The Michigan State men's basketball program probably has no business traveling north to Marquette in Michigan's Upper Peninsula to play a road exhibition game against a Division II Northern Michigan team.

Someone who stands at about 5-foot-9 from a blue-collar Upper Peninsula town of fewer than 10,000 people called Iron Mountain is not supposed to be lifelong best friends with an NFL head coach, become a D-II All-American and then coach at the same school for over four decades.

Well, MSU head coach Tom Izzo does not care much about how things should or shouldn’t go or what his life should be according to others.

“I'm fired up for my guys because I think they'll have a better idea [about where I am from],” Izzo said Tuesday about the upcoming trip to Northern Michigan, Izzo's alma mater. “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.

“I want my players to see where some of us started because I do believe we’re in too much of an entitled society right now, and there’s not a lot entitled up there. That’s why I love it.”

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Izzo is very open about the fact that he is a "Yooper" and from the Upper Peninsula. This is his 42rd year overall in East Lansing, and 30th as head coach, but he has not coached a game in the U.P. since he coached at Ishpeming High School and as an assistant at NMU in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

He was on the court for 26 minutes for the Wildcats the last time MSU went up to Northern Michigan in December 1974. Michigan State has hosted NMU six times for exhibition games under Izzo.

Now, he gets to return home.

“It’s going to be the Super Bowl for them; this is their chance,” Izzo said about the Wildcats. “They don’t get to do this and not many people give them a chance [to play a big school], especially at home. This is my way of giving back to them.”

Northern Michigan is not an average Division II squad. The Wildcats won the GLIAC last season — its first outright regular-season conference title in over 30 years — and made the Division II NCAA Tournament.

This contest and trip to Marquette isn’t really about what happens during the 40 minutes of game time, though. It’s a homecoming and an extended ceremony for Izzo himself, as his No. 10 jersey will be retired by Northern Michigan.

NMU had already inducted Izzo into its Hall of Fame in 1990, when Izzo was an assistant at MSU under Jud Heathcote.

The news about his jersey being retired by Northern Michigan was broken to Izzo through that aforementioned childhood friend and former NFL head coach. Steve Mariucci told Izzo about the jersey retirement in a video that played during the team’s annual “Michigan State Madness” event last Friday.

Mariucci and Izzo played football, basketball and track together in high school. They were roommates in college, where Mariucci was the starting quarterback of NMU’s 1975 national championship-winning team.

“It was a big moment that my best friend – who had gone through it with me – is the one who told me; so I give credit to our people, I give credit to Northern’s people,” Izzo said about hearing that his jersey would be retired by NMU. “I can’t give Mariucci a lot of credit, but I thanked him for it and it was pretty cool.”

The trip back to Izzo's old stomping grounds is also about making new memories for him and his team.

“I think the one thing that’s been really important for me my whole career is to do things where there’s memory-makers,” Izzo said about the upcoming trip to NMU, which he also described as “educational.”

The Spartans will be flying into the U.P. rather than bussing, although Izzo would have preferred the latter.

“I actually wish we could’ve bussed up there so they could have gone over the bridge."

Izzo also noted this trip is about remembering to give back to the community and celebrating your roots.

“I’m going to try and explain to my guys that giving back to people and remembering where you came from is really important,” Izzo said about his message for the trip.

Izzo is also bringing several old friends with him. Former Northern Michigan teammate and longtime former MSU assistant coach Mike Garland is traveling, along with Gordy DeLuc, Izzo’s former high school coach.

Izzo also named DeLuc an honorary coach for the game and has recounted a story of DeLuc supporting him after he missed a game-tying free throw with two seconds left in a playoff game.

“It’ll be fun to catch up with (DeLuc) along with a lot of other people,” Izzo said.

“Gordy was really excited to be a part of it. My other [high school] coach, Tom Clark and his wife, are coming up from Iron Mountain, so those things will be neat.”

Such a full-circle event might seem like a sign that the years left for Izzo at Michigan State are limited, but that is not the case.

“I’m more fired up now than I was two years ago,” Izzo said.

“I like the guys I've got, I like my staff. I love our president, I love the AD, I love the football coach; we’re ready to rock and roll here.”

The exhibition game between Michigan State and Northern Michigan is set to tip off at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday. Big Ten Network will televise the game, with Bill Raftery and Lisa Byington on the call.

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