Big Ten Basketball

Iowa star Luka Garza will return to school for the 2020-21 college basketball season after withdrawing from the NBA draft, according to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports.

Garza confirmed the news with an edited video from The Wolf of Wall Street (warning: NSFW language):

The 6'11" forward was a consensus All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year last season after averaging 23.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game.

Not only did he rank fifth in the nation in scoring, his 34.4 player efficiency rating was second-best in college basketball behind only Nathan Knight of William & Mary, per Sports Reference.

He helped lead the Hawkeyes to a 20-11 record, although he didn't get a shot at the NCAA tournament last year because of the coronavirus. 

While there is some concern about the upcoming year with the pandemic still an issue nationwide, Garza said Sunday he's "very confident" there will be a college basketball season, per Mark Emmert of the Des Moines Register.

Iowa now has a chance to be a top contender in the Big Ten and nationally while returning most of its rotation from a year ago.

Not only will Garza be a Wooden Award candidate, he will have plenty of help between Joe Wieskamp, CJ Fredrick and Jordan Bohannon, who will return after missing much of last year with a hip injury.

Hall of Fame men's college basketball coach Lou Henson died Saturday at his home in Illinois. 

He was 88.

"Our Orange and Blue hearts are heavy," Illinois Director of Athletics Josh Whitman said in a statement. "We have lost an Illini icon. We have lost a role model, a friend, and a leader. We have lost our coach. Coach Henson may be gone, but the memories he provided us, and the legacy he created, will last forever.

"He was responsible for almost 800 wins in the record book and countless Fighting Illini moments frozen in time, but Coach Henson's true measure will be felt in the lives he touched—the lives of his former players, people on this campus, and friends in our broader community. We are all better for whatever time we were privileged to spend with Coach Lou, whether it was five minutes or 50 years. He made everyone feel like a friend."

Henson is the all-time leader in wins at Illinois and New Mexico State. He went 423-224 in 21 seasons with the Illini, leading them to the Final Four in 1989.

In two stints with New Mexico State, Henson led the program to six NCAA tournament berths. He famously returned to the school in 1997, accepting a salary of $1 per month for the 1997-98 season after the school fired then-coach Neil McCarthy because of NCAA violations. After the 1997-98 season, Henson returned to the job on a full-time basis for seven more seasons before resigning in 2004-05 after being diagnosed with cancer.

Henson is credited with a 779–412 overall record at Hardin-Simmons, Illinois and New Mexico State. He was inducted to the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005. 

While things can change over the next two years, Tom Izzo is on the verge of landing the greatest recruiting class in Michigan State history. 

5-star center Enoch Boakye announced his intention to play for Izzo on Tuesday, joining consensus top prospect Emoni Bates to give the Spartans an early start at having the top class of 2022.

Boakye, who is 247Sports' No. 18 overall prospect, chose Michigan State over offers from Arizona, Oklahoma State and several other high-profile programs. The Canadian center is the country's top prospect in 2022 and the third-ranked player at the position.

Boakye said Izzo's first-hand involvement in his recruiting stood out—especially because it meant traveling to Canada to watch him.

"The fact that (Izzo) flew to Canada quite a few times to watch me play, even in a practice setting and that meant a lot,” Boakye said during his announcement. "And he's a head coach. Usually it’s the assistant coaches coming down to see you play. But as a head coach he took time to come see me and that meant a lot to me."

Boakye has one of the highest upsides of any 2022 player, provided he continues working on his skills. Gifted with a 6'10", 240-pound frame, Boakye will probably have an NBA-ready body by the time he sets foot on campus. He's also a springy athlete who should be able to anchor a defense immediately.

The biggest questions are whether Boakye will begin realizing his potential over the next two years and whether he'll even be forced to play college basketball. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said the league plans to end the one-and-done rule at some point in the near future, and the league has already taken steps to give players a college alternative by introducing the G League Select for the 2020-21 season.

It's possible that Boakye will ultimately be able to turn pro out of high school, but for now, he's the latest coup in the strongest-ever recruiting run by Izzo. 

