Tom Izzo has officially had enough.
After yet another perceived “trip” by Jeremy Fears against Illinois on Saturday night, Izzo had to field questions about a play that was ruled accidental and no foul came of it. Even Brad Underwood defended Fears and said he just stopped and there was nothing egregious about the play.
Still, Izzo fielded questions about the play in the post-game presser, and you could tell how fed up he’s become with the entire Fears discourse over the past week, or so.
He was asked about the unsuccessful “trip” challenge, and his response was pretty blunt.
Tom Izzo was asked of the unsuccessful appeal of Jeremy Fears’ potential “trip”
— Michigan State Content (@msucontent) February 8, 2026
“If he breathes on somebody now, there’s gonna be a call. Thanks to what happened.”
“End of that story, ask me another question.”
🎥 @TheSpartanMag pic.twitter.com/xeb17TevtS
Izzo was visibly annoyed that he had to answer this question, especially after an emotional win. It’s fair that he had this response after being asked the question, because he’s right. He shouldn’t have to answer a question about a play that was reviewed and ruled clean, and Fears has taken a ton of flak lately from the media, opposing coaches, and opposing fans regarding some of his questionable decisions.
Fears has been the center of several on-court controversies over the past week, and he has to be fed up, too. Obviously some of this is self-inflicted, but he didn’t ask to receive constant hate for a week for a poor decision against Michigan and the kick against Minnesota didn’t help matters.
Izzo speaks for all of us, though. This discourse has gotten out of hand.
The Jeremy Fears discourse has been wildly overblown
The trip of Yaxel Lendeborg during the Michigan loss dominated headlines, and Dusty May touched on it and said that there were a lot of “dangerous” plays in that rivalry game — insinuating that it was all Michigan State’s doing.
Against Minnesota, he could’ve gone without flailing his leg and kicking a defender’s groin, but that play got him compared to Grayson Allen and Brad Davison combined. I’m not joking when I say that I saw someone claim that Fears was a dirtier player than both of those guys, and it’s not close. Yes, dirtier than arguably the dirtiest college hoops player since 2000 because he tripped a guy and flailed his leg a little too hard.
Now, any play he makes is going to be looked at under a microscope. Saturday’s “incident” was overblown, per usual, and the replay shows it wasn’t intentional.
Yet the narrative will continue to spin out of control because of course.