Greg Gard

Wisconsin interim head coach Greg Gard talks with his team during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Rutgers Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016, in Madison, Wis. Wisconsin won 79-57.

(AP Photo/Andy Manis)

EAST LANSING -- Last month, Greg Gard became Wisconsin's head coach after a long career as an assistant, spent entirely in his home state and largely under a legendary boss at a Big Ten program.

Naturally, Tom Izzo took to him immediately.

Gard and Izzo will face off on Sunday for the first time as head coaches, when Michigan State visits Wisconsin (1:30 p.m., CBS).

There, the sidelines will feature two coaches who have similar backstories. Izzo spent 12 years as an assistant to Jud Heathcote at Michigan State, until Heathcote retired and tapped Izzo as his successor in 1995.

Gard spent 23 years under Bo Ryan, both at Wisconsin-Platteville and Wisconsin, before Ryan retired last month. Ryan's abrupt midseason retirement was largely seen as a way to earn Gard a tryout to be his successor. He is currently the program's interim coach.

"(Ryan) held on, he felt that Gard deserved a chance," Izzo said last month when Ryan retired. "I think he did it all for the right reasons."

When the two shake hands after Sunday's game, it will be far from the first meeting for the duo. Gard said he and Izzo got to know one another through casual greetings and games over the past 15 years.

Soon, they were sitting next to one another on the recruiting trail, talking coaching and their similar background.

"I think what he saw was kind of like looking in the mirror, when he talked to me, in terms of somebody that had stayed in their home state," Gard told Wisconsin's school website this week. "He understands what works at Michigan State and what doesn't work, very similar to how I understand what works at Wisconsin and what doesn't work."

Izzo even took a trip to Wisconsin this summer to speak at a coaching clinic at the invitation of Gard.

"I've been with him on the road, I'm a fan of his," Izzo said. "It's strange how things happen. I still look at it, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and that program sure ain't broke."

Izzo and Ryan had one of the most famous rivalries in the Big Ten. Things got heated at times, when Ryan won six straight early in his tenure, including the 2002 Breslin Center win that broke Michigan State's 53-game home winning streak.

Izzo had started turning the tide in that rivalry in recent years, with a five-game win streak of his own.

A new coaching rivalry starts on Sunday, and it's one that starts from a place of mutual respect.

"I think from that standpoint, he just saw 'Here's a guy that did it how I did it, and if I can help him navigate through his career and give him some advice as I look back on mine, I'm willing to do that,'" Gard said. "I'm very appreciate for his guidance, his mentorship, his advice, his friendship. All those things. How can you not respect somebody who's done what he's done and done it in the same place for a long time."

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