Steve Bouchie, a member of the 1981 Indiana University men's basketball national championship team, died Sunday.

He was 59.

According to Ryan Reynolds of the Evansville Courier & Press, Bouchie died of complications after suffering a heart attack over the Fourth of July weekend in Evansville, Indiana.

Bouchie, a 6'8" forward, was Indiana's Mr. Basketball in 1979 at Washington High School before a storied career at Indiana, helping the team to three conference championships in four seasons and a national title in 1981.

The Detroit Pistons selected him in the fourth round of the 1983 NBA draft, but he never played a game for the franchise. He had a brief career playing professional basketball in Italy before suffering a career-ending injury.

The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame inducted Bouchie in 2009.

Max Christie is going to take the next step in his basketball career by playing for Tom Izzo at Michigan State, starting with the 2021-22 season.

Christie announced his decision Tuesday on Fox's College Hoops with Andy Katz, noting he's 100 percent committed to Michigan State and hasn't received any offers from the G League's pathway program:

The Illinois native has immediate impact potential because of his ability to score. He won a gold medal with Team USA at the FIBA U16 Championships in 2019 and averaged 25.5 points and 10.0 rebounds per game as a sophomore at Rolling Meadows High School.

That skill set has rocketed him to the top of most recruiting rankings. He's a 5-star prospect, the No. 1 shooting guard and No. 13 overall player in the 2021 class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

Brian Snow of 247Sports offered this assessment of Christie's talent:

"He has good size and length, and while he needs to get stronger, that will come in time. Right now is at his best as a shooter, where his height and long arms allow him to shoot over nearly every defender. But if a bigger player is on him, he is also athletic enough and good enough with the dribble to go past them. A highly skilled prospect who can play anywhere on the perimeter."

Izzo and his staff are putting on a recruiting clinic right now that should have other programs nervous about what the Spartans could look like. 

Emoni Bates, the top overall player in the 2022 class, announced last week on SportsCenter that he will be attending Michigan State. 

Christie becomes the second player in the 2021 recruiting cycle to commit to Michigan State. Pierre Brooks, rated as a 4-star prospect by 247Sports' composite rankings, announced in April he would play for the Spartans. 

Izzo is setting himself up well to have Michigan State back atop the Big Ten and competing for national titles coming off an occasionally frustrating 2019-20 season that saw the team finish with a 22-9 record.  

Former Penn State basketball player Rasir Bolton, who transferred to Iowa State after his freshman season, detailed Nittany Lions coach Pat Chambers making a comment saying he wanted to "loosen the noose around [his] neck" in 2019.

"A 'noose' around my neck is why I left Penn State. Head coach Patrick Chambers, the day after his one-game suspension in January 2019, in talking to me referenced a 'noose' around my neck," Bolton wrote in a statement on Twitter. "A noose; symbolic of lynching defined as one of the most powerful symbols directed at African-Americans invoking the history of lynching, slavery and racial terrorism. Due to other interactions with Coach, I knew this was no slip of the tongue."

Chambers, whose job security was in jeopardy after shoving Lions guard Myles Dread, used the phrasing in a meeting with Bolton he hoped would help the struggling freshman. 

"I want to be a stress reliever for you. You can talk to me about anything. I need to get some of this pressure off you. I want to loosen the noose that's around your neck," Chambers told Bolton, per The Undefeated's Jesse Washington.

Bolton said he immediately reported the comment to Chambers' superiors and confronted the coach about his phrasing. That led to meetings between Chambers, the athletic department and Bolton's parents. Bolton said he was provided just one in-person meeting. According to Bolton and his parents, Chambers did not apologize. Chambers says he did apologize.

Bolton accused Chambers of bad-mouthing him to his teammates after their meeting. 

"Coach Chambers never apologized, he said he was 'from the north and wasn't aware,'" Bolton wrote in his statement. "Subtle repercussions followed. Some teammates were told I couldn't be trusted and I was told the team didn't trust me. I wasn't 'all in' and 'loyal.' Because I stood up for myself? During my final player-coach meeting in April 2019, Coach Chambers told me he was 'really impressed with how well spoken and organized my parents were.' Yet another subtle insult."

