CLEVELAND, Ohio — Michigan State freshman Jase Richardson received sage advice from his dad, former Michigan State and NBA star Jason Richardson, about playing for Tom Izzo.

“First thing he told me was expect the yelling,” Richardson said. “That’s one of the first things he told me, you’re going to get yelled at and you’re going to have to live with it because at the end of the day, he still loves you for the person that you are and not what you do on the court.”

Jason Richardson was a freshman on Izzo’s 2000 championship team and led the Spartans in scoring the next season before going on to a 13-year NBA career. His son is a likely one-and-done and, for a while, he might have thought he was getting out of East Lansing without feeling the wrath of Izzo.

“I was waiting for my turn to get yelled at when I first came out here,” Richardson said. “It took me like three, four months to finally get yelled at. I was kind of excited about it. I don’t know why, but I was kind of excited, like, yeah, he’s finally getting on me.”

Izzo is notorious for his hard coaching. The four players at the podium for the Spartans a day before their first-round matchup against Bryant could all recall the first time they got yelled at.

“First time he kind of got on me, it was a non-conference game last year,” redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr. recalled. “Yeah, it was pretty intense.”

“Probably my freshman year, probably in practice or something,” junior guard Tre Holloman said. “I probably, like, turned it over or something, and he got on me.”

“It was sometime early in my freshman year,” senior guard Jaden Akins said. “I mean, when Coach is yelling at you, you’ve got to take it and just realize he’s trying to get the best out of you. So that’s how I look at it.”

With Richardson, the need to yell just never came up.

“Jase is like a 3.9 student,” Izzo said. “He speaks more languages — I don’t even understand him. He’s worldly. He works on his game. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. If he does, I’m going to tell him. But if I tell him once, it probably hits home.”

Izzo isn’t just yelling to yell. There’s a purpose.

“Jase doesn’t do a lot of things wrong. I’ve got some other guys that — What the hell you want me to do? Get on my knees and say, would you please guard somebody for the 4,800th time?” Izzo said, clasping his hands together in a prayer sign. “That doesn’t work, either.”

In other words, if you’re getting yelled at, you probably earned it.

“You don’t have to yell at your child if he doesn’t walk into the street, if he goes to class and gets good grades,” Izzo said. “What is the word insanity? It’s when people do the same thing over and over and over wrong. If you let that go in coaching, you’re getting fired. Your team is not winning. And most importantly, most importantly, whether you believe this or not, that player that has a dream of where he wants to get, doesn’t get there.”

And, at least to hear Izzo tell it, nobody really gets yelled at anymore, not like in the old days.

“You don’t yell at people like you used to in the good ol’ days where I could have some fun doing it and then you could laugh about it after,” Izzo said. “My reunions are about all the fun we had.”

Izzo pointed to other championship level coaches, like Nick Saban, who might not always be the happiest guy, but he got results.

“Our job is to push people to do things that they don’t even think they can do,” Izzo said. “Our job is to make them compete at a level that they have no clue how to get there.”

That’s probably part of the reason Richardson was looking forward to that first yell session from Izzo, especially because he knows it comes from a good place.

“I know he’s still going to love me at the end of the day,” Richardson said.

Getting another chance

Jeremy Fears Jr. will get a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament this year after he was unable to play last season.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Fears was around the team last season when they made the NCAA Tournament and lost in the second round to North Carolina. He wasn’t playing, though, because he suffered non-life threatening injuries after being shot in the leg in December near his hometown of Joliet, Illinois.

Fears didn’t play the remainder of the season.

He returned to the team in August and Izzo recently said he believes Fears is playing the best basketball of the year.

“I think this stretch has been pretty good for me overall,” Fears said. “I’d definitely just say just playing the game. Obviously, letting the game come to me, not forcing anything. Just changing my mentality on the game.”

Fears has started 32 games and is averaging 7.4 points and has a team-high 177 assists. He’s reached double digits in three of the last four games.

Now he gets to carry his momentum into the NCAA Tournament after only being able to watch a year ago.

“It really means a lot, just the fact that last year I got to watch and kind of be a part of our game in North Carolina,” Fears said, “so just now this year, I’m able to be able to play in my first NCAA Tournament appearance, so just grateful.”

Coming at you in waves

Michigan State moved Tre Holloman to the bench in favor of Jase Richardson earlier this season.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Michigan State made a change to its lineup during the season, moving Richardson into the starting lineup, replacing Holloman. Holloman said he’s just doing whatever he needs to help the team win.

Fears jumped in after Holloman answered.

“We have basically two starting units,” he said. “I think our first unit and our second unit can start anywhere.”

The Spartans have 10 players averaging double-digit minutes and only Akins averages more than 25 minutes per game.

“One thing I think I’ve found out — now, I’m not a doctor, I’m not a medical guy, but we’ve had less injuries, like none, all year,” Izzo said, “and I don’t think in my 30 years, that’s ever happened. It’s because both in practice and games, I don’t think we’re wearing people out as far as their selves. Hopefully, we’re wearing our opponents out and that’s helped a little bit.”

As the season has gone on, Izzo has seen players separate, but still believes in his depth.

“I definitely have seven starters that I could start at any time,” Izzo said, “but there is getting to be a little separation. Guys are playing — but we’re still playing nine, ten guys.”