Northern Michigan University’s Dylan Kuehl (left) completes his first of two dunks during the first half of a GLIAC men’s basketball game against Purdue Northwest on Feb. 10 at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. (Photo courtesy of Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE – A long-awaited day for the entire Northern Michigan University community will take place this weekend.

The Wildcats men’s basketball team is only playing one show, but what a show it will be.

Partly because it’s against Big 10 and NCAA Division I member Michigan State University, partly because the Spartans are coached by Tom Izzo, one of NMU’s most prolific alums of all time, and partly, because the game will be played on the floor of the Superior Dome.

Oh, and we almost forgot to mention that the game – called the Superior Dome Showdown – will be played in front of a national television audience thanks to its broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

All of this will take place in Marquette on Sunday at 1 p.m. in what NMU Sports Information is calling a historic, once-in-a-lifetime event expected to hold more than 11,000 spectators. That would make it one of the highest-attended sporting events ever to take place in the Upper Peninsula.

Who knows, maybe it will happen again one day, but when and under what circumstances that would be, no one could really guess.

The game will also be broadcast on radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point, while that station and WLUC-TV6 will hold pregame shows starting an hour earlier at noon.

The Big Ten Network will have major anchors Bill Raftery and Lisa Byington host the game. Raftery has hosted college basketball on CBS since 1983, while Byington has broadcast for numerous networks and was the first female play-by-play announcer for BTN in 2017 and now hosts play-by-play for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.

Fans can also follow @NMUMensBBALL and @NMU_Wildcats on Twitter for updates throughout the weekend. On the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com, under the men’s basketball schedule you will find links to watch the BTN broadcast, live audio, live stats and game notes.

“One of the benefits of having an adult group that has been through a lot is that you can’t downplay it because it’s so great.” Northern head coach Matt Majkrzak said in a press release from NMU SI previewing the game. “But the NCAA Tournament is really nerve-wracking, with a lot of pressure and expectations. Let’s really enjoy the weekend, but let’s have as much fun as we can, and during the two and a half hours of game day we really want to focus on that and try to play basketball at the highest level possible.”

In his 30th year at MSU, this is Izzo’s first return to coach a game at his alma mater, where he played in the mid-1970s before graduating from Northern in 1977.

He coached the Ishpeming High School boys team for a year and was back at UP, both for his family in Iron Mountain and beyond “Officer” Visit like a celebrity at the Beacon House All-Star Golf Outings held in Marquette for several years.

Izzo has coached the Spartans six times in preseason contests like this one against NMU, most recently on Oct. 30, 2018 in a 93-47 win for MSU at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.

According to NMU SI, these two teams actually met eight times during the regular season, with State leading 7-1. Izzo was a member of the NMU team in their last two meets in 1974 and 1975.

On December 16, 1975, the Spartans won 81-65 at MSU’s Jenison Fieldhouse as Izzo played 32 minutes and scored nine points while adding two assists, one rebound, one blocked shot and one steal.

The year before, State’s final trip to NMU came on December 16, 1974, when the Spartans won 91-59 as Izzo played 26 minutes, dished out a team-high six assists and grabbed five rebounds.

Izzo has retired his No. 10 jersey at NMU and joins Ted Rose and Gene Summers with jerseys in the rafters of Vandament Arena.

Izzo was a three-year starter for Northern from 1974 to 1976 while playing under head coach Glenn Brown, who won 300 games in 18 seasons at the helm of the Wildcats. Izzo was a two-year captain and led NMU to a 57-47 record during his time at Marquette.

In his senior year, Izzo was named a National Association of Basketball Coaches Third Team All-American, a GLIAC Second Team Honoree and the Wildcats’ MVP. He played more than 930 minutes that season, a team record that stood for more than a decade.

His storied collegiate coaching career also began at NMU as an assistant to Brown from 1979 to 1983 before moving to MSU in 1983 as a part-time assistant under legendary head coach Jud Heathcote.

Izzo was also inducted into the NMU Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.

The Wildcats bring some swagger to their opening game of the season after winning back-to-back NCAA Division II tournament berths. In the 2022–23 season, NMU went 25–8, the most wins in program history, and won its first GLIAC Tournament title since 2000 with a 79–66 victory over Michigan Tech in the final.

Last season, NMU finished 22-11 and won the GLIAC regular season title for the first time since 1992-93 with a record of 14-4. This included a 13-game winning streak midway through the season that tied a program record set in 1984-85.

Majkrzak, who was named GLIAC Coach of the Year last spring, has an 86-56 (.606) record in five seasons, including 47-19 (.712) in the last two.

He is only the program’s second all-conference coach this year, following Dean Ellis’ win in 1993.

The Wildcats include redshirt junior Dylan Kuehl, who was named to the GLIAC First Team and All-Defensive Team the past two seasons as he also earned NABC District Second Team honors last season.

Kuehl is averaging 14.3 points per game and has 929 points, so he should easily surpass the 1,000-point mark this season. He also averaged 6.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.1 blocked shots in his two seasons while making 52.2% of his shots from the field.

Added to the backcourt were several guards from the NCAA transfer portal – Julien Smith from Missouri S&T, Gerald Gittens from the University of Mary, Derek Merwick from Midland and Biggie Luster from Clarke. Smith has 1,623 points for a 15.9 ppg average over four seasons at Missouri S&T, while Gitten averaged 1.38 ppg last year at Mary.

They join experienced NMU senior Brian Parzych, who has averaged 10.6 points per game over the past two seasons and 3 assists per game over his career.

MSU finished 20-15 last season, 10-10 in the Big Ten and ranked sixth. The Spartans reached the NCAA Division I Tournament for the 26th consecutive year, the longest streak in league history, the third-longest streak overall in the NCAA, and the longest active streak.

Michigan State defeated Mississippi State in its opening game before falling to North Carolina.

The Spartans are replacing four starters, led by Big Ten second-teamer Tyson Walker, who accounted for well over half of their points and assists and nearly half of their rebounds last year.

Returning players include senior guard Jaden Akins, junior guard Tre Holloman and junior center Carson Cooper.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is [email protected].