Charles Rogers was in attendance. So were Kirk Gibson and the Scarecrow from "The Wizard of Oz."
No, wait - that was MSU men's basketball players Andy Harvey, Rashi Johnson and Drew Naymick dressed up as their respective alter egos as they were introduced to the crowd at Breslin Center as part of "A Magical Journey" to officially kick off the men's and women's basketball seasons.
The men's team dressed up in gear that coincided with the journey they will embark upon during the season. The clothing highlighted future trips to the west coast (UCLA on Dec. 20), which had sophomore center Paul Davis dressed as a surfer, and a contest in upstate New York (Syracuse on Jan. 3), which had junior guard Chris Hill riding out in a snowmobile to Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby."
While the players received a hearty and sometimes surprised response from the crowd, it wasn't until Tom Izzo rode out on a horse as Davy Crockett (in honor of last year's Elite Eight in San Antonio and in hopes of getting there for the 2004 Final Four) that fans gave a standing ovation.
"I can promise you these guys have worked extremely hard in the last six months since we lost to Texas in that game down at the Alamodome and our vow is to get back there," Izzo said, as fans responded back with "I love you" chants to the man who has guided the basketball team to a national championship and two Big Ten Tournament titles in nine years as head coach.
Izzo said it was his dream to fill the Breslin Center for Midnight Madness and thanked the fans for fulfilling it.
"For me, this is an unbelievable night for that reason," he said. "My dream was to someday play Duke here and play at Duke. My other dream was going to Kansas - we're going to Kansas. My other dreams, it seems, all came true in one year. I'm not sure how healthy that is for me, but I hope you have a helluva lot of fun this year."
The crowd of 14,000 received glimpses of skills and talent as both the women's and men's teams held separate intrasquad scrimmages with the green team winning both games.
Izzo acknowledged the pressure his team faces as it makes another run at the Final Four - a road that is bound to have some peaks and valleys.
"We're really not counting wins, we're counting banners," he said. "I can promise you the journey is going to have some ups and downs, but I can promise you that nobody, since I've been here, has worked harder than these guys have worked to get you back another national championship."
It didn't matter to Kristen Fields that she was near the back of the line for players' autographs before the event started. She stood at the back of the pack, clutching a team poster already filled with a couple of autographs, donned in an MSU jersey.
"I don't have anyone in particular to meet, but it'll be worth it," the no-preference sophomore said. "Regardless of how well they do, it's going to be a fun season."
No-preference freshman Rob Frear had similar thoughts. Frear won an NCAA Final Four chair during a musical chairs game.
"I got asked to do the musical chair and it was an amazing feeling being out there where the team's going to be playing," Frear said. "The highlight of the night was watching the team scrimmage and seeing where they're starting off the season."
