There isn't a more blunt coach in college basketball than Tom Izzo.
The Hall of Famer always speaks his mind and doesn't hold back, even if it can get him in some trouble. Fortunately, the things he says to the media are almost always agreed upon by the fanbase because he's saying what we're all thinking.
And that continued on Wednesday as he spoke about some former Spartans.
Arguably the most polarizing player in recent memory that didn't quite pan out in East Lansing was Xavier Booker, a former five-star recruit in the 2023 class. Izzo spoke to the media about his transfer on Wednesday and admitted that he "failed" and that he just couldn't get enough out of Booker.
Talking about Xavier Booker, Izzo says "I failed." Says he couldn't get enough out of him and that's his fault. Says deep down, there's one hell of a basketball player there.
— Matt Wenzel (@mwenzel2) April 16, 2025
Izzo also went on to say that he loves Booker and that he believes that there's a great basketball player deep down inside him that just needs to be unlocked. He feels like he failed because he couldn't unleash that great basketball player himself.
This is a fair assessment, but you can only do so much with a player and unless he, too, wants to be great, there's nothing that Izzo could've done more here.
Over the two years Booker was in East Lansing, Izzo always spoke highly of him and said that he has the potential and it wasn't a matter of "if" but "when" he would break out. Unfortunately, he never did at Michigan State, averaging just over 11 minutes per game over two years to go along with 4.3 points and 2.0 rebounds. He also shot just 27.3% from deep and 43 percent from the floor.
It would've been nice for Booker to stay and develop and grow into the player we know he can be in East Lansing, but he decided to move on and look for that elsewhere.
This is one that Izzo will beat himself up about.