Tom Izzo defends Tre Holloman altercation, tempers flaring late in Michigan State vs. Michigan

Tom Izzo has been apart of the Michigan State–Michigan rivalry for more than four decades, and he’s seen his fair share of in-game dust-ups.

Given that wealth of history, the 70-year-old Spartans head coach had no issue with junior guard Tre Holloman sparking a brief shoving match at midcourt late in Sunday’s 79-62 win over the rival Wolverines in the regular-season finale for both schools.

“That’s what rivalries are all about. If everybody’s out there hugging and kissing, it’s probably not a rivalry,” Izzo said in his postgame press conference, according to FOX’s broadcast. “They shouldn’t get mad if we’re kissing our own ass or doing something down there (at Michigan). I don’t get mad when they call me an angry midget, it doesn’t bother me.”

Tom Izzo's thoughts on the altercation toward the end of the game and how special the kissing the court tradition has become to the Spartan community pic.twitter.com/suPLh4Ewu7

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With under a minute left in Sunday’s rivalry game and Michigan State leading by 18, the Spartans began honoring their seniors by subbing each out one at a time. As is tradition, several of the seniors kissed the logo at midcourt on their way off the floor.

In the midst of this, Michigan players LJ Cason and Phat Phat Brooks stood at midcourt, in the middle of the Michigan State logo during a set of free throws. There appeared to be an exchange of words between the Wolverine players and Holloman, who then stepped to midcourt and bumped chests with Cason and Brooks prompting a brief but heated shoving match that was quickly broken up by officials and players from both sides.

The way Izzo described it after the game, Holloman didn’t appreciate Michigan’s players seemingly disrespecting the Michigan State tradition of kissing the midcourt logo on their way off the court, which began in 1995 with Spartans alumnus Shawn Respert.

“It was unfortunate that it ended in a little bit of a negative or stained way, but, you know, we all know that rivalries are rivalries, and … things happen both ways and both are guilty,” Izzo added. “The tradition of the kissing of the Spartan head, Shawn started it and then the team took it over. And when you see a tradition that now our hockey team does, and our women’s team and our softball team and our soccer team and our baseball team — that’s who we are, and I’m damn proud of that.

“So, if it happened like I heard, I’m still not going to let Tre get away with it, but I’m not going to be quite as mad as I would’ve been. But at the same time, we have to make sure we handle ourselves right or we’re no better than anybody else.”

On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this report.