Which is interesting since they are purportedly good friends. Prior to the game they sat and talked on the Michigan St. bench for a few minutes during early warm-ups.  Tom Izzo was asked about the comments Roy Williams made concerning Delvon Roe following the game on Wednesday and had this to say.

“I was very proud of how he handled it, because I didn’t appreciate it,” Izzo said of Roe. “I wasn’t going to let that be a big thing in the game. But of all the kids in the world that we’re going to pick on, they picked the wrong kid. I can give him a handful that he can pick on who maybe wouldn’t be as honest and up front about things, but him and his family? No, he picked the wrong kid.

“The other thing I thought was wrong was the insinuation like, almost, that Michigan State did something wrong to get him. So he picked the wrong kid, he picked the wrong family and he picked the wrong program. And there’ll be a time. There’ll be a time.”

Williams first singled out Roe in his book, “Hard Work: A Life On and Off the Court,” when he claimed a certain recruit committed to North Carolina then “lied” to him by going to Michigan State instead.

First of all, now I have the answer to the question that I asked in car on the way on Wednesday night: Who was the reporter who asked Roy about  whether Delvon Roe lied?  The answer is David Mayo, Grand Rapids Press. That also explains why Roy got so testy with him.  Had it been Caulton Tudor or Eddy Landry then Roy’s response would have been measured .  In this case, he went full boar on Mayo, especially since Mayo said Roy accused Roe of lying to him.  Here is the relevant passage from the book, I’ll let you be the judge:

Kids have lied to me. I once had a recruit ask me to gather all of my assistant coaches and secretaries and everybody else we could find into my office, so he could commit to me in front of a huge group. We all cheered and hugged, and then six weeks later he called to tell me he was going to Michigan State.

When Roy was asked about it, presumably by Mayo, he indicated he never said Roe lied which was true to a point. What he said is “kids have lied to me” then provided an example which we all know was Roe.  So, Roy did not say “Roe lied to me” but he did use Roe(albeit unnamed) as an example of a time when “kids have lied” to him. I guess that means he said “Roe lied” to him in a de facto or some other Latin word I don’t know sort of way. Which might be beside the point because Roe did lie to him. As Roy points out: “He told me he was coming, he didn’t come. I’ve looked every day at practice, and I haven’t seen him yet.” Should Roy have done there? Probably not but what’s done is done.

Now, we find out Izzo is not happy with what Roy said or rather what he thinks Roy said.  I get the impression, based on Izzo’s comments, that he has not seen the whole quote in context from Wednesday night and possible even the book.  The way his comments read it seems like Mayo fed him the juicy chunk of the quote without the context which included, among other things, Roy talking about Roe being a “wonderful kid” and also how it should not be made into a bigger story than it is. Nowhere in any of that or in the book is there insinuation that MSU was at fault, in fact Roy has nothing but great things to say about Izzo and MSU. Also, nowhere in any of this did I perceive Roy was picking on Roe, his family, his coach, the MSU program or his pet parakeet. Roy said, yes they recruited him, they though they were getting him.  Roe said he was coming but went to MSU instead. Does that mean Roe lied? Well…um….yes it does. At the same time I think everyone, Roy included, understands that Roe simply made a hasty decision when he committed and when his recruitment played out he wanted to play for Izzo. At the end of the day, no harm, no foul and I would expect Roy will give Izzo a call and smooth this out before you can say “dadgum.”