Tom Izzo backs his players with fiery rant about transfer portal (Video)

It’s widely known around the college basketball landscape what Tom Izzo thinks of the transfer portal. There is no secret that he does not like the way things are going and the approach that he takes to the portal. I have even written articles about his approach and how doing it his way or the Purdue way is different than other schools in the Big Ten and people approached that as the “wrong” way of doing it.

Murmurs that Izzo has to adapt got louder after last season. He even said that he “will get back to a deeper run in the tournament or die trying”.

Since this quote, there were questions, will Izzo change his opinion on the transfer portal and will he get to a deeper run? Well, one year later, Izzo has this team headed to the Sweet 16 with two transfers that play meaningful minutes for this team.

Does that mean things changed for him? No, and his quote in Tuesday’s press conference proves that.

Before I get into the quote from Tuesday afternoon, I wanted to first address why the answer is “no” to the question of “did Izzo change?” The reason why it is “no” is because his opinion on the matter has never wavered. Just because he does not like the way things are going, does not mean he will totally abandoned using it. Izzo has used the portal in the past and did twice this past offseason. He brought a wing in Frankie Fidler and a big man in Szymon Zapala. Both Fidler and Zapala have been contributors this year and they helped lead this team to a Big Ten title — the first in a few years.

Just because he brought these guys in, does not mean he is willing to sacrifice, not only the culture that he has built, but the chemistry of this team. When you bring in transfers, there is a chance the team doesn’t work and you either miss the tournament or you go out in the first or second round.

All around basketball, you have seen teams do this and you even see teams in the Sweet 16 be full of transfers. If you look at the starters for the teams, Michigan State, Purdue, and Duke are the three teams that are most filled with guys that have only been at their current school. Theres different ways to approach college basketball and you have seen success in both. The transfer portal is the most popular but what Izzo is trying to do now, is probably the hardest and possibly the most successful if he can keep his guys. Keeping his guys is going to be the biggest key to his success and quote he gave in his press conference earlier on Tuesday on his thoughts on the transfer portal should help with that.

Tom Izzo today on the transfer portal opening while the NCAA tournament is still going: pic.twitter.com/EXv3JxkZom

— Moneybagg (@MoneybaggH0E) March 25, 2025

When asked about his thoughts on the transfer portal, Izzo said, “I’m going to worry about the guys I got today in this program that has done an incredible job this year and thats it and if that costs me later, so be it.”

Not only is this Izzo saying, I care more about my guys than anything else, he is willing to stick with what he believes even if it means that it could come back and bite him in the future.

Izzo then would go on and say, “Tom Izzo isn’t cheating the people that he has that have been loyal to him for this chaos that is going on out there.”

This chaos is the transfer portal. Izzo even referred to the transfer portal is a “urinal” during the press conference. He went further talking about why would he screw up any of his players’ chances at achieving a life time of memories when he does not even know if taking any time looking at the portal will even benefit him because he does not know what he will have.

Izzo is going to run things his own way and it is going to be about his players and his program. While this might make fans frustrated at times, he is all about putting the effort to help his current team succeed and if fans aren’t behind that, I dont know what fans want to hear. If you are a player that wants to play college basketball, this is what I think they would want to hear, too.

While this approach and quote might not be exactly the most popular especially with how many players go into the portal, this is Tom Izzo backing his guys and all Spartan fans should be good with that.