Odd moment in Michigan State-USC. After being consulted by the referee, it appears Tom Izzo asks former Spartan, Paul Davis, to leave his seat. pic.twitter.com/rix9qIyEnd
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) January 6, 2026
EAST LANSING — It’s not often a fan gets tossed out of Breslin Center by a referee. Nor is it normal for Tom Izzo to scream across the court at one of the denizens of the Izzone.
Both things occurred Monday, Jan. 5, during the waning moments of MSU’s blowout of USC. And it wasn’t a student, as classes don’t resume from holiday break for another week.
The ejectee? Former Michigan State basketball star Paul Davis.
With 6:01 to play in the 13th-ranked Spartans’ 80-51 blowout of the Trojans, Jeffrey Anderson blew his whistle to stop play after Davis was seen standing from his courtside spot in the alumni Izzone, saying something toward the 30-year veteran referee (known as “High Knees” for his unique running style).
Anderson then asked MSU event staff to remove Davis from his seat, and the one-time contestant on the cable reality show “The Millionaire Matchmaker” finished watching the game from a suite in the concourse level of Breslin Center.
After Anderson crossed the court and talked to Izzo, the Hall of Fame coach stretched his arms out in exasperation while glaring at his former player with and shouted as revealed by the FS1 replay – in perhaps the one of the easiest lip-reading moments in broadcasting history – “What the [expletive] are you doing? What are you doing?”
A few seconds later, Anderson again motioned toward Davis and summoned event staff to evict him. Cameras caught Davis standing up and putting two hands on his chest while looking toward Izzo, who waved his right arm and shouted, again, “Get the hell out of here.”
It is unclear what Davis said to Anderson, though Izzo said after the game, “Let’s not get carried away. It wasn’t something racial, it wasn’t something sexual. It was just the wrong thing to say. I’ll leave it at that.”
“I love Paul Davis, I really do. He’s one of my favorite guys. He’s always calling and doing things,” a cooler-headed Izzo said. “What he said, he should never say anywhere in the world. That ticked me off. Just because it’s 25, 20 years later, I’m gonna have to call him tomorrow and tell him what I thought of it. And you know what he’ll say? ‘I screwed up, coach. I’m sorry.’
“He kind of got after the official, and he was 150% wrong. And for a guy like me to 150% agree with the official, it’s almost illegal.”
Izzo has never been ejected from any of his 1,053 games as MSU’s head coach since 1995.
According to HoopsHQ.com, Anderson began refereeing Division I games at the mid-major level in 2002. Davis played at MSU from 2002-06, helping the Spartans to Izzo’s fourth Final Four in 2005 and going on to become a second-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Clippers. The 6-foot-11 Rochester native played four seasons in the NBA and professionally until 2015, then went into the private business sector.
Davis remains MSU’s 10th all-time leading scorer with 1,718 points and fifth-leading rebounder with 910, and Izzo called him “a very important part of this program” who still serves as “an advocate of telling kids how they gotta deal with the process.”
There was no word whether Izzo planned to make his 41-year-old former power forward run sprints at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, but the 31st-year coach used the moment – as usual – as a teaching point.
“Jud Heathcote used to always tell me that sooner or later, the game makes fools of us all,” Izzo said. “Once in a while, the game makes fools of our fans.”
“Definitely it’s made a fool of me more than a couple times. I check myself once in a while, I get calls from guys. I’m gonna have to call him and tell him what I thought. The only good news is he’s been so good, he’s gonna agree 100%.”
The final word, however, belonged to another former star big under Izzo. About an hour after the game, Derrick Nix tweeted a picture of himself and Davis standing on the concourse together and dropped the social media phrase he used to tweet after every win when he was playing for Izzo as the caption.
“R.I.P. ta da competition.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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