To catch you up, the drama surrounding this team began in June, when MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo took some time to ponder a move to the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. When Izzo-Watch concluded, I thought I had just ended the craziest chapter of my short journalism career.
Since then, guard Chris Allen was dismissed, two unnamed players were believed to be involved in an alleged sexual assault, Lucious was hit with a reckless driving charge, sophomore center Derrick Nix temporarily left the team, Izzo was hit with an NCAA recruiting violation and now Lucious has been dismissed for conduct detrimental to the team.

That’s just off the court. Throw in injuries to almost every player in the offseason, the benching of senior guard Durrell Summers for a lack of enthusiasm and a national-championship-or-bust season gone awry and you have drama William Shakespeare couldn’t have conjured up.

You have to feel for Izzo — a guy who turned down an enormous amount of money to stay at home. When Izzo announced his decision to stay at MSU, he cited all the former players he consulted when making his decision. The men’s basketball program is a family, and you have to wonder if the privilege of being a Spartan has been taken for granted by some players.

The two players dismissed from the program, Allen and Lucious, were at least in their junior year. How many juniors and seniors across the country do you see being dismissed? Izzo has given his players plenty of chances to redeem themselves, yet Izzo still is forced to dismiss two key players before and during one of the most hyped seasons in recent memory.

For as much as it takes for Izzo to get issued a technical foul in a game, I can’t imagine how angry you have to make him to boot you off the team.

But just as you can trust Izzo to make a run in March, you can trust him to make the right decision for the program.

Maybe not this season, maybe not for the short term, but there’s a reason MSU is one of the most respected basketball programs in the country, and Izzo is making sure it stays that way, no matter what it does to his career record.

As for Lucious, his future with the program is unclear. MSU officially said he is dismissed for the rest of this season, and a report Wednesday morning from spartannation.com quoted Lucious’ mom as saying he will transfer. Lucious told the Lansing State Journal on Wednesday he wasn’t sure what he was going to do.

As with Allen, it’s sad the situation had to come to this point. Allen was given a second chance after being suspended in the Big Ten tournament last season for being a poor teammate. Lucious was given another chance after his reckless driving charge before the season began.

Izzo said Monday that teams get better in the offseason, as opposed to during the season.
The team had difficulties during the offseason because of injuries, and just as they seemed to be improving their play, Lucious has does something to upset Izzo so much that he dismissed him from the team.

Izzo wants to win — there’s no doubt about that. But, he wants to mold young men first. When Mateen Cleaves had his legal issues during his MSU career, he wasn’t kicked off the team. There clearly has been something brewing for some time for Izzo to remove two players from his team.
We never might know the real story behind Lucious’ dismissal, but we know something serious enough has been going on that Izzo felt the need to affect this season for the long-term betterment of the program.

Chris Vannini is a State News sports reporter. He can be reached at vanninic@msu.edu.