DETROIT -- A few thoughts while sitting courtside as Ford Field quickly fills up … • Michigan State coach Tom Izzo walked outside early Monday morning to get a sense of the cold weather. He wanted to see how much snow was falling, how bitter the wind was and whether or not it would be a classic Michigan winter day. It was. • Izzo rode over to the 1 p.m. shootaround with former Detroit Lions coach Steve Mariucci, his Iron Mountain, Mich., childhood friend, next to him on the bus. Izzo didn't sit in his customary seat on the bus. He wanted to experience the day with Mariucci. • A Spartans video coordinator brought out a specific Michigan State video cut to the CBS-themed "One Shining Moment" with only Michigan State Final Four highlights from Magic in 1979 to Shannon Brown in 2005. The piece ends with the phrase, "It all ends in Detroit." The players saw this video on the first day of practice and again Saturday to get them pumped up for the game. • Magic Johnson said during a pregame news conference with Larry Bird that he didn't plan on speaking to the Spartans prior to tipoff. He said they know what he means to them. He said they got here without him. That's the same thing that former North Carolina Tar Heel Michael Jordan said earlier Monday at his Hall of Fame induction news conference. Jordan said he didn't need to talk to the Tar Heels since they had gotten here without him. • Jordan also said his advice to the Tar Heels would be to just go out there and have fun. That seems to be the same message Magic was conveying to the Spartans. Jordan said he was at the 2005 title game in St. Louis and didn't talk to the team then and wasn't going to do so now either. • Jordan said that without Dean Smith, his former coach, he wouldn't be where he is today. He said that Smith taught him what he needed to know about the game. Jordan joined David Robinson, John Stockton, Rutgers women's coach C. Vivian Stringer and Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan in the Hall of Fame class, to be inducted Sept. 10-12 in Springfield, Mass. • UNC's Ty Lawson won the Bob Cousy Award as the country's top point guard. Lawson showed up for the award Monday morning wearing a protective boot on his right toe and a dress shoe on his left. Apparently that's been the norm for Lawson to protect his toe during the day. UNC coach Roy Williams joked that when he was at the same award ceremony in 2005 with Raymond Felton prior to the title game in St. Louis, Felton threw his back out when he took the trophy because he didn't know how heavy it was going to be. He said Felton spent two hours on game day getting treatment. So Williams said he coached Lawson to make sure he had proper balance when he took the trophy. Jim Nantz, who was the emcee, joked later that he saw Lawson outside but he had accidentally dropped the trophy on his toe. • Michigan State encouraged fans to wear all white, for a white-out effect. The Spartans have thought that white looks better on television than green and it has proven to be the case for many games at the Breslin Center. • Already a few good signs in the North Carolina student section. One student held up a sign that said: "Detroit is in Wayne County." Another good sign said: "Detroit forecast: Outside 60 percent chance of snow -- inside 100 percent chance of Wayne." That's a reference to the sharp-shooting of Wayne Ellington.