I was sitting courtside on the baseline underneath the home basket yesterday when a thousand or so Spartan fans, mostly Izzone members, piled on to the floor to celebrate Michigan State's 64-55 win over Wisconsin.

As the final seconds ticked down and the court charge became apparent, my first thoughts were the same as the guy with the painted chest sitting behind me. He tried to talk the rest of the student section, or at least the handful of fans sitting near him, out of storming the court. "We've won championships," he said. "We don't rush the court here." Then when everyone ran past him in jubilation, he shrugged his shoulders and joined the fray.

He wasn't the only one, either. Flintstone and founding program member Antonio Smith, now a student assistant, was in the back of the mosh pit jumping up and down in his blue dress shirt and tie. The current cast of Spartans were somewhere in the middle, hugging and high-fiving fevered fans.

"It was an unbelievable atmosphere and something I'll never forget," Drew Neitzel said. "It's not every day that the crowd rushes the court or you have a celebration like that. Even when we went to the Final Four it wasn't like that. It was fun."

Michigan State and the Izzone will take some heat for rushing the court. There's a safety risk involved, and in mob scenes like that you always run the risk of a drunken fan stepping over the line with opposing players.

But Tuesday night's celebration was good-natured fun, a way to celebrate a milestone victory - MSU's first ever regular-season win over a No. 1 team - and one that likely locked the Spartans a spot in the NCAA tournament.

Don't kill the fans for their celebration. Like Tom Izzo told the Mike and Mike radio show Wednesday, "It's just part of the excitement. ... I don't have a problem with it, I really don't. We have to watch that we don't overlegislate and make all things boring."