Tom Izzo is one of the most respected figures in college basketball history. He has been a head coach since 1977. Izzo has been at Michigan State University since 1983. After 12 years as an assistant coach, he was promoted to head coach.
Now, for the last 30 years, Tom Izzo has led Michigan State. In that time, he has won the NABC Coach of the Year twice and the Big Ten Coach of the Year four times. He also won an NCAA championship once in his career, in addition to his eight Final Four appearances. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
So when Tom Izzo says something about college basketball, people always take it seriously. Recently, there has been a lot of backlash on the NCAA after some of the newer additions to college basketball. The NCAA doesn’t have a strict age limit for the players’ eligibility rules.
The rules dictate that the traditional age is between 18 and 23 years old, but that hasn’t stopped teams from adding players from the G-League and, most recently, an NBA player. Baylor signed former NBA player James Nnaji, and Tom Izzo expressed his disappointment.
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“I don’t know the whole situation. I’m a little disappointed. Scott [Drew] is a good friend of mine. And he was on the committees and didn’t seem to be leaning in that. But what’s happened at three or four schools right now, I mean, I just asked. I just asked, and all these people write all these things about me, and they are all wrong. So you know, they wanna talk about what coaches can do what they want they said,” Izzo said.
“I’m still talking strictly not for the program for the kid. So I asked Coen, “Would you be okay if I went and got Miles, brought him back? And I sat you?” I mean, you laugh, but that’s what we are doing. Somebody’s sitting. Somebody’s not playing. You know, I just don’t think that’s fair for the players. Some of them you know worked their butt off to get to this position, and maybe things didn’t go right. I’m a little surprised. I gotta call Scott. I am anxious to see what he tells me. I mean, if that’s where we are going to, shame on the NCAA. Shame on the coaches, too,” Tom Izzo went off.
Fans React to Tom Izzo’s Outburst
Fans were completely behind Tom Izzo and fully supported him.
“He’s absolutely right.. love Izzo,” one fan showed his support.
“Scott Drew has run a clean program now for over a decade but people forget he was doing shady things in the early 2010’s,” another fan said.
“NCAA should make a rule where players who were drafted into the NBA and/or signed to a roster (including G league) aren’t eligible,” another commented.
“The NCAA needs an age limit!!!” one fan exclaimed.
“Knew this was coming. NCAA needs to fix the rules,” another said.
“This is why we love Izzo, he isn’t afraid to speak against the NCAA,” another claimed.
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