East Lansing, Mich. – Freshman guard Jase Richardson scored 11 points and sophomore forward Xavier Booker had 10 points and 11 different players scored for Michigan State's men's basketball team as the Spartans beat Northern Michigan, 70-53, in the Superior Dome Showdown on Sunday afternoon in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
The game, however, was about much more than who won and who lost as the matchup between the Spartans and the Wildcats served as a homecoming for MSU Head Coach Tom Izzo, a 1977 graduate of Northern Michigan and a two-time All-American when he played basketball at the Division II school on the banks of Lake Superior.
Northern Michigan honored one its most famous alums by announcing that his jersey - #10 – would be retired in a ceremony on Saturday night at a reception for both teams on campus and he was recognized early in the game.
"There's a proverb that it takes a village to raise a child," Izzo said post-game. "I think that's very true and I had so many people that helped raise me, mentor me. That's sometimes what frustrates me in this day and age is, boy, I was mentored by so many different people. I had four of my high school football and basketball coaches here, I had my old AD here. A lot of people, my mother, I was sad my father couldn't be here.
"I know how many people helped me to understand what it takes to be successful and I think the grind is part of it. I told my players, I hate entitlement, I despise entitlement and you won't find many entitled people where I'm from. And I'm damn proud of that, I really am. If you earn it, you get it. There's a process and a journey to be successful in whatever we do, you, me and everybody else."
As Izzo has said many times, he likes to create memory-makers for his players and the weekend spent in the U.P. served as that, not just for the players, but for fans, who lined up outside NMU's Superior Dome – the world's largest wood-structured dome – in a light rain on Sunday morning two hours ahead of the game.
The team's arrival to town had been looked forward to since the game was announced during the summer and after a day of festivities on Saturday, the gameday moment that everyone looked forward to was on hand Sunday morning.
The Spartans received a police escort to the arena and as the bus got closer to NMU's campus, fans cheered and waved. Izzo was followed by cameras to the locker room as the team arrived at the stadium and as players came to the court – set up inside NMU's football stadium in a scene similar to an NCAA Final Four – fans greeted them, asking for autographs and pictures.
As the Spartans came to the court for the final time before tip-off, a crowd of 11,500 cheered and Izzo followed, joined by Gordy Leduc, his high school coach who he had named as an honorary coach for the game and sat with on the bench.
The game was broadcast live on the Big Ten Network, with Lisa Byington and Bill Raftery on the call. And while Izzo was coaching his team, he agreed to do several in-game visits with the TV crew and photo opportunities that would not necessarily happen during a regular season game.
At the first timeout of the first half, he was joined by his family and Northern Michigan Director of Athletics to officially recognize the retirement of his jersey. And with less than eight minutes left in the first half, he put on a headset with the BTN crew and was surprised to be joined on the broadcast by his best friend, Steve Mariucci.
In the second half, he came out of the team's huddle at the 16-minute mark to honor 11-year-old Senya Smith of Marquette, who has battled leukemia for two years. Both an MSU fan and an NMU fan, Smith rang a bell at mid-court with Coach Izzo at her side to celebrate her final chemotherapy infusion this week at Mott Children's Hospital. "That was one of the highlights of my day, to watch her ring that bell," Izzo said afterward.
After the final media timeout of the second half, Izzo and Northern Michigan Head Coach Matt Majkrzak both joined the BTN crew.
Once the game was done, a 70-53 win for the Spartans, both coaches addressed the still-packed crowd at the stadium, expressing their thanks to the community for its support of the event and what it meant not only to them, but to their respective programs and schools.
"All in all, it really was about, I guess a homecoming. I didn't want it a homecoming about me, I wanted it a homecoming for all the people who helped me get to where I got," Izzo said. "That means, all the people in these communities, the former players, Mooch (Steve Mariucci) and Mike Garland. It was a special time for me."
Izzo left the court with hundreds of people shaking his hand, taking photos and asking for autographs before he went to the locker room to speak to his team and then to his press conference.
"It didn't really meet them (expectations), it 10 times super-ceded them," Izzo said afterward. "When I saw people standing up there, I was just looking and you wondered what I was doing, and I was thinking, 'God if my dad could see this,' or if 'If Glenn Brown could see this,' or if Buck Nystrom or the guys who helped me when I was here and I thought how lucky I am that I am that I'm in the position to do something like this.
"If there were 11 or 12,000 people there and everyone didn't have a good time … It wasn't about the game this time. I have to go analyze film later and then it will be about the game. Right now, it was about bringing a bunch of people together and being able to say thank you, thank you for helping mold me. It super-ceded anything I expected."
This sotry originally appeared on MSUspartans.com