EAST LANSING – Tom Izzo's first official Final Four pep rally as Michigan State's head coach took place on a beach in Florida, and the first thing he saw was Jim Harbaugh in an "Izzone" T-shirt talking up the Spartans.
"I was just walking in and then he got on stage," Izzo said of the events of March 27, 1999, a few hours before Duke edged the Spartans, 68-62, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. "And I'm like, 'Wow, we've got a Michigan guy up there.' He was good, too."
Michigan's first-year football coach and Michigan State's 21st-year basketball coach, good buddies?