Tom Izzo speak about importance of Black History Month tributes at Michigan State

Ahead of Michigan State‘s win over Maryland, head coach Tom Izzo saw his team take to the floor wearing warmups that had the letters ‘BHM’ on them, for the celebration of Black History Month.

After the game, Izzo was asked about those warmups and Black History Month more generally and he spoke about the importance of the month and paying tribute to it at Michigan State.

“Listen, there’s so many things that haven’t necessarily been fair in our country and this and that,” Tom Izzo said. “And I think we are making some progress. Still probably behind in a lot of ways. I just want to give guys a chance to appreciate, I love the anthem. Everything else, I thought it was apropos for the month and apropos for Michigan State.”

Tom Izzo also emphasized that Michigan State athletics have a long history of inclusiveness with black athletes, particularly in the Duffy Daugherty era of the football program. Head coach of the Spartans football team from 1954 through the 1972 season, Michigan State was known for recruiting black players when other schools weren’t willing to while he was there.

“Way back in the Duffy days, we kind of started the regime of getting black athletes up here and personally I take a lot of pride in that and what we did. I’ve read up on it,” Izzo said. “I listen to it. I heard the stories on Bear Bryant sending guys here, I wish Bear was alive and sent me a few guys right now. So, in that respect, I thought that was great.”

Clearly, celebrating Black History Month matters to Tom Izzo and it will be interesting to see how the Spartans continue to do so as February goes on.

Tom Izzo thanks fans for showing support against Maryland

It was an ugly win against Maryland for Michigan State and Tom Izzo thanked fans for their support even when the Spartans struggled at times.

“That really ticked me off because we get a steal out in the middle of the court and they go down to the floor and get it. We don’t. They get a layup. We had a couple of the most ridiculous turnovers, and we were playing our hearts out. Besides Robbie Hummel and the media and the coaching staff, I thought our fans were awesome. We gave them nothing to cheer about 90 percent of the time and they just hung with us, hung with us, hung with us, hung with us,” Izzo said.

“And that too was like old times. I asked Jason Richardson, Mat Ishbia, I said, ‘Remind you of things?’ And Jason said, ‘Yeah, the game did.’ You know, because back then it was a football game on hardwood too. I was disappointed in why we couldn’t, you know, our defense was so good and we were doing so well and all of a sudden, you know, and I don’t know if we didn’t sub enough, guys got tired, I don’t know what it was, but I promise you I’m going to look at the film and try to figure it out.”