Tom Izzo breaks out his accordion for annual holiday radio show

EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – As the saying goes in the movie ‘ELF,’ the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.

The Michigan State men’s basketball team was doing exactly that on Wednesday night at One North Kitchen and Bar in East Lansing.

Tom Izzo broke out his accordion, and his players sang Christmas carols for those in attendance. Izzo began playing the accordion at the age of 12, stopped when he broke his hand at the age of 13, and started playing again in college.

Izzo told 6 Sports his accordion is around 40 years old, and nights like Wednesday will always mean a lot to him.

“I’m going to talk about it until I’m dead, or until I’m out of here,” Izzo said. “These things are special. I don’t care who you are or what you like; it’s fun to do stuff when people say, ‘Remember when.’ It means a lot to me. Thank God it means something to my players still and thank God it means a lot to my former players.”

What made this year’s radio show unique, compared to those in the past, is that senior guard Nick Sanders played the piano while Izzo played the accordion.

Sanders has been playing the piano since he was four years old, because his mom ‘forced’ him and his siblings to play. Sanders has been at the holiday radio show all four years of his MSU career and it was on Tuesday when the son of Detroit Lions legend Barry Sanders was told he’d be taking center stage.

“It was nice,” Sanders said about playing at the radio show on Wednesday. ‘Coach had talked to me about it for a few years now. So, it was just a matter of time before I played.”

Izzo said, “He’s incredible. He’s so smart. I told Barry and everybody back home that he was going to be doing it and… (Nick) said he would be more than happy to do it with me.”

The Spartans will return to action on Saturday in Detroit to take on Oakland at Little Caesars Arena.

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