ESPN pundit: Michigan State should get death penalty, Tom Izzo should leave

There's a lot of angst and outcry over Michigan State basketball after its ouster from the NCAA tournament on Sunday at Little Caesars Arena.

And in the "hot take" culture of sports media, opinions range from measured to outlandish to attention-seeking.

With that in mind, take a listen to what ESPN "First Take" opinionist Max Kellerman said Monday in regard to MSU and Tom Izzo.

Kellerman: "If you're a coach that's won a national title, and you've been to more than half a dozen Final Fours, you can coach. That doesn't happen by accident. You can recruit, you can develop, you can coach. I don't think that's the issue. I would not be thinking about letting Tom Izzo go."

OK, checks out as "measured." Then again, the topic for this segment of the show was "should Michigan State think about moving on from Izzo?"

But then ...

"But if I were Tom Izzo, I'd be thinking about leaving," Kellerman said.

"Michigan State deserved and should presently have the death penalty. Obviously. Duh. And if Tom Izzo is not culpable for anything that went on there — and by the way, he should start talking, I think, now the tournament's over (for MSU) — but if he's not, and I don't have any reason to believe he is, he should not want to be associated with that institution right now. He's a great coach and if I were him, I would be looking for a landing place elsewhere."

Whoa.

Consider this: ESPN's reporting on Izzo and MSU's basketball program and its handling of sexual assault has been a point of contention for Spartans fans and come under scrutiny.

MSU interim president John Engler has been especially critical of ESPN as recently as Saturday in Detroit, where the former governor called into question the network's handling of sexual harassment cases.

Taking into account the Larry Nassar atrocities, and that those crimes happened within the MSU community and to Spartan athletes, Stephen A. Smith and ESPN college basketball analyst Seth Greenberg wasted no time disagreeing with Kellerman on that Izzo stance.

Molly Qerim, the show's moderator, has also said in the past MSU deserves the death penalty for what happened between the Nassar crimes and the ESPN reporting on Izzo's and Dantonio's programs.

As for Izzo's future at Michigan State, the longtime coach said after Sunday's loss, "I don't plan on going anywhere. I got a job to do. And I've never run from anything in my life. Nothing. I don't plan on starting now. So I'll be here. I've taken too many bullets this year not to be here."

Contact Kirkland Crawford: kcrawford@freepress.com. Follow himi on Twitter @HiKirkHere.