Gabe had blocked Izzo on Twitter
that son of a bitch....
That score at the half tho ??
March 19th, 2021 at 11:00 AM ^
First Half: msu 44, UCLA 33
Second Half: msu 33, UCLA 44
OT: msu 3, UCLA 9
Last 8 minutes of game time: msu 5, UCLA 16
Lol. Tom looked real tough until Brown clearly had enough and was about to lay into Izzo and then Tom realized his mistake and did a 'ope just gonna go around you here'
"culture"
This has shades of "I wanted to get the young man's attention" all over it. That is to say that when a coach physically touches a player in an aggressive way, the coach downplays the situation as if it needed to be done in order to communicate. And that's bullshit.
Unless Brown said something really inflammatory back to Izzo, why the arm grab? Or jersey pull for that matter? As an educator, I find students and players learn best when they have a chance to regroup and get coached on what not to do.
And why is it necessary to yell at him right then, in the tunnel? You're going to the same locker room as him and have 20 minutes to talk things over. Nothing is so urgent that you need to grab the guy.
Not to mention that they were up 11 points. Despite that last play, they'd had a good half. With a fragile, inconsistent team, that moment probably wasn't the best time to start a confrontation with a player.
That's just poor coaching.
March 19th, 2021 at 10:53 AM ^
Yeah, there is a time and place for it. They were up 11 and pretty much controlling the game. Then UCLA starts the second half on a 12-4 run and eventually won the game. As a guy that had money on MSU -2.5, I say fuck Tom Izzo. MSU was certainly talented enough to beat UCLA by more than 3 points. Shit coaching job.
March 19th, 2021 at 10:01 AM ^
I've seen a lot of people argue this is nothing and this is terrible. The truth lies in the middle and closer to this is nothing. In general, it's whatever.
However, the "this is just part of competitive athletics" crowd reminds me of the "boys will be boys" crowd. I competed in sports all the way through college and had coaches like Izzo. I absolutely hated them. They could be great away from the field/court/water. They cared, talked in a different manner, and were generally pleasant. But that didn't matter to me when they started screaming at me and pushing me around. You want to find a way to discourage me from trying my hardest and doing better? You yell and turn into a little spastic dick. The second that happens I tune you out.
Some great coaches are/were complete tools and yellers. Some great coaches are not/weren't. Yelling and throwing tantrums isn't a sign of some great competitive drive.
March 19th, 2021 at 11:31 AM ^
My junior year of HS we were terrible in baseball. My senior year we added an assistant coach who we all loved. Knew everything about the game. 'Instructed' us, never yelled. Always pointed out what we did wrong by following up with here's how you do that right, always did it in a clear but 'here let me help you' manner. The atmosphere on the team was completely different. It wasn't work, it was fun. We played for each other. When I went to the mound, I didn't want to let Jerry and my team down by forgetting to follow through properly, or to back up a play, or cover first right. We won the league and were as high as 5th in the state that year.
March 19th, 2021 at 11:56 AM ^
Yup, I had very similar experiences. My head coach in high school baseball was an ass. I absolutely despised him. Our assistant coach (was also my freshman basketball coach) was awesome. I was our starting catcher and he was our catchers coach so I spent most of practices and time in the dugout with him, away from our HC. We'd watch our HC yell at guys and just generally be terrible while we would have conversations about the game, strategy, and whatever else. I learned more from him in 2 years than I did from any other coach I had up until that time.
Would any of the guys on my team have told our HC that he was a dick or complained to the administration about him? No. He won a crap ton of games, had been around forever, and off the field he was nice enough for parents and admin to think he wasn't a dick so they would have ignored any player complaining. I'm from an upper-middle class town where a lot of guys played travel baseball starting at age 10. We were a good baseball school for as long as I can remember. Once lacrosse was introduced a lot of our best baseball players switched sports to get away from that coach (and play a more exciting game) and all of a sudden he started winning fewer games (almost like it wasn't just his coaching that made us good - it was institutional). We were deferential to him though because he was the authority figure and we didn't want to piss him off.
Don’t you know? This is the spartys bball culture! Nothing to see here. Carry on.
I have no problem with a coach getting in a player's face but the coach has to show some control/composure.
It's like the saying from the Denzel Washington football movie..."There's a fine line between tough and crazy and you're flirting with it."
That said, Izzo strikes me as abusive. Who can forget this nonsense from him a few years ago when he went ballistic on Aaron Henry?
He's an angry elf
March 19th, 2021 at 10:04 AM ^
He also looked like a porn star right after his daughter was born. 
March 19th, 2021 at 10:54 AM ^
That's an amazing picture. He and Mooch make a cute couple.
March 19th, 2021 at 12:23 PM ^
Meh...
...a lot of people in Michigan looked like that in the 80s.
Also lots of Bo lookalikes.
He’s becoming Woody Hayes.
As with Woody, this will only be tolerated if he’s winning.
Unfortunately, Izzo's career is mirroring Woody's right up to the end here. This will not end well for Sparty and Izzo. You can throw Knight into this conversation as well.
There will come a moment where Izzo will truly "lose it" even for a few seconds and it will not be pretty. Even as an avid Michigan fan, it will not be something to laugh at but to SMH....
Just hope it wont be anything too serious, but with the decline of their program and what will be mounting pressure the breaking point will be coming Sparty is not going to be much better next year and with Howard's trajectory of Michigan's program. That will only add to the pressure cooker building up inside Izzo.
