A Letter to my Younger Brothers

As a former player at Michigan State and part of what I consider the
greatest program in all of college basketball, I have had the chance to
play, talk, laugh and grow with the players from all different
generations and teams. I have spent countless hours telling and
listening to old stories from men who have been here from the beginning.
Guys who laid the first brick at the beginning of the MSU basketball
journey, when nothing about the program was elite. Players who shed
their blood, sweat and tears to put the green and white in the position
it is today and who take tremendous pride in the fact that we laced our
shoes up every day as a SPARTAN and left it all on the court.

That’s what makes this season so difficult for everyone both physically
and emotionally. I must first clarify that I will always have
unwavering support for Coach Izzo and you guys. I know the amount of
work that has gone into the off-season workouts and the countless hours
of practice and film work that you guys and the coaches are continuing
to put in. No one in the country is going to outwork the MSU basketball
program and that has been proven over the years. I feel a sort of
defense mechanism when it comes to the constant criticism that this team
is getting. I feel an overwhelming urge to defend our program and the
players. It’s like listening to someone talk about your little brother,
you want to stand up and fight to defend your family.

At this point I find myself straddling a very difficult fence. On one
side, I am extremely proud alum of Michigan State and our basketball
program. On the other side I’m very disappointed in some of the things
that seem to be happening this year. It appears that, in some sense,
this team has forgotten what kind of program they signed up to play for.
I prided myself as a player who protected the core values that our
program stands for every time I stepped on the court. At this point,
I’m far less concerned with wins and losses and all I can hope is that
we finish the season with the same intensity as Scotty Skiles, with the
swagger of Steve Smith, and the true grit of Antonio Smith and Mateen
Cleaves.

I hope you all realize that you have a group of former players who will
always be there through thick and thin, who have gone through tough
seasons, dealt with the relentless media scrutiny and will never turn
our backs. This program is bigger than any one player and bigger than
any one season. Remember, as this quote says, you are the men in the
arena… just make sure when you feel triumph or failure, you have done
so with your face marred by dust and sweat and blood due to your
unwavering EFFORT.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;
who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort
without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the
deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends
himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph
of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails
while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold
and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt