Izzo Blasts Dan Dakich for his Twitter Antics, Backs Izzone
In the middle of Michigan State's 74-66 win over Ohio State on Tuesday, the Izzone busted out a chant that at first took Izzo by surprise. "We Hate Dakich"
Dan Dakich who was calling the game for ESPN that night, was the obvious target of the chant, and Izzo said he was confused until someone told him the context for it came on Twitter (a place coach Izzo notably does not frequent). Once he was caught up to speed, he didn't hold back on the ESPN broadcaster.
"But I’ve gotta be honest with you. I was kind of getting upset at the chants of Dakich, (We hate Dakich) until I got in the locker room and I asked, ‘What was that all about?’ And somebody read me his tweets. ... 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"
The (now-deleted) tweets from about a week ago incited internet rage among Izzone members, Michigan State students and any Spartan supporter really. One particular tweet grabbed all the attention.
Izzo responded: "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."
"...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." Izzo said.
Here's another taste of Dakich's twitter rantings from that same night. Again, all his tweets from this incident have been deleted but a key theme was preserved by the internet.
And Dakich couldn't leave the twitter-sphere that night without one last jab at Michigan State.
Dakich seems to be doubling down on these sentiments as well. As of this writing he's retweeted a few people who agree with him, including this guy.
Michigan State's next game on Satruday at Purdue is another ESPN broadcast and the home game against Nebraska the following Thursday is on ESPNU. Plus ESPN has broadcast rights to five Big Ten tournament games in the first three rounds. That's a half and half split with Big Ten Network.
Despite being in the home stretch of the college basketball season this twitter/internet feud has plenty of time and opportunity to continue. The Izzone won't soon forget and they'll make sure Dakich doesn't too.