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

MARQUETTE — A long awaited day for the overall Northern Michigan University community happens this weekend.

The Wildcats men’s basketball team is only playing an exhibition, but what an exhibition 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 one of NMU’s highest-profile alumnus ever, Tom Izzo, and partly because the game will be played on the floor of the Superior Dome.

Oh yeah, and we almost forgot to mention that the game — dubbed the Superior Dome Showdown — will be played in front of a national TV audience thanks to it airing on the Big Ten Network.

All this takes place at 1 p.m. Sunday in Marquette in what NMU Sports Information calls a historic, one-time event that is expected to hold a capacity crowd of more than 11,000 spectators. That would make it one of the largest attended sporting ever held in the Upper Peninsula.

Who knows, maybe it will happen again someday, but when that would be and under what circumstances nobody 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 bring in big-time announcers Bill Raftery and Lisa Byington to call the game. Raftery has called college basketball on CBS since 1983, while Byington has broadcast for numerous networks and was the first female play-by-play announcer in 2017 for BTN and is now doing play-by-play for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.

Fans can also follow @NMUMensBBALL and @NMU_Wildcats on Twitter for updates throughout the weekend, while visiting the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and looking under the men’s basketball schedule will provide links to watching the BTN telecast, live audio, live statistics and game notes.

“One of the benefits of having a mature group that’s been through some things is to not downplay this because it’s so awesome,” Northern head coach Matt Majkrzak said in an NMU SI release 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 possible, and for the 2 1/2 hours of game day, let’s really lock in and try to play basketball at the highest level that we possibly can.”

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

He coached the boys team for a year at Ishpeming High School and has been back to the U.P., both for his family in Iron Mountain, and on “officials” visits like being a celebrity in the Beacon House all-star golf outings that were held for multiple years in Marquette.

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

These two teams have actually met eight times in the regular season, according to NMU SI, with State leading 7-1. Their last two meetings in 1974 and 1975 featured Izzo on the NMU team.

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

The year previous, State’s last trip to NMU, won on Dec. 16, 1974 with the Spartans winning 91-59 as Izzo had 26 minutes that time as he handed out a team-high six assists and made five rebounds.

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

Izzo was a three-year starter for Northern from 1974-76 while playing under head coach Glenn Brown, who won 300 games in 18 seasons at the Wildcats’ helm. Izzo was a two-year captain and led NMU to a 57-47 in his time in Marquette.

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

His storied college coaching career also began at NMU as an assistant to Brown from 1979-83 before he joined MSU as a part-time assistant under their legendary head coach Jud Heathcote in 1983.

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

The Wildcats bring a bit of swagger into their opening game of the season, having earned back-to-back NCAA Division II Tournament appearances. In 2022-23, NMU went 25-8, its most wins in program history, and won its first GLIAC Tournament title since 200 with a 79-66 win over Michigan Tech in the finals.

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

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

He’s only the program’s second conference coach of the year, joining Dean Ellis’ win in 1993.

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

Kuehl averages 14.3 points per game and has 929 points, so he should eclipse 1,000 easily this season. He also averages 6.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.1 blocked shots in his two season while shooting 52.2% from the field.

The backcourt added several guards from the NCAA transfer portal — Julien Smith of Missouri S&T, Gerald Gittens of the University of Mary, Derek Merwick of Midland and Biggie Luster of 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’ll join NMU veteran senior Brian Parzych, who has averaged 10.6 ppg over the last two seasons and 3 assists per game over his career.

MSU finished last season at 20-15, 10-10 in the Big Ten to tie for sixth place. The Spartans made the NCAA Division I Tournament for the 26th straight season, longest streak in league history, third longest overall in the NCAA and longest active streak.

Michigan State beat Mississippi State in its opening game before bowing out against North Carolina.

The Spartans replace four starters, led by Big Ten Second Teamer Tyson Walker, who accounted for well over half their scoring and assists and almost half of their rebounds last year.

Returnees 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 sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.