EAST LANSING -- Tom Izzo knows what it's like to want to draw more fans to a showcase exhibition event.
Five years ago, Izzo said the basketball team was drawing between 11,000 and 12,000 fans to its midnight madness season kickoff event, a few thousand shy of the Breslin Center capacity.
When the Spartans did finally get over the hump and start packing the house for midnight madness, Izzo didn't see that fact as trivial. He saw it as a sign that Michigan State was on par with the country's blue blood programs.
"There's kind of steps you take in building a program, and to me one of the steps, I looked at Kentucky, I looked at Duke, I look at all these teams, and one of the steps was midnight madness for us.