MARQUETTE – Friday night’s Michigan State-Georgia NCAA men’s basketball tournament game will have at least one side story with a local twist.

MSU head coach Tom Izzo will be meeting the team his nephew, Matt Bucklin, works for as the UGA operations coordinator. Bucklin, a reserve player at Georgia from 2009-12, is the son of Izzo’s sister, Mary (Izzo) Bucklin.

Mary Bucklin is the wife of former Northern Michigan University cager and Marquette native Dave Bucklin. He played basketball at NMU during the 1978 and ’79 seasons.