Tom Izzo brings Oregon football's fast-paced practices to basketball

After a trip to Nike's headquarters in which he watched film of an Oregon football practice, Michigan State basketball head coach Tom Izzo was inspired by the speedy drills. So inspired that Izzo decided to take some of the principles of the practice and apply it to the Spartans basketball program, according to Diamond Leung of MLive.

"I just thought I could take some of that and use it in basketball," Izzo said Thursday after practice. "I think this will be good to try. We're trying to sprint guys into everything. It's really been working well."

Oregon Ducks football head coach Chip Kelly has gained some popularity for the breakneck speed of his program, which has been an offensive juggernaut in recent years. Now No. 3 in the BCS Standings, the Ducks accumulated 445 yards of total offense on Thursday night during a a 43-21 victory against an Arizona State Sun Devils defense that entered the night as the Pac-12 Conference's best.

How the same type of speedy principles will work when applied to the basketball court remains to be seen. The Spartans finished the 2011-12 season with a 29-8 overall record and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA Tournament before being eliminated with an upset loss to the Louisville Cardinals.