Tom Izzo previews Iowa, gives thoughts on MSU football coaching change

Michigan State basketball is gearing up for one of the biggest weeks that they will have this season. The Spartans are opening up Big Ten play against Iowa on Tuesday, before a massive nonconference tilt with Duke on Saturday.

Prior to the crazy week ahead, Tom Izzo spoke to the media highlighting his thoughts on the week ahead. It was a very insightful media session from the Spartans head man.

To open the 40-minute media session, Izzo kept it strictly on basketball, where he previewed Iowa and talked about the amount of respect he has for new Hawkeye head coach Ben McCollum. Aside from Iowa, Izzo broke down some key players on his own team, including Jeremy Fears and Cam Ward.

Following the basketball portion of his press conference, Izzo fielded questions on the Jonathan Smith situation and the coaching change with the football program.

Izzo is as influential as it gets surrounding Michigan State, and when he talks, people listen. Izzo made sure to make a powerful statement about supporting whoever is at the helm of the football program and how he felt Smith's tenure ended.

"I hate what's happened to Jonathan Smith. I hate what's happened because things did not go as well as I would like them. But more importantly, things did not go as well as he would like it."

Watch Izzo's full press conference via Spartan Mag on YouTube:

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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Tom Izzo previews Iowa, gives thoughts on MSU football coaching change