Seidel: Izzo, Dantonio jointly create glorious time for MSU

EAST LANSING – Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio waited in a hallway on the ground floor of the Breslin Center. He was by himself. No entourage. Just a guy waiting to congratulate his friend.

An oversized garage door opened and a burst of cold air whooshed through the building. A charter bus pulled up, and out came the basketball team Sunday night, about 5 hours after a 76-70 overtime victory over Louisville clinched a spot in the Final Four.

Basketball coach Tom Izzo walked up to Dantonio. They hugged like brothers. There was mutual respect and admiration in their eyes, a sparkle of joy, happiness, understanding and pride, so much pride.

I took a picture of the moment and put it on Twitter. Then something revealing happened. That photo has been favorited or retweeted more than 1,000 times, as MSU fans added bits and pieces of commentary, letting their feelings known:

"Best coaching combo in the NCAA!"

"Besties."

"Wouldn't trade either of them."

This is a giddy, glorious time for Spartan Nation — MSU fans, students and alumni — because of these coaches, the success they have built and how they have done it with so much class.

The football team has finished in the top five in the country two years in a row, and now the basketball team is in the Final Four for the seventh time under Izzo.

The veteran basketball coach kept walking down the hallway, preparing to speak to thousands of fans at an impromptu celebration at Breslin. But Dantonio didn't move. He held his spot. Dantonio looked like a greeter in the back of a church after a Sunday service. He gave hugs and high fives to everybody who walked by: assistant coaches, managers and players, all of whom were still wearing their sweatpants.

At some colleges, this scene would never happen. At some colleges, there is a divide between the football program and the rest of the athletic department.

Not at MSU.

Dantonio and Izzo have lifted the entire athletic program, pulling and prodding and pushing in the same direction, coaching in similar ways, basing everything on hard work and discipline, one program helping the other, success begetting success. All of this winning has helped recruiting for both sports, which is the bedrock for building better teams, which makes it easier to win, which makes it easier to raise money, which makes it easier to build better facilities, which makes it easier to recruit star athletes, which makes it easier to win. It's like rungs of a ladder, pointed up. You can feel and see the momentum.

Izzo, for one, hopes it spreads to every sport on campus.

"That's the goal," Izzo said. "We are going to change the culture of what happens in college athletics. That's the goal. That's why I stuck around. That's why I love my football coach.

"This is kind of a unique place."

Seeking the title

The Spartans walked onto the court and were greeted with a standing ovation.

"It was Mark Dantonio, at the beginning of the year, talking about what we have done," Izzo said. "This time, instead of us leading the way, the way it was a few years ago, they led the way for us."

The crowd burst into applause.

"We are one of the only schools in the country that has been to a major bowl game and the Final Four in the same year," Izzo said.

As he spoke, Dantonio stood in the back.

"We are starting to get a presence," Izzo said. "We are going to build an empire here."

He envisions an empire that captures a special trophy.

"We are going to do one other thing," Izzo said. "We are going to try to find a way to win a national championship!"

Credit to AD Hollis

At the end of the celebration, Izzo took the microphone again.

"Come here, Coach D," he said.

Dantonio walked reluctantly to the center of the court, wearing jeans and a leather coat. They locked hands, and Dantonio put his arm on Izzo's back.

"When (athletic director) Mark Hollis asked me to be on a board, to kind of pick a football coach, and we got one of the best in the country," Izzo said, "we said, 'We are going to have a day when we both win a national championship.'

"We aren't there yet. But we are getting closer."

Dantonio smiled and nodded.

MSU has two great coaches, two fantastic programs.

And Izzo is quick to credit his AD.

"Hollis has done such a better job than anybody knows," Izzo said. "He's on top of everything. I got the best AD in the country, but I said that five years ago. What he's done with Mark Dantonio, what he's done with some of our other sports, the guy is phenomenal. He doesn't get enough credit. We get the credit. He's the workhorse behind the scenes."

There are no signs that MSU is slowing down.

In fact, it just keeps getting better for the Spartans, in large part, because of those two guys, locked arm in arm, working together for the same thing.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.