The men’s basketball team will start their 2015-16 season on college basketball’s biggest stage, traveling to the Division I Michigan State Spartans and Michigan Wolverines.
“This is definitely an opportunity of a lifetime,” Perez said. “Growing up, you always watch college basketball and dream of playing against those teams. We can learn a lot about the game of college basketball from these games, and it’ll show us who we are as a team.”
The action kicks off for the Wildcats at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at the Breslin Student Center in East Lansing.
Michigan State is led by the legendary Tom Izzo, who in his 20 years at Michigan State has led the Spartans to 18 NCAA Tournament appearances and four national championship games, earning the ring in 2000.
Izzo is a yooper native of Iron Mountain, Mich. and played his college career at NMU from 1973-77. He than went on to coach Ishpeming High School 1977-78 than NMU 1979-83. Izzo was offered an assistant coaching position at State which he held from 1983-95, and has held the head coaching position ever since.
Last season, State finished 27-12 and sixth in the Big Ten conference, getting the seventh seed in the tournament and reaching the Final Four.
NMU assistant coach Will Hill said it’s great seeing a yooper succeed on the Division I level.
“Izzo is a great representation of NMU basketball and has been a great success for Michigan State,” Hill said. “He’s helped this program and university out throughout the year, and it’s an honor to go up against him. I’m sure our players will learn a lot playing him.”
Next week, the Wildcats will travel to Ann Arbor to take on the Michigan Wolverines at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13 at the Crisler Center.
For senior guard Terry Nash, this will be his second time facing Michigan since he joined NMU five years ago.
The Wildcats took on the Wolverines in 2012, a 83-47 loss for NMU which Nash said was a great learning experience.
“It’s amazing to go up against some of the best athletes in the country,” Nash said. “I was grateful to have the opportunity to play on this stage once in my life, and I’m thankful for another opportunity to experience it twice again here in my senior year.”
Last season, Michigan finished the year 16-16, landing ninth in the Big Ten conference before falling to Wisconsin the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.
NMU head coach Bill Sall said the schools were generous to hold these exhibitions matches with NMU.
“I can’t thank [Izzo] and [Beilein] enough for giving us this opportunity,” Sall said. “This is a great opportunity for our basketball program to face high-level competition, and it will be a great test for us to see where our team stands early in the season.”
