The Ole Miss men’s basketball team has put together two dominant performances so far in March Madness. Now, they’ll face No. 2 seed Michigan State in the Sweet 16 on Thursday, and their legendary coach, Tom Izzo, seemed less than thrilled to be facing off against the Rebels.
“I didn’t know (Ole Miss) won. They won?” Izzo asked the reporter, before making a scared face. “I played Chris Beard before. I know his team is ready to come at you tooth and nail. … Can I enjoy this (win) until I get through the locker room? Then I’ll worry about Chris when I get on the airplane.”
Chris Beard and Tom Izzo have faced off just one time in their coaching careers, but the game clearly left an impact on Izzo. The matchup occurred when Beard was at Texas Tech, and he took down the Michigan State Spartans in the 2019 Final Four by a score of 61 to 51.
Ole Miss has rolled through their first two games of the tournament, leading North Carolina and Iowa State at one point in the game by 22 and 26, respectively. By contrast, Michigan State let No. 15 seed Bryant and No. 10 seed New Mexico hang with them for far too long in their first two contests.
Izzo is nervous to face the Rebels, and understandably so. Coach Beard has his team playing with the utmost confidence and they are playing their best basketball at the right time. Plus, it’s March, and anything can happen.
A very public back and forth between the ESPN pundit and Los Angeles Lakers star continued Wednesday night when Smith went on his live YouTube show and responded to James blasting him on ESPN’s “Pat McAfee Show” earlier in the day.
The crux of the conversation is Smith’s coverage of James’ son Bronny. LeBron approached Smith courtside during a March 6 Lakers game, reportedly saying ‘Yo, you gotta stop talking s*** about my son. You gotta stop f***ing with my son. That’s my son, that’s my son!'”
Smith was not amused, saying James’ confrontation was ‘bulls*** and weak.” James said his part Wednesday by painting the incident as him protecting his family.
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