Michigan State teammates get into towel fight during timeout in win over Memphis
The Michigan State Spartans are a fiery bunch this year.
During a second half timeout in a Round of 32 game in the NCAA tournament Saturday, television cameras caught MSU teammates Derrick Nix and Keith Appling jawing at each other and then it escalated to Nix reaching across the huddle with a towel swipe.
Harris had to be restrained from retaliating. Meanwhile, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo looked up at the two and that appeared to be all that was required from the coach to quell the spat.
In a postgame interview with CBS, Izzo said it was "great" to see his players in that frame of mind.
"Keith didn't want to take anything from Nix and he told him," Izzo said. "It's all good. Trust me, in my program, that's all good. They got after it a little bit and I kind of enjoyed that.
"That's all right. We're the blue collar group. That's the way we play."
It wasn't the first time members of the Spartans roster have gone after each other in public. During a January trip to Penn State, forwards Branden Dawson and Adreian Payne got into a scuffle at the team hotel and police were called.
Neither player was arrested in that incident, but both were held out of the starting lineup that night.
