Every Michigan State basketball player who comes through East Lansing always seems to have a good story about Tom Izzo.
From Draymond Green to Cassius Winston to Jeremy Fears Jr., every Spartan has a memory about Izzo that will last them a lifetime. There are also funny stories that stick with these guys.
Take Kur Teng just this past season for example. While I’m not sure that it’s the story that Teng would say is the most memorable because he’s probably been told similar things by Izzo before, it was definitely the most viral moment. Izzo turned to Teng in a huddle against Rutgers and told him that he couldn’t even guard his 99-year-old mother.
Teng, Fears, Coen Carr, and now Cam Ward have all shared some memorable stories about Izzo meltdowns, and the latest might just be the best.
Ward appeared on a podcast this week and he was asked about the first moment that he could remember Izzo going crazy on him and he recalled one instance. Unfortunate in this instance, Buzz Williams and the Maryland Terrapins took a wicked stray.
Cam Ward on the first moment Tom Izzo ‘went crazy’ on him for doing something wrong:
— Michigan State Country (@CountryMichSt) April 16, 2026
“He was like, ‘You wanna be soft? You can go back to Maryland—go be a Terp. You soft Maryland kid. You wanna be a Terrapin? You wanna play for him (Buzz Williams)?’”
Tom Izzo isn’t a fan of… pic.twitter.com/1wdACISsuL
This feels like an unprompted shot at the Terrapins, but I’m just going to assume this Izzo meltdown in Carr’s direction happened during this year’s Maryland game. I don’t think there’s bad blood there.
Still, being called a soft program by a Hall of Famer who’s 17-8 against you in his career and who just beat you by 43 points this season can’t feel great. Terrapins fans are used to good basketball, so the 2025-26 season was definitely tough to handle — and this shot by Izzo just made it worse.
That’s kind of how MSU football fans felt when Curt Cignetti said that Nick Marsh never had discipline in East Lansing.
It’s hard to argue with Tom Izzo right now
Maryland in 2025-26 was a shell of itself, and that can probably be attributed to Kevin Willard leaving suddenly and forcing the Terrapins to scramble to find a replacement. Williams lost a lot of players from last year’s team and was forced to construct a roster on the fly.
I fully expect things to turn around, but Maryland was soft this season and I think every single Terrapin fan would agree. I doubt that Izzo thinks the program is soft, but this year’s team was.
Catching a stray from Izzo in the middle of April probably wasn’t on Maryland fans’ offseason bingo card.
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