Chambers apologized last week in an interview with Washington, saying he "didn't realize that word would hurt him."

The coach posted an additional statement of apology on Twitter, calling his words "hurtful, insensitive and unacceptable." 

Jamari Wheeler and Lamar Stevens each posted on Twitter in support of their coach:

"I don't even know where it came from,” Chambers told Washington. "It's not a word that's in my vocabulary. It's not something I use often. There's not a moment that goes by that I don't want to reflect on that choice and, you know, I'm growing from it.”

Bolton, who was Penn State's second-leading scorer as a freshman, transferred to Iowa State and was granted an immediate waiver after informing the NCAA of Chambers' comments. Penn State did not require Chambers undergo any diversity or sensitivity training for the comment. 

Bolton said he felt compelled to come forward after seeing Chambers was invited to speak on racial injustice at a webinar hosted by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. While Chambers was apologetic for his comment, he pushed back on the notion that he is "out of touch" with the Black community.

"If I was out of touch with the African American community, I'm not sure they would have been as successful as they were ... we might not be saving lives, but I think we're changing lives," Chambers said. "And I think we're making a major impact in our program, in inner-city communities."

Chambers is heading into his 10th season as Penn State's men's basketball coach. The Lions are 148-150 in that timeframe.

Bolton averaged 14.7 points and 3.4 rebounds for Iowa State last season.  

Michigan State men's basketball head coach Tom Izzo released a statement on Monday, saying he had a duty and an obligation to speak out against racism, to support former and current Black players and to not tolerate hatred at the university. 

"As white Americans, we sometimes think it's enough to say that we aren't racist," he wrote. "But that's selfish—that's just being worried about ourselves. In life, as in sports, the best leaders care about others, and influence others to act. Those of us in privileged positions must not stop using our platform to influence others to join and continue the fight."

You can read his full statement below:

That came in the wake of the university opening an investigation earlier in June against an employee in the Strategic Infrastructure Planning and Facilities department for writing racist posts on Facebook. In a separate investigation, a supervisor was fired by the university for making racist remarks. 

Izzo, 65, also changed his stance on Colin Kaepernick's decision in 2016 to take a knee during the playing of the national anthem before NFL games to protest racial discrimination and police brutality. In the aftermath of that protest, many athletes around the sporting world also took a knee.

Izzo had the team stand for the anthem, though they did wear warm-up shirts for certain games that said "We Talk, We Listen" on one side and "It's Not About Me, It's About Us" on the other.

He told 97.1 the Ticket's The Jaime and Stoney Show last week that speaking with current and former players during the current marches and gatherings around the nation in protest of those same issues helped him change his tune (h/t Andrew Brewster of Spartans Wire):

"Listen, I learn lessons, too. And I'm still learning at this age. I said to my team—I had a lot of Zoom calls, and then when we got 'em here, I met with them outside, legal or illegal, because I thought I had an obligation to talk to them. I had talked to some of our former players, from [Mateen] Cleaves to [Steve] Smith to [Greg] Kelser and Magic [Johnson], and all the guys before. and I did talk to all those people to try and get a good feel.

"And what I realized is I wasn't real happy with the Colin Kaepernick thing when it happened. I guess like a lot of people I looked at it as, what are we doing? The flag, all this stuff. And yet, as I look back on it, how ignorant am I? Because that was a peaceful protest."

Tom Izzo has changed his stance on Colin Kaepernick's protest of racial inequality and police brutality by taking a knee during the national anthem before NFL games in 2016. 

The Michigan State head coach appeared on 97.1 The Ticket's Jamie and Stoney Show and said conversations with former Spartans stars like Greg Kelser, Magic Johnson, Steve Smith and Mateen Cleaves helped him to reevaluate his prior stance that Kaepernick's protest was disrespectful to the military:

"Listen, I learn lessons, too. And I'm still learning at this age. I talked to all those people to try to get a good feel. And what I realized is, I wasn't real happy with the Colin Kaepernick thing when it happened. I guess like a lot of people I looked at it as, what are we doing? The flag, all this stuff. And yet, as I look back on it, how ignorant am I? Because that was a peaceful protest."

