If you grew up in Michigan odds are you either rooted for the good guys at MSU or those other people over in Ann Arbor, and it shows. Growing up a Spartan fan is a huge part of your personality and you are not afraid to tell anyone who asks that green and white are the only real colors you know of. As March rolls around Izzo and the Michigan State Basketball team remind all us Spartans why it is so good to be a part of the MSU fan base, our love for MSU grows even more. This season there was no shortage of excitement. Denzel Valentine proved himself a force to be reckoned with and the team sat at the number one seed early in the season. Here are 11 signs you know you grew up a true Spartan fan:

1. There will never be a time that you can breathe easy during a sports game. Whether it’s a fake field goal during overtime against Notre Dame in football or a close basketball game in the NCAA tournament, Spartan fans are always left sweating it out.
2. Half of your wardrobe and most of your sweatshirts are green and white. This always made dressing up for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations an easy task.
3. If anyone every tried to argue that Michigan had better colors you were sure to remind them that blue and yellow are just the ingredients for green.
4. E and L are not just two letters next to each other, but instead they stand for “the place where you spend Saturdays in the fall”.
5. Whenever someone says “Go Green” in relation to recycling you have the strong urge to respond “Go White” even though they aren’t referring to MSU at all.
6. There was at least one Halloween where you dressed as either an MSU football player or cheerleader.
7. For most of your life you thought “college” was just another word for Michigan State, and the only other school you really knew about was UofM.
8. Learning the fight song was sort of like learning the alphabet: something that had to be done. Your parents probably even had a can opener or pen that played the instrumental parts of the song, just so that the tune would never leave your brain.
9. Come basketball season “Izzone” replaced the phrase of student section.
10. When it's time to go to college, you either go to MSU and create more and more traditions of Sparty-hood or you head off to another school. Even if you do venture outside of your green comfort zone you still keep your love of MSU strong while rooting for them when they play any school but your own.
11. No matter how good of a season they were having, you put MSU winning it all in your NCAA bracket.

If you are a new fan, don’t worry. This will all apply to you, too. Welcome to the team we are glad to have you! And of course, go green!