Tom Izzo ‘fired up’ to show off his Yooper roots to Michigan State with NMU scrimmage

EAST LANSING – Hours before the Detroit Pistons and Phoenix Suns came to his house for an exhibition game, Tom Izzo stepped out of Breslin Center and into Munn Ice Arena in perfect Michigan State athletics fashion.

A basketball coach with a football building named after him getting displaced to a hockey arena named after a legendary football coach.

Yet the primary focus on Tuesday, in a week filled with unique opportunities and experiences for his Spartans, was Izzo going home. And not back across the street to his arena.

To the Upper Peninsula. To Marquette. To his roots and the foundation of where and how he built MSU basketball into the national power equivalent to what Munn did for the football program.

Michigan State men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo wears Gehrig Normand’s cowboy hat during the Michigan State Madness event on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.

The Spartans will fly to the UP for their unofficial opener, a sold-out exhibition game with Izzo’s alma mater Northern Michigan. Tipoff between the perennial powerhouse and his former Division II program at the Superior Dome in Marquette is 1 p.m. Sunday, and the game will be televised on Big Ten Network.

“I’m fired up to bring my team up there. I’m fired up to see the people. I’m fired up to maybe do something for Northern,” said Izzo, a 1977 NMU graduate. “I’m fired up for my guys, because I think they’ll have a better idea. I always went to Flint, I always went to Detroit, I always went to Saginaw. I’ve seen where those guys were from. They never go where I’m from.

“And now they’re gonna get a chance, and maybe that helps them understand me a little bit better.”

WHAT A WEEK: Michigan State basketball’s week filed with preseason hoops, playoff baseball and pasties

It will be MSU’s first game in the U.P. since a 91-59 regular-season win over Izzo and the Wildcats on Dec. 16, 1974. He was a sophomore on that NMU team and went on to become a Division II All-American point…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/tom-izzo-fired-show-off-101009965.html

Author : Detroit Free Press

Publish date : 2024-10-09 10:10:09

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