Izzo said Kaepernick's protest originally reminded him of people burning flags in protest during the 1960s:

"I went and looked up some pictures that I showed my players. There were a lot of white people and they weren't kneeling at the flag, they were burning it. And that really hit home for me. I said, 'I am into all the peaceful protests. I'm not into the burning, but I'm also trying to figure out how many times you have to try to get something done.'

"And yet, if there’s a silver (lining) in this someway, I've never seen so many white people, black people, Hispanic people marching together in the peaceful protests. To me, that is progress that I don't hope will continue, it has to continue." 

Another factor for Izzo changing his tune on Kaepernick's protest was the killing of George Floyd, who died after since-fired and since-arrested Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes while officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao—also fired and arrested after Floyd's death—did not intervene. 

"When I saw what I saw with George Floyd, it sickened me. I said it and it did. It was real and it was disappointing, but it was disgusting," he said. "None of us know all the things that happen, but a human life is a human life, and we're treating it like it's nothing."

When many athletes in sports took a knee in protest in the wake of Kaepernick's decision to do so, Izzo had his players stand for the anthem with their hands over their hearts. The team's players did wear warm-up shirts for some games that read "We Talk, We Listen" on the front and "It's Not About Me, It's About Us." 

Ohio State forward Seth Towns was detained by Columbus police Friday during a protest over the death of George Floyd.

School spokesperson Dan Wallenberg confirmed to ESPN's Myron Medcalf that Towns, a graduate transfer from Harvard, was detained briefly but not arrested during the protest.

Eleven Warriors provided video from the situation:

Towns later took to Twitter to discuss his situation:

Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann released a statement on the situation:

Floyd died Monday after being physically restrained in the custody of Minneapolis police by an officer driving his knee into Floyd's neck for over eight minutes while he was handcuffed and facedown on the ground. A video from a witness showed Floyd repeatedly telling the officer he was unable to breathe.

Four officers shown in the video were fired. Derek Chauvin, who was shown kneeling on Floyd's neck in response to an alleged forgery, was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, per Brian Ries of CNN.

The situation has sparked nationwide protests over Floyd's death and racial inequality.

Towns' presence at Friday's rally in Columbus came one day after he graduated from Harvard:

Crimson head coach Tommy Amaker released a statement about his former player:

Holtmann told Medcalf he's been in contact with the forward.

"I did talk to Seth last night," he said. "He's back at his apartment. We had a great conversation."

Towns, a Columbus native, averaged 16.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game for Harvard during the 2017-18 campaign. He missed the last two seasons because of injuries.

He'll be eligible to play for Ohio State during the 2020-21 season, should it take place amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Coaches aren't afraid to go outside the box to motivate their players, but Tom Crean went a bit overboard one time when he was the head basketball coach at Indiana.

Former Hoosiers player Cody Zeller confirmed a story on Fox Sports' Titus and Tate about a time Crean wanted the team managers to get a live bat:

"He once upon a time wanted to get a live bat...to use as a motivational tactic," Mark Titus relayed the story he was told. "And he asked the managers to go find a bat."

After the managers said they couldn't buy a bat in Indiana, Crean said they should go to the woods to find it. The current Georgia coach ended up using plastic toy bats in front of the players. 

"Very true. I can confirm it 100 percent," responded Zeller, who left IU after his sophomore year and was picked fourth overall in the 2013 NBA draft.

The Charlotte Hornets center provided the backstory as well, noting the incident came after Crean's brothers-in-law, Jim Harbaugh and John Harbaugh, came to speak to the team shortly after they met in Super Bowl XLVII in 2013.

While one football coach told the players they needed to act like serial killers, the other said they should be "mean and nasty like rabies-filled, blood-sucking bats."

Crean tried to take this image to life but had to settle for a plastic version. His tenure in Bloomington ended in 2017 after nine seasons.