Tom Izzo took some time out of his postgame press conference on Tuesday night to blast Dan Dakich for some negative comments the analyst made on Twitter about Michigan State’s academics and students.
Dakich was broadcasting the Michigan State-Ohio State game televised by ESPN on Tuesday and tweeted that Michigan State students only went there because they couldn’t get into Michigan.
@joerexrode @dandakich Dakich trolled Spartans fans (and MSU's academics) by tweeting fans only went to MSU as they couldn't get into UM.
— SpartyHomer (@SpartyH) February 15, 2017
@nickbaumgardner pic.twitter.com/9xZfn6mSIq
— Hunter Maniez (@HManiezz) February 15, 2017
Consequently, Dakich was heavily booed and treated harshly by Spartans fans during the game. The “Izzone” — which is Michigan State’s special student section named after coach Izzo, went extra hard at Dakich.
"We hate Dakich!". Thanks for incessantly whining Danny boy pic.twitter.com/ZnPz3WXHjF
— Adam (@ofcadamwalters) February 15, 2017
Dan Dakich enjoying the boos pic.twitter.com/RJ7J2CdwJ4
— Carlos Marinez (@msu984) February 15, 2017
Izzo said after his team’s win that he initially was going to have a word with the students about their chants until he was shown at halftime what Dakich did to provoke the response from the Spartans students.
“I was kind of getting upset at the chants of ‘Dakich.’ Until I got into the locker room and somebody read me his tweets. If I would have known that before the game, I would have embarrassed myself almost as much as he embarrassed himself. And I would have led the chants,” said Izzo after the game.
“Calling us whiners and that is kind of unprofessional. But saying our students couldn’t get in there? And he’s doing games for Michigan when his son’s there? That is a disappointment and that is ridiculous.
“Danny owes our fans and our students an apology.”
You can hear his full comments here:
Izzo is used to hearing some negativity at games like this, but this crossed the line because it came from someone who was supposed to call the game in an unbiased fashion.
