With the regular season starting, I'd like to give occasional around-the-Big-Ten updates on this blog to help keep you informed on what's going on in the conference.
I'll start with one of college basketball's most interesting and unusual games this season – and one that has a Minnesota connection as well.
The idea for the super-hyped Michigan State - UNC matchup that is taking place Friday on an aircraft carrier off the San Diego shore has apparently been in the works for some time. Creative thoughts for outside-the-box Michigan State games were initiated nearly a decade ago.
It was athletic director Mark Hollis' notion then, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said, for MSU to play Michigan at Spartan Stadium. A couple years later, in 2003, Tubby Smith's Kentucky Wildcats played the Spartans in the Final Four, on a court supplanted on Ford Field.
Asked whether Izzo and staff were trying to take a page from the recent NHL initiatives, Izzo said: "The uniqueness about that, the NHL didn't start that, it was Michigan State … and the NHL picked up on that."
Several years ago, Izzo took two trips to Kuwait to coach troops. On one of those trips, Tubby Smith went with him.
"It was a life-changing experience for me," Izzo said. "I never thought -- my father was in the military, but I never ever experienced those two weeks what I experienced in the barracks with the troops. And (Hollis) said we've got to do something.
"So the first thing would be, we thought: Let's play a game somewhere. My AD has had me rappel down from the ceiling on Midnight Madness. The guy's insane, and he's had me do some bizarre things. He talked about playing a game in an aircraft carrier. We tried to do it in Jacksonville, Florida, around 2005. It fell through because of the war, really.
"When this thing came to fruition this year, it's exciting. And then when you think about it for our veterans and to bring something to the light -- we were over in Kuwait, we talked to the troops. What can we do for you? And it was always just: 'Send the word that we're fighting for all of you back home.'
"And I don't think we appreciate that enough. There's always controversy why we're in wars and what we're doing, and I understand that controversy. But still the guys doing the battle, they don't get to choose. And so bringing some light to that and then it just happens to be in the ship, The Vincent, and the drama keeps going. And Magic's going to be there, the President's going to be there."
Izzo paused and added: "And unfortunately those three guys that were supposed to leave last year from Carolina are going to be there. ... We're looking forward to it."
The Veterans Day matchup tips off at 6 p.m. Friday on ESPN.
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Three around the league:
Robbie Hummel, Purdue: Ladies and gents, Hummel is back. In Hummel's first game after returning from a knee injury that knocked him out of all of the 2010-11 season, the 6-8 senior forward scored 18 points in 16 minutes, with seven rebounds and zero turnovers against Northern State. He followed it up with a less shocking but nonetheless solid eight-point, four-rebound performance in eight minutes against Southern Indiana. If this is him rehabbing, no team wants to be the first to see him at full strength.
Cody Zeller, Indiana: The dynamic freshman is off to a running start. The former Mr. Basketball for the state of Indiana scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the Hoosiers' exhibition versus Indianapolis. He went 6-for-8 from the line and played the most minutes of anyone on the team.
Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin: The point guard – who had eight points, one rebound and seven assists -- may have been the fourth most impressive player in the Badgers' first exhibition against UW Stevens, but the player that averaged 18.1 points last year while being air tight at the point, is just getting heated up. What's encouraging for Wisconsin is the talent around Taylor, a Minnesota native who played for Benilde-St. Margaret's in high school. Four players scored in double-digits in the exhibition.