Mat Ishbia saved the ball in the waning seconds of Michigan State basketball’s 2000 national championship win over Florida, drove to the basket and missed an acrobatic layup as time expired.
The former walk-on swished a bigger prize Thursday: A $32 million donation to his alma mater and tribute to his former coach, Tom Izzo.
Ishbia pledged $32 million for a significant expansion of the Spartans’ athletics facilities, including a new football facility and renaming the basketball court at Breslin Center after Izzo.
“What Mat Isbhia has done for our university and for our program, for me in particular, is about as humbling and as sort of tear-jerking as anything has happened to me…,” Izzo said Thursday.