Michigan State’s Tom Izzo ridicules idea of doing away with postgame handshake lines
The brouhaha following the Wisconsin-Michigan men’s basketball game on Sunday has led some to consider doing away with a tradition in the sport.
Wolverines coach Juwan Howard was suspended five games for slapping Badgers assistant Joe Krabbenhoft following a tense exchange with Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard.
On Monday, ESPN’s Seth Greenberg said on the show “Get Up” it might be time to make a change to a postgame custom.
“I’ve been giving a lot of thought of this. I talked to my daughter,” Greenberg said. “Maybe we should get rid of the handshake lines. Maybe we just act appropriately. Maybe we lead instead of following.”
There has been chatter on social media, including from Dick Vitale, about doing away with postgame handshakes, too.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo was asked Monday about ending the tradition of handshake lines, and he made a point of saying that would be a mistake.
In fact, Izzo offered a strong defense of shaking hands after a game
“I do got to comment on that since that’s not insulting to anybody,” Izzo told reporters. “That, to me, would be the biggest farce, joke, ridiculous nature of anything I’ve ever heard of. We’ve already taught these poor 18-year-olds that when you’re told to go to class and you don’t like it, you can leave. We’ve already told these kids that if you’re not happy, you can do something else. We’ve already told these kids that it’s hard to hold them accountable.
“And now we’re going to tell them to not man up and walk down a line on someone who’s kicked your butt and have enough class to shake their hand is utterly ridiculous. So if the president said it, I think he’s full of it. If the best coach in America said it, I think ... that gets me more than this (Howard) incident.”
Izzo recounted telling Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis and Illinois’ Trent Frazier how he wish they weren’t playing for their teams, but he was glad they did because it was good for the Big Ten.
That’s the benefit of having the postgame handshakes.
“The people that are saying that are the same people that don’t want to teach players accountability, respect or anything else,” Izzo said.
“So maybe we should teach people how to shake hands and what to do,” Izzo added. “And you didn’t hit a sore spot with what happened. You hit a sore spot with that. I think that is absolutely ridiculous. If that’s what we’ve come to, shame on whoever said it. In my humble opinion. I’ve got to make sure I say in my opinion, because we’re all allowed to have an opinion now. So in my opinion, that is asinine.”
Here is Izzo’s full answer to the question of doing away with handshake lines, via Twitter user Brad Galli.
This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 9:26 AM.
