When Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans take the court on Saturday night against the Duke Blue Devils, it will be almost 15 years to the day that the 60-year-old Iron Mountain, Michigan native took his MSU team to a second-straight Final Four appearance in Indianapolis.

That 2000 edition of the Spartans would go on to be a team of legend, capturing the school’s second NCAA title in an 89-76 win over the Florida Gators.

Now, 15 years later and back in Indianapolis, Izzo has the chance to take his charges to an improbable NCAA Tournament final appearance, something few had foreseen from the seventh-seed in the East.

For Izzo, a trip back to Indy will elicit memories of that 2000 team, led by a trio of local kids from the Flint, Michigan area – Tournament Most Outstanding Player Mateen Cleaves, long-time Toronto Raptor Morris Peterson and former Milwaukee Bucks guard Charlie Bell - affectionately dubbed “The Flintstones.”

The nostalgia surrounding the 2000 Spartans evoked over the weekend could make another title all the more remarkable for Izzo, who has spent 33 seasons at MSU as assistant and head coach.

“That team was so special to him,” Mark Champion, the radio voice of the Detroit Pistons, told TSN.ca. “I think that one put him on the map and put him over the top as an elite coach.”

Champion, a veteran broadcaster who has also served as the play-by-play man for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions, was the voice of the Spartans during that 1999-2000 season, a time he remembers fondly. For Champion, that championship team is the gold standard for any of Tom Izzo’s team, including this current incarnation.

“That team was loaded,” said Champion. “I don’t think you can really compare any of his other Final Four teams to that 2000 team because Mateen was a first-round draft pick. Mo Pete, Charlie Bell played in the league. Jason Richardson is still in the league. There were other guys on that team who went over and played in Europe in Andre Hutson and AJ Granger. Mike Chappelle played over in Europe for a while. As far as I’m concerned, it was the best team that Tom has ever had and he’s had some very, very good ones.”

The lynchpin of that team was Cleaves. Taken 14th overall by the Pistons in the 2000 NBA Draft, Cleaves would spend parts of six seasons in the NBA, but his time at MSU made him a collegiate legend. A two-time Big 10 Player of the Year and the only three-time All-American in Spartans history, Cleaves had his number retired to the rafters of the Breslin Center in 2007.

“He’s one of the greatest leaders that I’ve ever seen as a player,” Champion said of Cleaves. “He just willed these guys to win and just refused to let them lose. He just kept getting better and better each year. I think he and Tom Izzo, they developed a very close relationship, even to this day. In fact, Tom’s son’s middle name is Mateen. Mateen was just one of the great college basketball leaders of all-time. That’s what made that team special.”

The Flintstones might be MSU’s finest example of local kids coming good, but bringing area players into the Spartans program has been a priority for Izzo in his 20 seasons as head coach in East Lansing. On his current squad, eight players are from Michigan, including starting small forward Devon Valentine. Star guard Travis Trice is from Huber Heights, Ohio, a four-hour drive away. Keeping it homegrown with talent from the Midwest has been a hallmark of Izzo teams and the strategy has paid off in seven Final Four trips in his two decades.

“They’ve been the lifeline,” said Champion of Izzo’s reliance on Midwestern players. “The one difference about Michigan State – and you can even say this about their football team, too – is that they don’t necessarily get the five-star recruits or the McDonald’s All-Americans. They may get one or two, but they’re not like a Duke or a Kentucky or a North Carolina that gets numerous McDonald’s All-Americans, but Tom is able to find guys who play the game. He’s done a great job in Michigan, but he’s also done a great job in Ohio…AJ Granger and Andre Hutson were both Ohio kids. Zach Randolph was an Indiana kid. Gary Harris was an Indiana kid. He’s done a great job of getting players in the Midwest and he just finds very, very good talent.”

But it’s one thing for a coach to accrue talent and an altogether different thing to harness it. Champion believes it’s Izzo’s ability to get his team prepared for individual games, one at a time, that puts him a cut above the rest.

First of all, he learned from a terrific coach in (College Basketball Hall of Famer and long-time MSU coach) Jud Heathcote,” said Champion. “That was a big key, but I think that he is one of the greatest, maybe the best, one-game coach I’ve ever seen in getting a team ready to win a specific game, an important game - which, of course, the NCAA Tournament is, it’s one and done. He gets these guys ready to play a specific game by just flat-out telling them, ‘You listen to me, we’re going to win this game’ and it’s proven to be the case more often than not. And especially this year, because the overall talent on the team this year is not as good as past teams, but they’re just gelling at the right time.”

A second title for Izzo would put him in rarefied air. Only 14 coaches, four of them active, have won more than one NCAA title. Another title would add to Izzo’s legend in East Lansing, but Champion doesn’t believe that he requires it.

“Tom has talked about that a lot – that he really wants to win another championship,” said Champion. “I don’t know if he needs it. I think his coaching legacy is pretty set, however, when you compare him to a Mike Krzyzewski or Bobby Knight or Rick Pitino or Roy Williams, the difference is he only has the one championship.”

Heading into the matchup against Coach K’s Blue Devils, the Spartans are heavy underdogs. Vegas has the team at 50-to-1 to win a third NCAA title, the worst odds of the four remaining schools. The Spartans previously met the Blue Devils in the second week of the season in East Lansing where Duke was an 81-71 victor.

With the way the Spartans have come together over the course of March Madness, as well as the Big Ten Tournament where they lost the title game in OT to another Final Four contender in Wisconsin, Champion turns to another sport to explain what’s happening with the team right now.

“It’s kind of like hockey,” said Champion. “They’ve got the hot goaltender and that’s just the kind of way Michigan State is. When they get rolling, they’re tough to stop and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see them beat Duke.”

While even making it to the Final Four is an impressive accomplishment for a team that had double-digit losses and was a bubble Tournament team for most of the season, Champion thinks that while this edition of the Spartans is already a success, they’re not yet satisfied.

“Oh, absolutely [they’re a success], but on the other hand, I don’t think they want to rest on that,” said Champion. “I don’t think they wanna go in and say, ‘Well, we made the Final Four and nobody thought we would, so whatever happens, happens.’ I don’t think Tom works that way. They’re going into that game with the idea to beat Duke. They’ve already played them once, so that could be helpful. Once Michigan State gets into the Final Four, you just never know.”

TSN2 is your home for the Final Four with coverage getting underway at 6pm et/3pm pt.

Michigan State vs. Duke is scheduled for a 6:09pm et/3:09pm pt tip-off.

Wisconsin vs. Kentucky is scheduled for an 8:49pm et/5:49pm pt tip-off.