While the focus of life around MSU's campus this weekend will be focused on the Spartans' football game against Michigan, the MSU basketball team will open its exhibition season against the Harlem Globetrotters.
The game will take place at 2:30 p.m. Sunday and will be televised on ESPN.
Earvin "Magic" Johnson will play with the Globetrotters and Larry Bird will coach the team after Johnson's statue is dedicated outside Breslin Center on Saturday.
"This is going to be good for us, because this will be an incredible weekend for Earvin," head basketball coach Tom Izzo said. "I can't think of anybody that deserves it more, with the Michigan game and the opportunity to play with the Globetrotters who he went in the Hall of Fame with.
The dedication ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. inside Breslin Center before moving outside the arena to the statue site.
"After talking to Earvin over the summer about it and all that we went through, I really think that this is going to be one of the highlights of his life," Izzo said. "Earvin still has never forgotten where he came from."
Enough mistakes
While Izzo has had problems the past two seasons with players entering the draft before they were ready, he has been playing it cooler with highly touted center Paul Davis this season.
"I hope Paul Davis can go to the NBA after this year, because that means in my mind that he had a phenomenal year, not a good year, and everybody will be here," Izzo said at last Monday's news conference.
Davis led the USA Basketball Junior World Championship Team with 17.7 points per game over the summer and was selected as a John R. Wooden Award preseason All-American in August.
"If he plays well, he'll have a chance to be the right pick," Izzo said. "I guarantee you this, we've made some mistakes in my time, but there will be no mistakes made on Paul Davis."
Izzo said he would change his approach after both Marcus Taylor and Erazem Lorbek left school early and were not drafted or picked up by NBA teams.
"If he has a great year and we have a great year, then I'm going to beat you guys to the punch," Izzo said. "If he's good enough to go and the people in the NBA tell me he's good enough to go, I'm going to help him go.
"But, if not, I'm going to have a fist fight at center court with him to make sure that he doesn't make the mistakes, because I'm done shutting my mouth on that one, too. I feel bad that I half-allowed the things that happened the past two years."
On the bench
If the Spartans need to throw a baseball pass the length of the court this season, they might have just the man for the job.
Justin Ockerman, a walk-on freshman center from Garden City, joins the team after spending three seasons as a pitcher in the Seattle Mariners minor league organization.
Ockerman spent this season with the Everett Aquasox, a Class A Mariners team in Everett, Wash., where he was 1-2 with a 4.88 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 31.1 innings.
Rivalry talk
While Izzo was enthused by the upcoming rivalry football game against U-M, he clearly believes one newspaper has taken the rift too far.
The Detroit News is holding a contest, with tickets as a reward, for writing down three reasons why you hate either U-M or MSU with the winners from each side sitting next to each other for Saturday's game.
"I read somewhere, where one of the papers is having a 'let's say the worst things about the other school (contest),'" Izzo said. "What is that? That's a joke. That's sick. Usually we worry about the kids, but I worry about the adults on that one."
Izzo is sure of one thing - the Spartans will win the game against U-M, picking a 24-21 MSU victory.
"You always say that you want a rivalry in basketball, but now you have a good rivalry in football," Izzo said.
