Dusty May doubles down on Michigan State criticism for late-game altercation, senior day incident

The Michigan vs. Michigan State rivalry is always a heated one. It got particularly tense on Sunday when while completing a Spartans senior day tradition of kissing the logo at midcourt, two Wolverines players and Tre Holloman of Michigan State got into an altercation. It was an incident that Wolverines head coach Dusty May initially called out on the tradition.

In his initial comments, May made it clear that he felt players had the right to stand at midcourt during free throws. He also explained that it’s not something he was familiar with. Now, with some time since the incident, May has doubled down on those comments.

“Number one, do I know the customs and traditions of any other Big Ten school? No, I don’t,” Dusty May said. “And won’t know until I experience it. I don’t watch Michigan State documentaries. I don’t have a Sparty foam finger growing up. So, I have no idea what they do. I know this, that the officials walked over and said that they have a tradition on senior night where their players kiss the logo as they’re coming out of the floor. It’s going to take some time. Great, that’s awesome. These seniors deserve it and on top of that they earned a Big Ten Championship. I have a lot of respect for what that team did this year. 17-3 in this league and battling in this league, I have a lot of respect for what that team did.”

In his initial comments, Dusty May shared that he didn’t know about the tradition but felt his players weren’t standing in an inappropriate place. He stands by that, explaining the logic to where those players were standing and his view on the situation.

“Now, as far as what happened after that, I’m standing on the sideline. Keep in mind Coen Carr had just gotten a layup a couple minutes before on the last free throw. Missed free throw, he sprints past us, they advance it. So, we had talked about being more alert on free throws. So, I think it’s [Justin] Pippen at the line, LJ [Cason] and Phat [Brooks] are at halfcourt. I think Frankie Fidler comes out of the game, kisses the floor… no issues whatsoever, kisses the floor, does his thing. I think maybe they’re subbing for another senior at that point and our guys,” May said.

“Phat and LJ, are standing at the exact spot they were when Fidler kissed the floor, not doing anything other than just standing there, and then out of the blue, they’re still standing at half court, and the Michigan State player comes up and two-hand shoves them in the chest.”

The Michigan State side of things, unsurprisingly, differed from Dusty May’s point of view. After the game, Tre Holloman would explain that he felt they were in the way, and needed to move. Head coach Tom Izzo, meanwhile, would back up his team in the final moments of the game.

“Now, the Spartan logo is about a third of the court. The game is going on. I didn’t know that this happened during the game,” May said. “And so if we needed to back them up to the other end or put all of our guys on an offensive, I don’t know what we were supposed to do in that situation. I know that we had two freshmen standing at half court, and they’re respectful, great dudes, and obviously, like I said, this was not the first person that came out, kissed the floor. We’d already agreed to the officials and whatnot, and so, yeah, that’s my perspective on it.”

Luckily, the altercation was broken up before it could get out of hand. The remainder of the tradition continued, and Michigan State left with the win and the Big Ten regular season championship.

“I’m very proud that our guys didn’t retaliate in a different manner that could cost them playing in the Big Ten Tournament,” May said. “To have that self-restraint and self-discipline and realizing that they’re representing Michigan the way they do. So, I was very proud of that moment because that could have gotten really, really ugly.”

Michigan will next be back in action on March 14th. They have the three-seed in the Big Ten Tournament. Michigan State finishes with the top seed.