Michigan State basketball facing Tennessee in October for great cause

Every year, it seems like Michigan State basketball gets to do something really cool.

Last year, the Spartans got to play Gonzaga on an aircraft carrier and they did that a decade ago against North Carolina as well. They’ve played in some awesome locations and some great events like the Champions Classic, the PK80 and PK85, and also the Maui Invitational.

The latter of those events may be quite different moving forward after Maui County was devastated by wildfires this month.

Maui and the city of Lahaina have held a special place in Tom Izzo’s heart as he’s been there a handful of times and that’s where he got his first career win as head coach.

To help out the devastated parts of Maui County and Lahaina, Michigan State and Tennessee decided to partner up for a really cool event.

Tennessee, Michigan State basketball to play in charity game

Izzo announced on Wednesday that he’s partnered with his good friend Rick Barnes and Tennessee to change their previously-scheduled closed-door scrimmage to an open-to-the-public exhibition game with all the proceeds going to the city of Lahaina and the Maui Strong Fund.

This is actually one of the coolest things I’ve heard in a while.

Lahaina and the Maui Strong Fund could use all the help they can get and having a battle of potential top-10 opponents at the Breslin Center should draw a huge crowd even if it is just an exhibition game. Spartan fans would kill to go to this exhibition even if it wasn’t for charity, so I can only imagine the turnout for such a good cause.

I can’t wait to get stressed over a game that doesn’t count for a good cause.