Phil Martelli reflects on chills while facing Michigan State, seeing unity amid tragedy

Michigan assistant coach Phil Martelli has been around and seen and done just about all there is to do in college basketball. Even still, last Saturday night against Michigan State — particularly the pregame ceremonies honoring the Spartans in the wake of a shooting that killed three — was something unlike anything else Martelli has been a part of.

From lighting up Crisler Center green to the courage of the Michigan State team taking the court, Martelli will remember Saturday for the rest of his life. And basketball, of course, is not really the bit he’s going to carry with him.

“I think that there are — when you enter into this arena, as many of you are in the arena, there are games and there are results and there are wins and there are losses, there’s nets and championships and all that. But at the core of what the game should give you is memories for a lifetime. And that was a memory for a lifetime. The extraordinary support. First of all, the extraordinary courage for Michigan State to take the court. I thought the extraordinary class of the fans acknowledging that courage was tremendous. And anybody that didn’t have chills with the lighting, with the music, with the emotional response from their team, and their faces. The signage. That was humanity,” Martelli said.

Martelli, who is 68, also reflected on the trials that younger people are facing in the world now. Things like mass shootings — which Martelli labeled as “evil” — are something a new generation is dealing with that their predecessors haven’t.

“And in today’s world, let’s forget about rivalries and let’s forget about colors, green and maize — for two and a half or three hours, evil was not present,” Martelli said. “And that’s really, as an old dude now, I say that the young people are growing up and they have to deal with evil. And if we can, through a game, just lift that — we didn’t change it, but we lifted it. Kudos to everybody involved. And I’m just, selfishly, I came here for a championship experience. But I got an experience the other night, and everybody in that arena and everybody on television got an experience that is a memory for a lifetime. Extraordinarily well done.”