CHICAGO -- Michigan State men's basketball coach Tom Izzo got choked up Thursday talking about the battle his friend, Timberwolves coach and director of basketball operations Flip Saunders, is having with Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Izzo said he talked to Saunders the day before he left for the Spartans' foreign trip to Italy in late August and hasn't spoken to him since.
The Wolves announced in September that Saunders would take a leave of absence from his duties with the team to get cancer treatment. His family has remained silent on Saunders' condition since then.
Izzo, who knew Saunders as the Detroit Pistons coach, stays in touch through Saunders' son, Ryan, a Wolves assistant.