Quotes from Coach’s end of season press conference
Coach Tom Izzo touched on a lot of topics at his end-of-season press conference on Wednesday. Much of it was not about Michigan State’s Big Ten regular season championship or run to the Elite 8 but instead the current state of affairs in college sports.
Izzo also spent a portion of his presser talking about the recent transfer portal decisions of Gehrig Normand, Xavier Booker, and Tre Holloman. Booker has announced he’s headed to UCLA next season while Holloman will play at North Carolina State.
Here are some notable quotes from this part of Izzo’s press conference.
On Gehrig Normand:
I thought that Gehrig was almost homesick the day he got here (Normand is from Texas). This year I really planned on him playing and then he got injured (in the fall). He worked his tail off all year . . . he did a phenomenal job. He got a lot better as a basketball player.
There’s a lot of things that play a role but he wants to get closer to home 100%.
On Xavier Booker:
I failed. I failed. I love Book. The day he came in with his family was a very difficult day for all of us (It’s assumed here that Izzo is referring to when Booker and his family met with him to indicate Booker’s intention to transfer. Later in the press conference, Izzo mentioned that all the players who transferred out personally spoke to him about it, which Izzo has learned in conversations with other coaches has apparently not always been the case in all programs).
I couldn’t get enough out of him . . . that’s my job. I do get paid for that.
During the year I talked to Book a zillion times and it was all for the most part positive and I feel bad about Book because I think deep down there is one hell of a basketball player in there and my job is to get that out of him and I didn’t get that done. So I have to take responsibility for that too.
If I asked Book to be in here morning, noon, and night, Book was here morning, noon, and night.
Book did it all. It just didn’t translate into some things and that’s my job.
It was talked about, opinions were made that were all, I think, on the same page.
On Tre Holloman:
Tre, I was surprised. It was a little bit of a surprise but Tre wanted some things too . . . wanted to play certain positions.
We can’t be ripping Tre . . . Nobody really knows anything . . . Nobody asked Tre. They just rip him and I think that is ridiculous. I think there was a lot more to it.
I completely understood two of them (Normand and Booker). The third one (Holloman) I didn’t understand as much but I respected it. I talked to him. He talked to me. We went over it and that’s kind of the way it is.
On players transferring in general:
There’s usually a variety of reasons. It’s not usually one reason.
On tampering with players:
What I do want to say is I also know – KNOW – POSITIVELY KNOW that people are talking to people ALL YEAR LONG. If that happens on my staff, people will be gone. But it’s not only staffs. It’s the fact that we’ve opened it up to NIL agents, which are non-certified. Some are good. Some are not good.
When you’re trying to play in a season and people are in your ear . . . it’s very difficult.
The only thing that I struggle with is I don’t know how many . . . could handle the barrage that I think these kids are getting, that I know in some cases, and still try to perform at this level. And for that, I feel bad for the student-athlete, I don’t feel mad at the student-athlete.
Would anything surprise me right now? No.
When asked about the current state of affairs in college sports:
I can’t condemn or condone . . . you see the end results and somebody, I think, semi-dropped the ball. It could have been me. It could have been us coaches in the meeting (referring to coaches associations that Izzo has served on in the past), it could have been administrators, it could have been the NCAA, it could have been our government. I don’t know. But I know this. When you’re in a profession, and a large majority of your profession (not just as a basketball coach, but as a coach in general and as a teacher) I can’t find a lot of people that think this is really good then it’s probably not really good.
I don’t have the answers. I just have the answers for what I need here. I can only talk to my players morning, noon, and night. I can talk to them about what I think the value of an education is, the value at a place like Michigan State is, the value of how that is going to help you for 50-60 years. That’s all I can do. If that ever changes where nobody’s listening, then I’ll join Fred. And if it does change, I’ll be happy I stayed in it and helped thousands and thousands of kids.
Takeaways:
It’s clear that Izzo still supports all of these players (and others like AJ Hoggard and Mady Sissoko) even though they decided to transfer. There is certainly no ill will towards the players here and Izzo will continue to do whatever he can to support them going forward, even if they’re no longer in a Spartan uniform.
It’s refreshing to see a coach take accountability (even though this is nothing new for Izzo). In this case for Booker’s situation. Even though it’s a team game, it’s still a collection of unique individuals that make up a team. Each athlete has their different motivations and buttons to push and sometimes you just can’t figure out how to activate them. This writer has failed at this many times in a previous coaching career. In a way, it’s comforting to hear a coach as accomplished as Izzo acknowledge this challenge.
Izzo, like many of us, was surprised by Holloman’s decision. There was some reasonable speculation that, when Izzo gave Tre the chance to kiss the logo after the Michigan game, that he may have known something was up. Now, it doesn’t seem like that was the case and it was perhaps just a genuine, in the-moment decision from Izzo.
Izzo made a point to decry Holloman getting “ripped” for his decision to leave. Earlier this week, TOC had a piece about the current state of affairs in college athletics and Holloman’s situation was mentioned. It should probably be noted that this part of that article was not meant to “rip” Holloman. It was just meant to convey disappointment that, after doing what he did with Michigan and then emotionally talking about letting his teammates down after the Auburn loss, Holloman wouldn’t be finishing his college career at Michigan State. It seemed like the entire Spartan community was proud that Holloman was part of that community and it was a kick in the gut when he decided to leave.
Rather than directing animosity towards the players, Izzo set it squarely on the shoulders of those programs and agents who choose to tamper with them 24-7-365. Of course it’s not surprising that Izzo won’t do this and won’t tolerate it from his staff but it’s also incredibly frustrating to be left to wonder if he can make another Final Four or win it all again if he doesn’t do stuff like this. It’s like the Tour de France used to be (and maybe still is – I don’t know, I’m not a cycling fan anymore) where, if you didn’t dope, you had no chance of winning. It all just seems so sleazy.
Finally, despite all of this, it may not be the quest for a second national title that motivates Izzo the most and keeps him going. It may be that players are still listening to him and he’s still making a positive impact in their lives in the midst of a growing forest of sleazebaggery.