East Lansing — For a little while on Monday night, Tom Izzo wasn’t Michigan State’s basketball coach.
He wasn’t the voice and face of the university he’s been a part of for the bulk of his adult life. He wasn’t the guy charged with getting his team ready for a big week that was set to culminate Saturday with a trip to Ann Arbor for a game against its biggest rival.
In those chaotic moments that a gunmen opened fire on innocent students, taking the lives of three and critically wounding five others, Izzo was simply the dad of a Michigan State student.