National media takes Tom Izzo quote completely out of context

Once again, a quote from Tom Izzo was taken completely out of context by the national media and some fans ran with it.

For what seems like the billionth time, a Tom Izzo quote has been taken completely out of context to make him look bad.

On Wednesday afternoon, ESPN’s David Hale posted a quote from Izzo’s NCAA Tournament presser that essentially made him look like he hates that smaller schools can make the field of 68.

Here’s what Hale posted:

Tom Izzo says autobids for mid-Majors has “got to be looked at seriously” because “while everybody likes the upsets in the first round I’m not sure if that’s true as it goes on.” Also agrees w/Pitino that more former coaches/players should be on selection committee.

— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) March 20, 2024

As you could imagine, every single college basketball fan in the country took that and ran with it as “Tom Izzo hates mid-majors and doesn’t think they should make the tournament.”

And that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Hale’s summation of Izzo’s full response was horrible and has been called out by pretty much everyone who knows the context. Essentially, Izzo said that the auto-bid for winning the conference tournament should be looked at because it takes away from the body of work of the mid-majors who proved they belonged in the field all season long. So a school like Indiana State gets burned for not winning its conference tournament despite being the best team from that league and Izzo wants to make sure teams that have the body of work are able to go dancing.

The quote that Hale used out of context is insinuating that Izzo wants an easier tournament with less upsets, but that’s not the case. He loves the “little guys” as he called them and getting the regular-season champions in would make the NCAA Tournament that much more competitive.

Here’s Izzo’s full quote:

This is such a horseshit, poorly referenced paraphrase of what was actually asked and said. Everyone clutching their pearls and Kevin Sweeney is the only one who posted the full question and answer. https://t.co/dmlPXyW8Lx pic.twitter.com/2a9Ltab0TS

— DK (@SpartanHoops_DK) March 20, 2024

It’s disappointing to see the national media take a quote out of context and run with it because it might get a few more clicks. It’s even more disappointing when it paints Tom Izzo in the exact opposite light that it should.

We deserve better from the national media.