Michigan State Spartans men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo appeared to be irked over a question about the opening of the transfer portal on Tuesday as his team prepared for the Sweet 16.

The NCAA transfer portal opened Monday, with several moves already being made. As Izzo addressed the media about the team’s upcoming March Madness matchup against Ole Miss, he naturally received a question about the portal but took a contentious tone.

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Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo gestures during the New Mexico game in the NCAA tournament, Sunday, March 23, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

He said he was “ticked off” that the reporter asked him the question.

“I’m not dealing with it at all. The only thing that I would deal with is, I don’t run players off. So you gotta have spots to pick up transfers,” Izzo said of the program handling the portal, via the Detroit Free Press. “And maybe we’d have one (spot) if everybody came back. Maybe we wouldn’t. If you don’t have spots, why are you doing that? So that I can get somebody better? I can get a better girlfriend, because one I got isn’t good enough? I don’t know, get a better wife, because the one I got isn’t good enough?

“It’s not a loaded question, it’s one I really have zero interest in answering, because I think it’s ridiculous that the NCAA or any other entity put these two things together that people like you have to ask these questions. And I value that you have to ask them. And I do get upset when people are talking to our kids about them. 

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Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo yells during the New Mexico game, Sunday, March 23, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

“I saw what happened at one school. Teams get a chance to play in the Sweet 16, and people are entering the transfer portal. Kids gotta do what they got to do, and they’re really not doing what they gotta do. They’re doing what their parents or their agents are telling them to do because they still gotta go to practice, go in the same locker room unless they leave the team. And I think that’s insane. I think it’s disgusting. But that’s my own personal opinion.”

Izzo later added that he’s trying to focus on preparing for Ole Miss and didn’t want to “cheat” his players.

Izzo is one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time. He’s been with the program since the 1995-96 season and guided the team to a national championship in 2000.

Head coach Tom Izzo talks with his Michigan State players in the second half of the game against New Mexico, Sunday, March 23, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

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The Spartans have failed to reach the Final Four in recent years. The last time the team got that far was in 2019, when it lost to Texas Tech.

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