Everyone is lining up, half behind a furious Tom Izzo, half behind a belittled Aaron Henry.
The line in the court is being drawn after the fiery Michigan State head coach berated his freshman forward Thursday during the Spartans’ first-round NCAA Tournament win over 15-seeded Bradley. First Izzo got in Henry’s face, then, upon his talking to the team in the huddle, Izzo lunged at Henry and had to be restrained by other Michigan State players.
Many saw verbal abuse of an unpaid athlete. Many saw old-fashioned coaching.
“One of the reasons Tom Izzo is one of my favorite coaches [is] he coaches his team,” Charles Barkley said Friday on-air. “I was so disappointed to hear all these jackasses on other networks complaining about a coach coaching his team. Coach Izzo, you keep doing your thing, it’s all right for a coach to yell at a player. When did we get to a point where when a coach yells at a player, it becomes a national emergency? Shout-out to Coach Izzo, keep doing your thing.”
It’s unclear which media member from a “network” Barkley was referring to. Izzo himself did not apologize for his behavior.
“What’s wrong with challenging a kid that makes some mistakes?” Izzo told reporters after the game. “Aaron Henry — trust me — did some things that you can’t do as a starter on a top-5 team at the end of your freshman year. They were effort-related.
“I did get after him. He did respond. He did make a couple of big buckets. He did make some big free throws, but that’s not good enough. It’s one-and-done time. The ‘my-bads’ are out the window.”