Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo has been abundantly clear on how he feels about players who have gone pro in the G League or international players coming back to play college basketball. Izzo is not happy about it at all, and he will continue to reiterate that for as long as it continues to go on.
The latest news to come from all of this is that former Alabama standout Charles Bediako, who entered the 2023 NBA Draft and signed a two-way contract with the San Antonio Spurs, has just been granted a temporary restraining order to return to the Crimson Tide to play for Nate Oats. This is the first player to sign an NBA contract and later return to play college basketball.
Bediako is expected to play for Alabama this weekend against Tennessee, and this ruling comes just one day after NCAA president Charlie Baker reassured that Bediako and any other player to sign an NBA contract would not be give anymore college eligibility anymore. Clearly, that didn't age well, and the former Alabama star is back with his former team.
Izzo was asked about the situation during media availability this week, and yet again, he did not hold back on his feelings about it all.
Watch: Tom Izzo reacted to the Charles Bediako news.
— Owen Oszust (@Owen_Oszust) January 23, 2026
"I'm going to the transfer portal for sure in the spring. I'm going right to my locker room, and I'm going to try and keep every fricking player I got." @wilxTV
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"I just get mad," Izzo said. "I don't follow it to worry about the cases; it's pretty evident that I have no say, the coaches have no say, and coaches are just doing what they want to do."
Louisville was the first to start all of this by bringing in G League player London Johnson to college basketball. Recent rule changes allowed G League players to have college eligibility as long as they did not play in college before leaving for the league.
Now, this has grown to the case of Bediako, who did not appear in an NBA game, but has been on a two-contract with the Spurs for the last two years. Bediako ended up suing the NCAA in order to be able to return to the Tide, even though he forwent the rest of his eligibility when he chose to declare for the NBA Draft in 2023.
Izzo is pretty upset about the whole matter as he feels no one is listening to how coaches and players, the people on the court, feel about all of this. Izzo said he plans to get into the portal this season and make sure he doesn't lose any of his guys.