•Talk about loyalty: Nine Izzone members drove from East Lansing to New York for Thursday and Friday's men's basketball games, then made the five-hour drive back to State College, Pa., on Friday night for Saturday's MSU-Penn State football game. The group was the loudest section at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, but even it couldn't contend with the fiercely pro-Maryland crowd on Friday.

•Seen in the press box: Former New York Mets outfielder Darryl Strawberry, whose son plays for Maryland.

•The Spartan marching band couldn't make the trip to New York, so MSU came up with the next best hing: Got a New York high school band, threw some green and white shirts on them and had them fill in. No word on how long it took them to learn the fight song.

•When a reporter asked MSU head coach Tom Izzo about the officiating in Friday's loss to Maryland, Izzo sat silently for several seconds, then said, "I'm trying to figure out if it's worth ten grand or not."