March 19th, 2021 at 12:42 PM ^
Even as an avid Michigan fan, it will not be something to laugh at but to SMH
Not me.
The petty me is going to laugh my ass off when Izzo slugs a player or starts throwing chairs.
Kenny Smith made the point after the game that both were to blame, but it's the coach that has to control the chaos, not to create it... and that Izzo wasn't controlling it.
Sparty bball culture presented by rocket mortgage?
https://twitter.com/buckets/status/1372770841063084038?s=20
Izzo in the locker room after the loss.
Izzo is laughing about it in his presser. Says it was a big nothing. So what would be a something? Punching a player? Kicking a player? Asshat.
And great, it allows the announcers to once again say that this behavior was not normal.
Did anyone say anything about Izzo not having his mask on when he was spitting in a players face? Im so confused.
They don't care if you contaminate people that just got kicked out of the bubble
March 19th, 2021 at 10:46 AM ^
It's typical abuser behavior. He acts like it was nothing or justified. Everyone else around the program acts like it's normal and no big deal then literally everyone else clearly sees the issue
March 19th, 2021 at 12:19 PM ^
It’s MSU’s culture. Does it surprise anyone after the last 2 years of news?
Think Gabe was walking towards the Transfer Portal and Izzo was telling him there was still 20 minutes before his suffering could come to an end...
To hell w Izzo, Brown and that underachieving bunch of Sparty zeros!
I don't think it was abuse or super inappropriate, just really shitty coaching. You're up 11, the guys are sorting it out among themselves, why on earth would you escalate that?
He grabbed him by the arm and tried to yank him around. He isn’t his Dad. If he were then it’d be understandable. He’s the guy’s Coach. Say what you want to me, and I’ll take it in stride. Put your hands on me like that and now the talking is over.
Yeah, everyone will take it differently. I think the frustrating thing is that because Izzo is so respected (perhaps not around these parts...) people think that this is what it means to be a good coach. When kids and players are treated this way and later become successful and find themselves in a position to coach or teach or parent, they think there's a causal relationship there so they behave similarly.
Hopefully that mindset is on the way out.
Watching the way that play unfolded, Brown seemed to do the right thing defensively and Hoggard didn't close out well enough when he had the best angle to do so. The two of them were getting at one another, but as a coach that is what you want to see. You want to see the older guy get on the younger guy. All that is ruined when the coach comes in and just berates one of the guys.
Izzo should be embarrassed for his actions and also the fact that they lost to a garbage team. I'll give Cronin credit for winning because talent wise I think UCLA probably would have finished around where Northwestern did in the B1G.
Somehow tiny tom must have known that bucket would cost them the game.
Nothing like demoralizing your team that's up 11 at the half. They were yelling at each other all game.
I mean, Izzo is a four-letter word.
First: Fuck MSU
Second: I’m with Barkley on this one. Coach can yell at the players. If the player walks off and you grab his jersey to get his attention, that is getting grey, but still ok. From there the coach has to diffuse the situation. I have no problem with Harbaugh getting into someone’s face. Character is a judgement on the body of work. Izzy is a piece of shit because he protected players that jacked defenseless females in the face. Izzy is in his place to be pissed at a college athlete that fucked a simple switch.
Wouldn’t have been a big deal had they won. But......they lost. You hate to see it!
You're probably right that, had MSU won, we'd be seeing stuff about how fiery Izzo is and what a master he is, being able to mesh together these tough personalities and drive them to a hard-fought victory.
Wouldn’t have been a big deal had they won. But......they lost. You hate to see it!
A coach yells at players to make a point. Once the point is made, it's over and you move on to face the next situation as a team. I can see Izzo getting pissed because his players were yelling at each other and not listening to him in the huddle. You need an attitude with your players that what's done is done; here's how we want it done, let's execute it right when the timeout is over. But his players were not letting it go.
As I saw it, he probably didn't think that the point that he was trying to make had sunk in with his players. You're right though that grabbing a pissed off kid isn't the best thing to do. It's not settling things down.
What happened? Only the story of the night. It juiced the halftime coverage. Can’t wait for Tom’s convo with the sportswriters.
Not the end of the world but also not good. I'd be pretty irked if a coach grabbed my jersey like that but I also would not play for Izzo because I don't like getting screamed at so...
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, WHY DON'T YOU LIKE TO GET SCREAMED AT!!!!!
YOU’LL NEVER PLAY IN THIS TOWN AGAIN!
It's not a big deal, but it's not surprising. Just douches acting douches and then losing because they fucking suck at basketball and their coach is a piece of a shit who relies on refs calling the game rapey.
Izzo has demonstrated that he is a good W-L college basketball coach. The numbers speak for themselves. But there are numerous coaches who are equally skilled. I just don't know why an 18 year old would want to play for Tom when he could play for a more fun and positive experience. Add in that Tom has a horrible record in developing his players for the NBA. And that's where most high end college players want to end up.
Tom has a horrible record in developing his players for the NBA
That's a pretty fair point. Despite some high profile recruits and teams, few players from the Izzo era had more than moderate success in the NBA
Of those, Draymond Green - probably the best of them - was a four year player. The others? Richardson, Randolph, maybe Jaren Jackson eventually? All one year guys
And it really falls off sharply after those few