Spartans Visit the Upper Peninsula, Practice at Superior Dome

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State's men's basketball head coach Tom Izzo has said throughout his career one of his biggest goals is to have memory-makers for the players on his team.

This weekend in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and in the city of Marquette – the home of Northern Michigan University, Izzo's alma mater – not only is the memory-maker for his team, but it's for Izzo too.

Michigan State plays the first of two exhibition games on Sunday, Oct. 13 (1 p.m.), when the Spartans play Northern Michigan in the Superior Dome Showdown. The game will air live on BTN with Lisa Byington and Bill Raftery calling all of the action.

The Spartans arrived in the U.P. on Friday evening and woke up on Saturday morning with a day that started with a breakfast at the Mariucci Family Beacon House.

The Mariucci Family Beacon House – founded by Izzo's best friend, Steve Mariucci – becomes "a home away from home for patients and families" that travel across the U.P. to receive specialty medical care at the U.P. Health System.

Following the visit to the Beacon House, the Spartans headed over the Northern Michigan and the team went through a 90-minute practice on the court installed at the Superior Dome, where the Wildcats play football. The Superior Dome was opened in 1991 and was recognized in the 2010 Guinness Book of World Records as the largest free-standing wooden dome in the world. This will be the first collegiate basketball action to take place in the venue.

"The job they did in there (the Superior Dome) shocks me," Izzo said. "It's way better than I thought it was. Our people did a good job helping out their people, led by Rick Comley (athletic director), their president (Brock Tesmman). A bunch of people worked to hard to make a memory and it'll be a hell of a memory-maker for a lot of people up here.

After practice, Izzo and the team went over to Northern Michigan's basketball arena, where he saw his #10 jersey framed on the Vandament Arena wall.

"There's a lot of cool things that happen to you in your life and I've had some really cool things," Izzo said. "but when you get to do it in front of the people that are first in your life, it matters even more. I got to go into the Hall of Fame and that was awesome but not many of my people were there.

"I think this makes it even more special, to do something where the people that helped raise you, helped mold you, are right here and that's pretty awesome."

Spartans Visit the Upper Peninsula, Practice at Superior Dome

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