“I think the Izzone is great,” Painter said. “(But) he doesn’t deserve that. We have guys in our student section who probably say something out of line too. But when I’m on top of it, I’m going to say something. Somebody’s gotta fight for him.”

MSU head coach Tom Izzo said if an Izzone member did verbally attack Hummel like that, he’d have to “rip the Izzone again.”

“In Ann Arbor, they talked about my mother’s grandmother’s grandmother and at Purdue it’s going to be like that,” Izzo said. “We’re starting to get into some weird stuff, but you know Robbie Hummel is one of the most respected guys in this league. I want our fans to be as hard as they can be, I just don’t want them to be ignorant.”

If Izzo confirms the words were said, he said he’d like to know who said it.

“That’d be a very ignorant statement and I would throw the guy out of here if he said that,” Izzo said. “If he wants to talk about his grandmother, I wouldn’t like it but I’d deal with it, but if he wants to talk about an injury to a kid who’s been through so much, I’ll try to find out who it was and buy out his ticket.”

There also was an alleged back-and-forth between freshman guard Branden Dawson and Painter.

According to Painter, there was trash-talk from the one-time Purdue recruit.

“The one thing you gotta do is only coach one team, that’s the most important thing,” he said. “I’m not letting a 19-year-old kid talk to me, rub it in and stick it to us. But to each their own.”

However, Dawson said he didn’t say anything to the coach and just yelled “let’s go” and clapped his hands, coincidentally directly in front of the Purdue coach. He said Painter did respond to him with, “I don’t need your sh**.”

Izzo was disappointed after hearing about the alleged encounter for the first time at the postgame press conference.

“If he was (talking to Painter) I’m going to handle it because I made sure he wouldn’t,” Izzo said. “If he did, my apologies to Matt. That’s ridiculous, I’ll be sure to straighten that out.”

On the court, the refs talked to both Painter and Dawson. And senior forward Draymond Green made sure to speak to his freshman teammate.

“I really didn’t (see it, but) one thing I told him was — no matter what the situation is or if Coach Painter said something to him and whatnot, it doesn’t matter — one thing we’re going to do is we’re going to respect people and especially the opposing coach,” Green said. “It’s just a learning lesson and something he can’t do. But sometimes in the heat of the moment, things are said. I talked to him about it on the court because the referee said something to him about it.”