Report: Michigan State players have ‘physical altercation’ at hotel

According to a report from Centre County Report, a news outlet run by Penn State students and faculty, two Michigan State players had a physical altercation at a hotel on Wednesday. No. 18 Michigan State visits Penn State tonight.

According to their twitter feed, the two players got into a verbal altercation in the second floor rotunda just after 11 a.m. Wednesday morning at the Nittany Lion Inn. After the altercation turned physical and one player was shoved into a wall, the police were called.

BREAKING: #PennState university police investigating fight between 2 #MichiganState basketball players today at Nittany Lion Inn. No arrests

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Centre County Report (@CentreCountyRep) January 16, 2013

Spartans play #PSU tonight at 7:30. No word on status of players involved. Police were called to hotel after report that verbal altercation

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Centre County Report (@CentreCountyRep) January 16, 2013

turned physical and one player was shoved into a wall. Investigation continues. No arrests at this point. #PennState #MichiganState

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Centre County Report (@CentreCountyRep) January 16, 2013

No one was arrested and the identity of the two players is still unknown.

UPDATE: Diamond Leung has some more details on what happened:

Two Spartans players engaged in a verbal altercation that turned physical when they exchanged punches to the area of the face and one shoved the other into a wall in the second-floor lobby, causing minor damage, according to Parham.

No arrests or charges have yet to be made or filed, according to Parham, who said both players suffered minor cuts and did not seek medical attention after they were separated and calmed down. The players have yet to be identified because an investigation is ongoing, according to Parham.

Fights within a team aren’t not a huge issue in my opinion. These are passionate, competitive young adults that spend a ridiculous amount of time around each other. Disagreements will happen. If you have a sibling, think back to when you guys were growing up. You never got into a fight with each other? Now imagine there are 13 of you, and you’re all fighting for a limited amount of attention from your parents (playing time).

The issue is whether or not they can hug it out once the fight is over and tempers die down. Disagreements are fine, so long as everyone remembers that, at the end of the day, they are teammates.

(We will update this post as more information becomes available.)

UPDATE II: It was Branden Dawson and Adriean Payne. They won’t start tonight. The police are still investigating the incident.

UPDATE III: Tom Izzo tried to clear up the situation with an explanation of the incident, per MLive.com

“They are roommates back in East Lansing and they got in an argument over practice gear,” Izzo said. “They got in a pushing and shoving altercation, go back dent a wall, and with Twitter and everything else it becomes a story of its own.”

“I’m trying to find a happy medium between keeping it normal, and yet making them understand this isn’t normal anywhere this day and age,” Izzo said. “They have to hold themselves accountable, they didn’t, and so we’ll deal with it.

“I don’t want to make a mountain out of a mole hill here. Those two kids won’t be starting and won’t be playing for a while, and yet I plan on playing them sometime in the game.”

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.