Michigan State Spartan’s basketball coach Tom Izzo seemed to be annoyed by a question about the opening of the transfer portal on Tuesday as his team prepared for Sweet 16.
NCAA Transfer Portal opened on Monday, where several features were already made. When Izzo approached the media about the team’s upcoming march Madness match against Ole Miss, he naturally received a question about the portal but took a contentious tone.
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Michigan State main coach Tom Izzo moves during the New Mexico game in the NCAA tournament, Sunday 23 March 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
He said he was “crossed” as the reporter asked him the question.
“I don’t have to do with it at all. The only thing I would tackle is that I don’t run players. So you have to have stains to pick up transfers,” Izzo said of the program that handles the portal via Detroit Free Press. “And maybe we would have one (stain) if everyone came back. Maybe we wouldn’t. If you don’t have stains, why do you do? So I can get someone better? I can have a better boyfriend because one I got is not good enough? I don’t know, get a better wife because the one I got is not good enough?
“It’s not a loaded question, it’s one that I really have a zero interest in answering because I think it’s ridiculous that NCAA or any other device puts these two things together that people like you have to ask these questions. And I appreciate you having to ask them. And I’m sorry when people talk to our children about them.
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Michigan State Main coach Tom Izzo shouts during the New Mexico game, Sunday 23 March 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
“I saw what happened at a school. Team gets a chance to play in Sweet 16 and people go into the transfer portal. Children have to do what they got to do and they really are not to do what to do. They do what their parents or their agents tell them to do because they still have to go to practice, go to the same unemployed unless they leave the team. is then it is, but it is personal to be personal.
Izzo later added that he is trying to focus on preparing for Ole Miss and would not “cheat” his players.
Izzo is one of the largest college -basketball trainer over time. He has been with the program since the 1995-96 season and led the team to a national championship in 2000.
Main coach Tom Izzo talks with his Michigan State players in the second half of the game against New Mexico, Sunday 23 March 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
The Spartans have failed to reach the last four in recent years. The last time the team came so far was in 2019 when it lost to Texas Tech.
