Michigan State--fans take a trip down Memory Lane....

The Spartans come to town Tuesday to play the Falcons in men's basketball.  I'll do a game preview tomorrow, but I wanted to take a little trip down memory lane first.

BG hosted MSU on December 1, 1990 at Anderson Arena.  The Spartans, coached #5 in the country, were coached by legendary Jud Heathcote.  They got the full Anderson treatment.  The place was hot and claustrophobic.  A Big 10 team used to playing in Arenas was suddenly in a gym, inbounding a basketball with people four feet away screaming.

It was the kind of magic that arena could deliver and sadly rarely did in the waning years of its life.  But with a huge crowd it was (I will always contend) the best environment I have ever been in for a sporting event.

BG got a little momentum and rode the crowd to a 13 point win--without research, I would say it was the second biggest win in the Arena's history with the first being the Loyola victory in the 1960s.

The best thing, and I mean the BEST thing, was that Heathcote just went nuts.  Said he would never play in a MAC gym again.  Furious about the officials, and, I learned this week, yelled at our band.

(Jud apparently BG had also beaten his team the year before in his arena.  Facts take all the fun out of a tantrum.)

If you care to relive it, a Falcon fan loaded the entire game onto youtube and you can watch it below. (Yes....that is Michael Reghi.)



Finally, BGSU's @jknavel posted a copy of the final stats on twitter this week, which I reproduce here for nostalgic purposes.

You might recognize the name of Steve Smith--NBA All-star, Olympic gold medalist, NBA Champion.  Also, the Mark Montgomery on that sheet is now the Coach at NIU.

I do give Tom Izzo credit, even at a 2 for 1 with the students gone, I'm not sure any other Big 10 team would have agreed to play in our arena.  It will be a huge thrill for our players, I'm sure, and I hope we manage to generate a good crowd for the game.  I suspect you will have a strong MSU contingent in town as well.

MSU leads the series 10-3, but we are 3-3 when MSU has been ranked.  Look, this is a really good team and there are going to be ridiculous favorites over us.  Having said that, no game is decided until it is played and often times our players bring their best games to contests like this.  It will be interesting to see.