Tom Izzo blasted ESPN's Dan Dakich for saying Michigan State students whine too much

Tom Izzo laid into ESPN analyst Dan Dakich on Tuesday night following Michigan State’s 74-66 win over Ohio State. Izzo’s response came after he heard the Spartans’ student section chanting Dakich’s name throughout the night. After inquiring about what sparked those chants, Izzo agreed that MSU students had the right to be upset.

Dakich sent a series of disparaging tweets about Michigan State on Feb. 8. Dakich, as he frequently does, got into a prolonged Twitter argument, and he offered up a series of since-deleted tweets like this one ...

... and this one:

(Michigan State’s Scout website, Spartan Nation, collected the above caps.)

Maybe the sickest burn:

Dakich’s son, Andrew, is a guard for Michigan, the Spartans’ bitter rival. Izzo got wind of the elder Dakich’s comments on Tuesday night as school’s eponymous student section — the Izzone — started chanting “We hate Dakich”

Izzo initially didn’t like the chants, he said, but became angry with Dakich after finding out about the flurry of anti-MSU tweets that led to them.

A full transcript, put together initially by Spartan Nation’s Hondo Carpenter:

Before I go into anything, I’ve gotta tell you that I do a lot of work to try to somewhat control the Izzone. And if there’s things not being said, I email them, I talk to them. I catch hell both ways if too much is being said, if not enough’s being said. But I’ve gotta be honest with you. I was kind of getting upset at the chants of Dakich, [“We hate Dakich,” reportedly] until I got in the locker room and I asked, ‘What was that all about?’ And somebody read me his tweets. The social media.

And if I would’ve known that before the game, I would’ve embarrassed myself almost as much as he embarrassed himself, and I would’ve led the chants. Because calling us whiners and that is kind of unprofessional. Classy broadcasters, like [the Detroit Pistons’] George Blaha and everybody else, wouldn’t even think to do something like that on TV. 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.

And I think it’s funny because I’ve got no respect for him for that, and I’m gonna publicly say it. You can tweet it. You can read it. You can do whatever you want with it. But Twitter got him in trouble, and he earned it, and I’m surprised ESPN would let somebody say something like that, that works for them. That’s off my chest now. Another one for Twitter. Another one for Twitter. But Danny owes our fans and our students an apology, and I probably won’t get it. But I’ve always gotten along with Dan, but, as you know, it seems like this year, a lot of people have been mad at me. But I would’ve loved to get in that Izzone and join those chants if I was on Twitter. Thank God I’m not. Thank God some of my friends are. So, there’s the commercial today, and now we’ll get back to the game.

Izzo’s biggest beef seems to be with Dakich’s insinuation that Michigan State people are only Michigan State people because they couldn’t get into Michigan. That’s not a nice thing to say, but it’s also a dig that’s been made probably thousands of times before. That Dakich has a vested interest in Michigan compounds the issue.

Dakich says a love of stuff, and he’s one of the more polarizing media voices in college basketball. That he’s at the center of an argument like this isn’t surprising.