Tom Izzo recalls support from Michigan last season after campus shooting

February 13 will forever be a somber day at Michigan State, as the university mourns three students who were killed in a mass shooting on Feb. 13, 2023. With the one year anniversary of the infamous day arriving, head men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo reflected on one of the darkest days in Spartan history and how a rival helped start the process back to some type of normal life.

Izzo remembered how it brought the community together, noting that he wished it didn’t take a tragedy to do so. And he also remembers the selfless gesture from Michigan State’s biggest rival a few days later, as Michigan hosted the Spartans in men’s hoops and turned Crisler Center green and held a moment of silence pregame.

“And it wasn’t because Juwan [Howard] made ’em or their president or their AD. It wasn’t — you could tell, when you were there, that it was sincere and from their heart,” Izzo said. “Because I think everybody needs a wake up call once in a while, and know there are bigger things than the rivalry.”

Izzo expanded on his thinking about the reality that tragedy is what tends to bring people together, in myriad ways.

He wishes that it wasn’t necessarily that way.

“Why do we always need a tragedy to bring us together?” Izzo said. “And that proved the point, the tragedy brought two hated rivals together. The tragedy, the twisters in Alabama brought Auburn and Alabama together. The plane going into the building brought our country together. Maybe we can learn, if we would do a better job getting together on some things — you still gotta hate your rival — but where I think I’ve changed and I talked to Adam about this, respecting your rival is what you need to do. And that was respect they showed for us.”

After the shooting last February, Michigan State postponed a game against Minnesota that was never made up, making the night at Crisler Center on Feb. 18, 2023, the first time they had taken the floor since the shooting occurred.

To feel that their rivals knew and shared in some of the raw, painful emotions that reached far corners of the state of the Michigan, is something Izzo won’t soon — or ever — forget.

“And I told Juwan on the floor, I told his AD and I tried to tell the students, that was greatly appreciated and it was classy and I really believe it was from their heart. So that meant a lot to me, it really did,” Izzo said.