Michigan State Spartan Fans Are Not Exactly Fans Of GuJo

Frankly, I'm shocked that AA has not picked this story up yet. Then again, I do not think I have found any blog to pick this one up, just Facebook and forums, which leads me to greatly doubt the veracity of the claim, but nonetheless, a lot of Spartans are certainly outraged by what Gus Johnson allegedly said during the Friday Sweet 16 game between Michigan State and Kansas. In fact, there is an "official Facebook group" dedicated to this that already has over 13,00 members. GuJo's fan page has pretty much been trashed by angry Spartan fans (that's how I came about this story). And now, I bring you the best source on this story I can give you.....the description from the official Facebook group and what angry posters said on his Facebook fan page!

Gus Johnson seems to think that Izzo would be better off at Arizona because he's "not appreciated" in East Lansing. We beg to differ.

Well then! That certainly tells you everything you need to know about this story! No links, no articles, no videos (or none on GuJo at least; just on how much they <3 Tom Izzo), just that. And this group has over 13,000 members and they developed 10,000 during the first 24 hours of it's creation! But, because it is always hilarious, let's delve more into this group and into Gus Johnson's fan page to see what everyone has to say to our good friend, Gus. (to protect privacy and humiliation, I am withdrawing people's names. For more, here's the link to the FB group and the GuJo fan page; and yes you need an FB account to see these). My commentary comes after the quotes.

From the group: "good example of how the media is a big pile of bullshit!" You stay classy, now!

Also from the group: "Gus Johnson you are an idiot if you think that Izzo is not appreciated here. . .even though i am a Michigan fan Izzo is an amazing coach and has resurrected MSU since he has been there. . .he will get signed to a huge deal after this year because of what he has done for that program. . .Gus Johnson, you should see an MSU basketball game and there fans before saying things like that. . ." I am almost ashamed to admit that we have the same first name...

Now we'll delve into the real fun. Here are some of the gems from the GuJo fan page.

"I am not a fan of yours and never will be. I hope you are at Detroit so you can see first hand how much Tom Izzo is appreciated in East Lansing. Go State! and thank you Tom Izzo!!" Because he won't be able to tell from watching the games on TV??? And besides, there are going to be over 70,000 fans there from 4 different schools. It will be hard to decipher who is screaming what.

"You are a piece of shit- We spartans appreciate Izzo more than anything, why the hell would our student section be named after him if we didn't appreciate him and why would we have a billboard up saying "Thank you, Tom" ? Really? Yeah you suck and the 47,000 spartans you insulted deserve an apology, asshole. " Well then! I'm sure Gus has learned his lesson from reading that. If he even said anything. I still have not found an article or a link or a video or anything that has proof that he actually said "Izzo is not appreciated".

"I'd have to say unless you publicly cleanse your mouth of the blasphemies you have spoken of Tom Izzo and his loyalty to Michigan State, this is never going to end. I suggest something involving fire. Fire always works." And may I suggest some therapy for you!

Good times going on now over at MSU........good times. On a more serious note, though, if anyone can find me a link or an article or something of credibility that backs up that Gus said this, I would much appreciate it.


These have nothing to do with these posts, but here are 2 other posts from his fan page that I found particularlly interesting....

"Hey Gus! I'm the kid in the Red Sox sweatshirt who shook your hand before the game today!" And hello to you! Somehow I doubt that Gus remembers that altercation

And lastly....

"Gus, is it true you're going to be calling Canadian Football this year? The CFL on CBS! This week's sign of the apocalypse. " Not quite sure it would be on CBS, but if FSN or someone picks him up......I may actually watch a few CFL games.

(FYI, the CONMEBOL standings have been updated. Click on the link at the side to see the updated standings).

Update: Many, many thanks to RJBO for pointing this out in the comments section. Thanks to him, I was able to look like the exact quote, and while I can't post the video from CBS (without an embed feature; I don't know how to take a video from the internet and save it and edit it so that only these few seconds play). And it appears that Gus was in part taking out of context. During the stoppage with 8:12 to go in the first half, this is exactly what Gus said. "A lot of rumors swirling around that Arizona is looking for a head coach; Tom Izzo, a possible successor. Rumor has it that he does not feel as appreciated in East Lansing as he should be." Not that the fans don't appreciate him, just that Tom Izzo feels he should be appreciated more. Big difference. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to school 14,000 Spartan fans.....

Update 2: This is what I wrote in a group discussion thread (due to space constraints, I posted a slightly shorter version of it on the wall).

"Let me just say, you guys did a great job of not citing any sources or any articles or even telling us where we should go to hear what Gus said. So, I'll do it for you.

If you go to ncaa.com and the MMOD video of the MSU-Kansas game (or assuming it works, click on this link: http://mmod.ncaa.com/video/player?ts=1238608537&t=000106b2fe8c4e8f3d2834ddb354e9e2&w=90), at the 8:12 mark in the first half, during the stoppage at that point, this is exactly what Gus Johnson said.

"A lot of rumors swirling around that Arizona is looking for a head coach; Tom Izzo, a possible successor. Rumor has it that he does not feel as appreciated in East Lansing as he should be."

First of all, Gus is citing a rumor he heard, not a definite fact. Second of all, the rumor is about how Tom Izzo feels, not how he perceived Spartan fans to feel. So nice one, not only do you not cite anyone or anything, but you took what he said out of context and changed the meaning of it so that you could get a bunch of people to join your group on Facebook. Well done!

Stay classy, Spartan fans, and next time, do your research!"

I love schooling the ill-informed like that!