Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo spoke to the media Thursday in a video posted by SpartanMag, and he did not spare the eligibility fights reshaping college basketball. Izzo said there is always a positive and a negative when the rules change, and that the NCAA’s new age-based eligibility rule cuts both ways for a coach. What he likes about it is that it should end cases like Trey Kaufman-Renn’s, the former Purdue forward who won a court order for a sixth year and is now practicing at Kansas.
“What I like about it is no more BS on the phony stuff,” Izzo said. “Like, I heard the guy in Kansas, I mean, from Purdue, is a joke. Joke, nice kid. Just a joke. What a joke.”
Tom Izzo Blames the Lawyers, Not the Players
Izzo was careful about where he aimed it. He has already called the transfer portal detrimental to kids, and he made a similar point Thursday about the players caught in the eligibility cases. The people he holds responsible are the ones filing the paperwork.
“Tough for him, too, because it’s like you’re just playing by whatever the rules are, right?” Izzo said. “And it’s like, is it him? Is it the powers that be? Lawyers. It’s lawyers.”
Trey Kaufman-Renn’s Sixth Year, Explained
Kaufman-Renn spent five years at Purdue. He played the past four seasons after sitting out 2021-22 as a redshirt, a year Purdue says was derailed by a knee injury in early November that required surgery. A judge granted him a sixth year of eligibility in his lawsuit against the NCAA, and he secured an injunction last week. Kansas coach Bill Self announced Monday that Kaufman-Renn had enrolled in classes and was practicing with the Jayhawks, taking the last roster spot after freshman Grant Mordini suffered a season-ending patellar tendon injury in September.
The backlash followed him because the Minnesota Timberwolves drafted him in the second round and he was on the team’s summer league roster in Las Vegas. In late August the Big 12 announced a ban on former professional athletes returning to college, telling programs they cannot roster an athlete who declared for a pro draft without withdrawing in time, was listed on a professional roster, or signed a professional contract. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said Kaufman-Renn is different because he never formally declared.
“He was automatically put in the draft,” Yormark said Tuesday. “He didn’t declare for the draft. That is the distinction, just so you know.” Kaufman-Renn’s attorneys said during the case that he never signed his contract with the Timberwolves.
Jaxon Kohler’s Case Is Similar
Former Michigan State forward Jaxon Kohler is on a parallel track. He transferred to BYU this past offseason after playing for the Utah Jazz’s summer league team, and he is one of 76 plaintiffs, most of them from the 2022 recruiting class, challenging the NCAA’s age-based model in Glancey v. NCAA. A California judge granted a preliminary injunction Tuesday that gives Kohler and the other plaintiffs eligibility through the end of the 2026-27 season. The NCAA is expected to appeal.
