EAST LANSING — Tom Izzo tried to turn the page. Admitted his Michigan State basketball squad lost to the better team in Michigan basketball. Attempted to shift to the nine remaining Big Ten games ahead, starting at Minnesota in two days.
But the rivalry never goes away and is never a one-day story. And especially not after Dusty May criticized Izzo’s point guard in the morning on Monday, Feb. 2.
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“I’m not gonna get into that. I have no idea,” Izzo said when asked about May’s comments alleging Jeremy Fears Jr. had some “dangerous” plays in Friday’s game at Breslin Center. “But I do know that I thought there were a couple plays the other way, too, like jumping into a guy and getting a foul when it was a complete joke. This is what it’s supposed to be.
“And you know what? Michigan’s over. I’m moving on to Minnesota. No insult to you. I don’t care what Dusty says, I don’t care what they say.”
Michigan head coach Dusty May, left, talks to Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo before tipoff between Michigan State and Michigan at Breslin Center in East Lansing on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026.
MARCH TO MARCH: Michigan State basketball bracketology: Path to March Madness is clear
The 10th-ranked Spartans (19-3, 9-2 Big Ten) face Minnesota (10-12, 3-8) in Minneapolis on Wednesday (7 p.m., Big Ten Network).
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But Monday’s midday press conference was split between talking about Izzo’s team performance and the upcoming schedule along with Friday night’s 83-71 loss to No. 2 U-M.
The revived furor began earlier in the day in Ann Arbor, where May was asked about one play in which Fears drove the lane, then passed to Jaxon Kohler in the corner for a 3-point attempt. Slowed-down video appeared to show Fears sticking his right leg out in an alleged attempt to trip Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg.
“Appeared,” May said when asked about the play. “Wasn’t an illusion, right?”
“I think there were several plays that were very dangerous,” May continued. “I am incredibly proud of our guys for the response they had to some of those situations, their self-control, self-restraint and impulse control. I’ll leave it at that.
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“But they’re not isolated incidents. … The film is there. Forty minutes of it, it’s not hard to find.”
May said neither he nor his staff reached out to MSU about their concerns, but Izzo later welcomed it.
“There were some things that Jeremy did, I addressed him on it,” Izzo said. “But him and their point guard [Elliot Cadeau] were going at it pretty good, that’s what happens in games like this. So if anybody did anything dirty, tell him to call me and I would be more than happy to address it. If it was physical play? That’s the way that game is always gonna be.”
Michigan State guard Jeremy Fears Jr. (1) dribbles against Michigan during the first half at Breslin Center in East Lansing on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026.
Izzo vented his frustration over the officiating after the game and on Monday expressed his dissatisfaction with a few reversed calls – an early foul on U-M’s Nimari Burnett that initially was whistled on Aday Mara, which would have been the big’s second, as well as a foul call on Fears with 31.5 seconds to play that was an out-of-bounds call on Lendeborg until a referee consultation. Izzo received a technical foul arguing that one, with the Wolverines leading by 10 before three Lendeborg free throw makes.
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He also was displeased with a hook-and-hold review with 2:29 before halftime that helped U-M get a five-point possession. That was followed moments later by Will Tschetter launching his shoulder into MSU’s Jordan Scott on a 3-point attempt, with the MSU freshman getting called for a foul that Fox announced Gus Johnson called “a shady one there.” Tschetter made two of three free throws on that with 7.9 seconds left before halftime, part of a 13-3 Wolverines run that swelled their lead to 18.
“On the one play where a guy jumped into us, I think that was 100% the wrong call,” Izzo said Monday. “:But they can’t change the call, so I don’t know. Sometimes you can change the calls that these things are, sometimes you can’t. I don’t know what they are.”
When asked 25 minutes into his press conference Monday a “final” question about a relatively brusque postgame handshake between him and May, Izzo took umbrage and went on for another 20 minutes about myriad of topics and revisited the tempestuousness of the rivalry.
“You guys. Some guys I talk to. I have no interest in talking to my rival. Some guys I don’t,” Izzo said. “It was not a – it was a handshake. I walked by, it was a handshake. It was probably no different than the one last year if you really got down to it.
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“Geez, they’re 20-1 and whatever they are; we’re 19-3, whatever we are. There should be a lot bigger things to get into than to be worried about the god-darned handshake. So, sorry, but you guys gotta have something that’s controversial.”
Asked after that about sitting senior center Carson Cooper with two fouls for the final 9:46 of the first half as U-M built an 18-point lead, Izzo explained his decision and continued to express his frustration.
“Tell all your people that write in if they want to coach the team, they can coach the team. Including you,” Izzo fired back and then defending his long-standing strategy. He also added that his philosophy also “depends on the situation – and to be very honest with you, it depends on the refs. It really does. I mean, if I think a guy’s out there calling anything, I’m not taking the same chance.”
And then, as usually is the case after an emotional MSU-U-M game, Izzo shifted back to the rivalry unprompted.
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“If you think I’m testy, I’m not. I’m really not. If you think I’m upset about the loss, I’m really not. I accept things way more than I used to,” Izzo said. “But I think there were a lot of things to question in that game. I think there were some question mark calls. I think there were some question mark things that went both ways.
“I think that I’m a big fan of the one-time challenge. The length of time it takes? I’m beginning to not be a fan. I mean, that was like a 2½-hour game. And then every time you want something, you can question, you can challenge. Sometimes, you challenge and it costs you a timeout. Sometimes, you can challenge and there’s nothing there – there is no timeout against you, because they have the ability to do that.”
Later, Izzo discussed May and the loss, with the rematch looming to close the regular season on March 8 in Ann Arbor.
“Remember this. Whether I hug and kiss Dusty or he hugs and kisses me, we got beat by a better team,” Izzo said. “They played better, they were better, they have been better. We got beat by a better team. We knew we had to play our best game. We didn’t do that.
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“We showed at times where we can play with anybody – we didn’t do that on a consistent basis, and the better team won. Simple. Not for flowers for them, not for anything to save me. I said it after the game, I say it now.”
Free Press reporter Tony Garcia contributed to this report.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo responds to U-M’s Dusty May
