Detroit Free Press - Dakich made comments about and to MSU fans following the Spartans’ 86-57 blowout loss at Michigan on Feb. 7. He was part of the broadcast crew for that game and again on Tuesday . His son, Andrew, is a senior basketball player who is redshirting for the Wolverines this season.
Some of the tweets sent by the elder Dakich, a former player and coach at Indiana, called MSU fans whiners. One said “MSU always worried about UM.” Another accused a Twitter user of only going to MSU because he did not get into Michigan. And many others.
“If I would have known that before the game, I would have embarrassed myself almost as much as he embarrassed himself, and I would have led the chants (referring to anti-Dakich chants by the Izzone),” Izzo said, his voice slightly cracking. “Because calling us whiners and that is kind of unprofessional. Classy broadcasters, like George Blaha and everybody else, wouldn’t have even thought to do something like that on TV. But saying our students couldn’t get in there? And he’s doing games for Michigan when his son is there? That is a disappointment, and that is ridiculous.
Dan Dakich was extremely rude to a Michigan State fan on twitter, clearly, and it got under the skin of the fans in the Izzone.
With the integrity of his school on the line after being labeled as a lesser-tier school by a public figure in sports, this sort of stuff matters. It might not make sense to a lot of the older folks out there, but the impression a school makes on social media matters more and more to prospective students in the current twitter age than ever before. Izzo had to stand up for his school and he did.
Dan Beyer and Jonas Knox break down the story with the opposite point on the issue. This Michigan/Mich. State rivalry is a big deal, and one single tweet doesn't need to start this sort of fire. Listen below.
You can hear Fox Sports Radio with Dan Beyer and Jonas Knox every weekday from 3-6 pm est.