In a heated battle with Memphis, the Michigan State Spartans got into a towel fight during a timeout. Keith Appling and Derrick Nix were not happy with each other and started throwing towels back and forth and had to be restrained in the huddle. The two went to high school together, so obviously this wasn’t anything personal. As Jalen Rose said on Twitter:
@BleacherReport Typical Detroit emotion and passion that I love. No big deal.
— Jalen Rose (@JalenRose) March 23, 2013
It obviously helped get the team back on track as the Spartans went on to demolish the Tigers 70-48. Following the game, Izzo said he loved that this happened.
“Nix got after Appling, but 13 years ago, you know one of the most famous things that ever happened to me was walking down that hallway and listening to Mateen Cleaves get on his best friend in the world, Morris Peterson, and I had to go in there and almost, you know, so some things happen in public, some things happen in private.
“But that’s what I meant about a player-coached team. I need players to get on players, sometimes. Players were a lot more vocal today, I just loved that.”
