The following article is a guest piece from Justin Spiro of the "Spiro Avenue Show":

A.J. Hoggard has heard the criticism.

He has seen the viral video of his interaction with Tom Izzo during the Big Ten Tournament … and he knows it went viral.

No player on this iteration of MSU Basketball has been scrutinized quite like A.J. Hoggard. He is a bona fide member of the Goran Suton All-Stars, one of the most polarizing Spartan basketball players of the social media era.

It’s his body language.

Sure, Hoggard takes an occasional jump shot people don’t like. A fan may think he needs to drive more or rotate better on a defensive switch. That’s run-of-the-mill, basic basketball stuff. No player at a high level can escape scrutiny in that form.

The criticism of Hoggard, though, is unique. It is less about his game than it is about the faces he makes, and the way his body contorts when something doesn’t go MSU’s way.

Crazy fans will always levy crazy criticisms, but does that principle apply here?

Tom Izzo has discussed Hoggard’s body language with candor.

Chris Solari of the Detroit Free Press chronicled the MSU guard’s “problematic” body language in February.

David Klein – for my money, the top MSU Basketball analyst out there – has been outlining issues with Hoggard’s body language since last season.

There are intelligent, credible people on-record with this concern.

When Hoggard joined me in-studio last week, he addressed the fans’ criticism of his body language.

“If you haven’t been out there at war with your brothers, and [bad] things happen … you wouldn’t really understand,” Hoggard said.

That segment of our discussion elicited its own fan reaction, with some taking exception to his body language when answering the body language question. With A.J. Hoggard, it seems to always return to the same subject.

I hold a contrarian view. I would argue Hoggard is the most misunderstood player of the Izzo era.

Hoggard’s response on my show was instructive and revealing. He views basketball games as a war. He sees his teammates as brothers-in-arms. This isn’t a person with a bad attitude or a selfish nature. If anything, Hoggard’s emotional investment in his team’s success is maniacally profound.