's going to use this while recruiting.
You failed to combat my first and main point: Izzo is not some telekenesis psychic doctor. It's not fair for him to say things like 'definitely an accumulaton injury related to X.'
January 20th, 2015 at 9:35 AM ^
There is a difference.
And he never criticized Beilein or his staff, but said that there are probably some who negatively recruit. He's always been very complimentary of Beilein in the past, although I can think of a few programs for which he has no love lost (particularly the ones which take the really big recruits).
And as for making presumptions about overuse injuries, he never said "definitely" but did suggest that it was, yes. And then he gave another example of one of his own players. Whether he thinks it or not, I don't see how that statement in any way indicts Michigan's staff. You're looking for a fight where there isn't one. Get over it.
January 20th, 2015 at 3:09 PM ^
At best, Izzo has been reluctantly complimentary of Beilein. Since Beilein is virtually the nicest coach in the NCAA, how hard can that be.
The Michigan coach Tom truly loved was Amaker. Not only did he always stroke him after MSU routed us, but, per Amaker, Izzo was the first coach to call him after he was fired. Yea, I would have been unhappy with that too if I were Izzo.
January 20th, 2015 at 10:08 AM ^
I don't beleive for a second that what Izzo said was 100 percent calculated. It was a thinly veiled shot at Michigan that appeared to come off as sympathertic and self effacing.
January 20th, 2015 at 9:58 AM ^
God knows Izzo has said some boneheaded things over the years and he is a dick, but my interpretation is he feels Lavert, and some of his own players, are stressing their bodies too hard and they're getting hurt because of it. He also said he is growing in terms of other teams' injury misfortunes. If JB had said these same things we'd all be good with it (although JB would likely be much more tactful with his language).