Dec. 20, 2025, 4:15 p.m. ET
Michigan State was given a scare from Oakland on Saturday afternoon in Detroit, narrowly escaping the Golden Grizzlies, 79-70.
It was not a pretty game for the Spartans, who had spurts playing tough looking basketball, and Tom Izzo is certainly going to get into his team about their effort. But, postgame, Izzo was happier than normal, and that can attributed to his good buddy Greg Kampe. In their press conference together, see what Izzo had to say:
“Well, years go by and things remain the same. This might be the most talented team he (Kampe) has.””I’ve seen other games in this arena maybe half, under half full.””Believe it or not, I hardly said a word to the officials and he (Kampe) was crazy””They’re (Oakland) is better than they were. They won 5 out of 6 coming in.””As long as I am here, we will play this matchup.””I told my guys to hug and kiss Tarik Skubal to keep him around.””This is a good win for us. The only thing I will say about this zone, is it is a good zone for them. I don’t think he knows what they are doing.””I love Coen. Coen Carr is one of my favorites. He just works. He is not an excuse-maker. If you met his parents, and he’s an excuse-maker, they’d kill him. I told him that he was being out-toughed by the guy he was guarding.””When I was at Ford Field yesterday, then the Hall of Fame thing yesterday for Jason Richardson and Mark Dantonio, the amount of people that said they cannot wait for MSU-Oakland. There is something the city appreciates about us. We are blue-collared teams.”
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