Michigan State soundly beat USC on Monday night to improve to 13-2 on the season and the Spartans needed a little help from the crowd after falling behind by five early, but one former player gave Tom Izzo’s team a little too much help.
It was one of two annual Izzone Alumni games, and some former players were sitting in the lower bowl, cheering on the team they once played for.
Paul Davis was one of those former players sitting where they once played in front of, and he must’ve thought he was still suited up because he was giving the officials an earful. After standing up to say something inappropriate to one ref with about six minutes left in the game, he turned around before marching over to Izzo to explain the situation.
Izzo took exception to what Davis said, and told his former big man from the 2004-05 Final Four team to leave the arena.
It was a bizarre interaction, and it was just as confusing as it was awkward. It felt like a dad screaming at his son at the grocery store with innocent bystanders just looking on with second-half embarrassment.
Davis didn’t fight back much after the Hall of Famer threw him out, and we just knew this was going to be asked about in the post-game presser.
Tom Izzo says that what Paul Davis did “ticked me off”
Davis was never much of an outspoken guy during his playing days, but apparently with some liquid courage, he was able to say something vile enough to get him ejected from a college basketball by his former coach — a man he hasn’t played for in 20 years.
Izzo was asked about the situation after the game, and he didn’t shed a ton of light on it, but said that it ticked him off and what he said shouldn’t be said anywhere in the world.
Izzo asked about Paul Davis, says he loves him. "What he said, he should never say anywhere in the world. And that ticked me off. Just because it's 25 years later, I'm gonna have to tell him what I thought of it." Got after official and was "150% wrong....He made a mistake."
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) January 6, 2026
Obviously people’s minds immediately turn to something really bad, but Izzo cleared it up and said that it wasn’t racial or sexual, just shouldn’t have been said and he was completely in the wrong.
I wonder if we’ll ever hear Davis’ account of the situation — my guess would be no. But I’m pretty sure he’s going to be on his best behavior moving forward.