His good friend and former boss was in town over the weekend, but coach Jim Boylen was on the road with his Utah Utes and unable to see him.

Still, Michigan State's Tom Izzo had some good things to say.

Izzo said he has been telling his former assistant about the pressure he will feel from himself, fans, the media and the university president and alumni to turn the Utes around quickly.

"Jimmy is doing it the right way," Izzo said while in town with his No. 9 Spartans to defeat Brigham Young on Saturday. "It will take a little time and it should. Anything good takes a little bit of time."

Indeed, Boylen has talked frequently about how he's trying to build the program "the right way," though he also has acknowledged that even his wife teases him about how anxious he gets to turn things around immediately.

Izzo said he's doing just fine, though.

"You hope it is now rather than later, of course," Izzo said, "but I think he's already off to a really good start, and I think you will like him, and I think he is going to stay with the same philosophy that he had here, and we won pretty quick. And yet I think when we won, it was solid enough that it has lasted."