Tom Izzo gives hilarious quote about his mom being more famous than him

Tom Izzo spoke to the media for the first time since the post-game presser after Michigan State beat Oregon where he addressed the viral Kur Teng interaction where the Hall of Famer told his sophomore guard that he couldn’t even guard his mother.

The interaction went viral, and Izzo probably didn’t think much of it because he claimed that he’s said it a million times before, so it was really on the producer who made it seem like a bigger deal.

Fans ran with the quote, however, and even Steven Izzo got in on the fun, taking a little jab at Teng and his grandma, giving an “update from Appleton” from a hypothetical 1-on-1 matchup.

I’m sure Izzo didn’t expect to be answering questions about what he said to Teng because he’s admitted that he tells the sophomore sharpshooter that all the time.

Tom Izzo now the second-most-famous Izzo?

The legendary head coach has been laughing this whole interaction off, and he’s even gotten into contact with his mom since then, saying that she’s gotten a little motivation from the interaction. He told the media that she was “doing a little exercise program” when he called her.

Then Izzo offered a hilarious quote from his mother.

”My mom said I can fly on her coattails now that she’s more famous than I am,” Izzo said with a grin.

To me, that sounds like a coach who’s relaxed, who’s loose, and who has a team that he’s comfortable saying just about anything to without them taking it hard. He has a team that is coachable, that can take a jab like that from its head coach and not act shocked, and that can beat just about anyone in the country. It’s safe to say that he has one of his better teams in a while.

Izzo went on to say that he’s not worried about Teng, but he wouldn’t hear the now-viral phrase every day at practice if he just defended better.

We’re going to see pretty quickly here if Teng listened to his head coach as the Spartans take on Maryland on Saturday afternoon in East Lansing.