Friendship has its limitations, even when it comes to Tom Izzo’s close relationship with Dane Fife. So when it was time for Izzo to sign his name to several basketballs at an IPFW fundraising event Monday at the Fort Wayne Country Club, the Michigan State coach was sure to preface each one with a scrawled, “Go State.”

From the time Izzo tried to recruit Fife to play basketball at Michigan State, albeit unsuccessfully, there has been a mutual admiration society between them.

“He’s got no reason to help,” said Fife, who chose Indiana University instead. “I’ve done nothing but hurt the guy. I didn’t go play for his school, although he’s whipped up on the Mastodons five straight years, but who’s counting?”

What counts is that Izzo’s Spartans have played IPFW for five straight years, and he’s been the only Big Ten coach whose team has played on the Mastodons’ home floor.

And now Izzo was back in Fort Wayne on Monday to help raise money for a basketball program he competes against.

“It’s unbelievable,” Fife said. “You just don’t see this happen very often in any sport.”

Yep, it’s a rare thing in this dog-consumes-dog world; one man helping a younger one in his career path, even though some day his friendship could come back to bite him.

It’s a bond between these two Michiganders that shouts volumes for each. And in a moment of confession, Izzo sees something familiar in the 31-year-old Fife, who is about to enter his sixth season at IPFW.

“Without being goofy about it, I respect, care,” Izzo says. “I look at him and I see myself when I was his age, except he took a head job a lot earlier than I did, but is a guy very driven to be successful and a guy that wants to do it the right way. He worked so hard in high school in all sports. I started respecting him then, and it hasn’t changed now.

“I don’t do it very often,” he said of helping out an opposing university. “In a sick way, I don’t know why because he didn’t come to my school, but I have this respect for him and his family. Whenever he asks me, I try to do it for him. I’ve probably done more around his than I have all the others combined.”

From those early days, when Fife was the tough-nosed coach’s kid from Clarkston, Mich., and Izzo was just a few years away from the 2000 NCAA national championship, Izzo saw the intangibles.

Some coaches now, Izzo says, warn recruits to steer clear of other places and other coaches who may be too tough or too demanding.

“That was right up Dane’s alley,” Izzo said of Fife’s decision to play for Bob Knight at IU. “Dane salivated over that. That’s where I think I gained my respect for him.”

Yet the respect has matured. Izzo remains the mentor who is willing to share; Fife, who took the IPFW coaching job at 25, remains the student willing to learn.

“He’s played at a Division I level, he’s out there recruiting with us all the time, so it’s not like he doesn’t know how to be the best. He’s been to a Final Four,” Izzo said of Fife.

“I think the head coaching experience he’s getting, boy, that’s invaluable ’cause I don’t care who you are; when you move that 18 inches or whatever they say, it’s difficult. He’s got that under his belt. I think he’s got some big years to come.”