Tom Izzo appeared on The Drive with Jack Ebling on Thursday and he had a lot to say about a variety of topics from the Pistons to Jase Richardson to Jeremy Fears in the NBA draft to Anton Bonke signing with Michigan State.
In true Izzo fashion, he didn’t hold back on any topic and you can always tell when it’s the offseason because he sounds much more relaxed now than he was even three weeks ago. He got to talking about the addition of Bonke and he decided to take the opportunity to call something out that he’s seen far too much of: couch coaches knocking him or the program.
Izzo began by putting couch coaches in their place, explaining how difficult it is to land a quality center in the transfer portal because “the good ones have already gone pro”.
"The kid’s a junior or senior and he’s 6-10 or 11… and he’s that good, he’s gone pro already. People have this myth that a kid won’t go pro because he can make more money now. That’s not really true either. If you have a chance to go to the NBA, you’re going… Most of these kids in the portal at that size are kids that are good players that are trying to get better but they’re not saviors to anybody. We just think that (Bonke) has a little bit of everything."Tom Izzo on the transfer portal
The Hall of Famer went on to say that it’s not easy to find these guys and they’re all being paid a good amount so it’s not as easy as just out-bidding someone. Everything has to fall in place from how he is as a student to how he is as a person and teammate.
Izzo didn’t stop there. He also got a little fired up about the “tough people on Twitter”.
"A lot of tough people on Twitter. A lot of people that want to criticize and tell ya… I said, for three and a half years, I took a lot of criticism on Carson Cooper and now I hear people saying, ‘Man, if they get a fifth year, I hope Carson Cooper can come back.’ And I say, ‘Why’s that?’ And that just goes to show how ridiculous — I’m very blunt about it — people are… (There are) people that are mad at you because they lost a bet or people are mad because of all that then you’re not true fans. That’s the way it goes."Tom Izzo on MSU couch coaches
It’s not often that Izzo steers Michigan State wrong and if fans think that he’s not doing everything in his power to win and build a team he believes can contend for a title, they’re wrong.
Kudos to Izzo for standing up for himself and his players.
Add us as a preferred source on Google