Tom Izzo addresses technical foul in Michigan State loss vs. Iowa

As Michigan State continues to struggle down the stretch of the season, the Spartans suffered a big 86-60 loss against Iowa on Tuesday night. In the process, head coach Tom Izzo received a controversial technical foul which he blames on the current tension across the Big Ten.

During his postgame press conference, Tom Izzo explained the sequence which led to his technical foul. He also alluded to the postgame incident involving the Michigan Wolverines and Wisconsin Badgers as a turning point for the soft calls against coaches in the conference.

“It was a pretty crazy play, I thought,” Izzo said after making a face and taking a moment to collect himself. “I just said it was a foul, didn’t swear at him. These guys are so – right now – and I knew better. I knew because of what happened I’m sure we’re not even allowed to say ‘hello’ and ‘how’s your mother?’ Personally, it’s completely undeserved. If you look at both ends, I didn’t run out on the floor at him. Was I on the floor? Yes, I was on the floor. I didn’t even realize I was on the floor. But was it? That was ridiculous.”

As one of college basketball’s longest tenured coaches and a Hall of Famer, Izzo holds a certain level of respect which allows him the opportunity to speak on the issues across the sport. While he has continued to make controversial statements about the relationship between coaches and the conference in the past several days, it remains unclear whether the Big Ten will respond.

Tom Izzo on handshake lines

Tom Izzo cannot imagine college basketball without handshake lines. The Michigan State coach offered a humorous response Monday when addressing the possibility of eliminating one of the oldest traditions in the game.

“If some team doesn’t want to shake hands, you’re gonna see 15 of my guys walk around and shake air and I’m gonna shake air and then we’re gonna leave,” Izzo said.

The discussion came after a brawl broke out Sunday afternoon at the end of a game between Michigan and Wisconsin. Wolverines coach Juwan Howard exchanged some heated words with Badgers coach Greg Gard before winding up and throwing a punch at him. That resulted in the suspension of Howard for the remainder of the regular season, which for the Wolverines is five games. Gard was fined $10,000, but was not suspended.