EAST LANSING, MI -- Someone apparently wanted to start the NCAA tournament game between

about 12 hours early.

Under the cover of darkness, an unknown person decorated Michigan State University's iconic Spartan statue in Valparaiso paraphernalia about 11 p.m. Wednesday night. A sign and basketball-themed hardhat both bearing the letters "VU" had been placed on the ceramic monument.

Jourdan and Garrison Rasmussen, a pair of brothers from Lakeview who attend MSU, removed the props from the statue and

. They speculated that fans of the Spartans' arch-nemesis Michigan were responsible for the iconoclasm, perhaps in retaliation to

in the NCAA tournament, South Dakota State.

The brothers did not find who was responsible, but Garrison Rasmussen, a 21-year-old junior majoring in English, said he spotted someone in a yellow shirt running away from the scene.

The pair took down the Valparaiso gear and kept it for themselves as souvenirs.

Jourdan Rasmussen, a 23-year-old student at the MSU College of Law, said after restoring the Spartan statue he's "never been prouder to be a Spartan."

Standing where Kalamazoo Street and Chestnut Road meet at the entrance to MSU's athletic neighborhood, the Spartan statue is a 10-foot-6 bronze statue mounted on a 5-foot-4 base. A popular attraction on campus, the posing Spartan warrior weighs three tons, and its current incarnation has been in place since 2005.

The first Spartan statue, which was the same effigy but made of terra cotta, was established in 1945. After 60 years, it had to be replaced due to ill effects of Michigan weather.

The Valparaiso gear the Rasmussen brothers removed from the Spartan statue.

The original statue now stands inside a windowed vestibule on Spartan Stadium's west side.

The monument has long been the target of vandalism. Each year, members of the MSU Spartan Marching Band take turns protecting the statue during the week leading up to the Spartans' rivalry game with Michigan. The tradition has become known as "Sparty Watch."

Michigan State

against Valparaiso at 12:15 p.m. at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

Follow Brandon Howell on

and on Twitter: @BSHowell88. Email him at brhowell@mlive.com or call him at 517-318-1615.