It's funny how your perspective can change things.

My first two years at MSU, I was a card-carrying Izzone member. I painted my face, never missed a game and once got so far in Gene Keady's head from behind the visiting bench that he turned around and yelled back at me. (I wasn't even heckling his toupee.)

Now, I'm a semiprofessional journalist who gets paid to watch the games objectively. I observe from my seat on press row, where I'm not allowed to cheer, boo or make fun of Tommy Amaker's turtlenecks, no matter how much they look like they came from a Lane Bryant catalog.

It's hard, terribly hard sometimes, to leave all that behind. Sometimes, when I spot my roommates fighting for a promotional T-shirt in the lower bowl of the Izzone, I shed a tear (a green one, of course) and think back to when I had the freedom to watch games with that much energy.

Never has it been more difficult than this season.

Since Tom Izzo's season-opening press conference, the Izzone has taken a huge amount of heat in various media outlets — this one included — for lackluster enthusiasm.

It hurts. And the worst part is, I can't disagree.

At the risk of sounding like a crotchety old-timer, the section hasn't been as good this season as it was even three years ago. Unbridled enthusiasm has been replaced by lukewarm attentiveness, clever heckling replaced by mindless profanity (whoever invented the "F%&* [opponent's name] … they suck balls" chant deserves to be kicked out of the university, and I'm not kidding).

Perhaps there's no quantifiable way to prove it, but the energy of Breslin Center has changed. Instead of a firecracker this season, it's been a sparkler.

But the schedule hasn't been as exciting as in past years! True. But if one of the players does poorly against Belmont, the crowd isn't going to let him off the hook. So why are the fans allowed to have an off night just because the opponent isn't Duke?

But it's hard to jump and yell all game! If I want a workout, I'll go to IM Sports-West! Yeah, it is hard. But as one who's not allowed to do it anymore, I can tell you I'd probably give a week's pay just for the chance to sit among the crowd and scream my brains out one more time.

I had almost given up all hope, resigned myself to the idea that the prominence of a student section is cyclical, just as it is with the basketball programs themselves. Maybe the Izzone, I reasoned with myself, is going through a rebuilding just like the team.

Then came Sunday.

Trailing by several baskets early in the second half of its game against Illinois at Breslin Center, MSU was making the elementary stages of a comeback.

As has happened many times this season, sophomore forward Marquise Gray threw down a ridiculous alley-oop dunk that ignited the crowd in celebration.

But this time, the energy from that momentary explosion didn't go away.

All at once, the Izzone appeared to snap out of its collective funk, growing louder and louder as the Spartans sprinted their way to a 28-5 run. From my ground-level spot in the corner of the arena, I could look out and see the lower bowl cheering with a uniformity I haven't seen in a long time. It was as if someone has doused that sparkler with kerosene.

"I've never seen it that loud before," junior guard Drew Neitzel said. "We just fed off that energy. That makes the game a lot of fun."

MSU rode its second-half surge to a 63-57 win — a moment of validation for the team but perhaps even more so for its fans.

"I'd be the first to tell you I haven't been as pleased with (the crowd)," Izzo said after the game. "But I thought both the students and the fans had this place like championship years today."

I have every expectation that the Izzone only needed one brief demonstration of its full potential to get rolling again.

If that game wasn't proof of how important a good home-court advantage is, I don't know what is.

Izzo said before the season that the fans could win MSU five or six games this year.

Sunday was No. 1.

Who'll be on their feet for No. 2?

Tom Keller is a State News men's basketball reporter. He can be reached at kellert1@msu.edu.