Tom Izzo had a nice surprise for Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg on Thursday night. When the five starters took the floor for Michigan State for the opening tip, Hoiberg’s son Jack was one of them.

Jack Hoiberg got his first career start on Thursday night, as Michigan State traveled to Lincoln to play Nebraska. He took the floor against Fred Hoiberg’s Nebraska team, giving the Huskers first-year head coach the opportunity to see his son play.

“One of the coaches always brings in the numbers of the starters,” Fred Hoiberg said, “and I see 5, 11, 25, and 10. And I’m like, ‘Ten? Who the hell? That’s Jack.’

“Yeah, that was really cool by Izzo to give him that opportunity to come out here,” Fred Hoiberg said. “Obviously, he had a ton of family in here tonight. We had a post-up call for Jervay (Green) on the first play, and I envisioned having Jack guarding Jervay, like I was going to go right at my kid. “

Jack Hoiberg played five minutes for the Spartans, scoring four points, dishing two assists and grabbing a rebound in MSU’s 86-65 victory over Nebraska. He made two of his three shot attempts in the game.

“I talked about it with my staff two days ago, and I talked myself out of it because you don’t want to interrupt — we’re not playing the greatest right now,” Izzo said. “But as I was riding here, believe it or not, I said to myself, as a coach, in this day and with all the social media, a coach can never do what he wants to do. He’s always got to do things for everybody else. So I told my staff I’m going to start Jack because it’s the right thing to do.

“This kid has given me almost three years, every single day. For Jack, the kid’s a pretty good player. I’m so proud of that kid and what he’s done, the kind of student, the kind of person and the kind of player. Every day he brings it. It wasn’t just do it for Fred, it was do it for Jack because it’s the right thing to do. Even if we had lost it would have been the right thing to do.”

It was certainly an awesome moment for the Hoiberg family and for college basketball.