Road tests.
I'm not talking about your 16-year-old variety here.
Thus far, the 2003-04 NCAA basketball seasons for the MSU men's and women's basketball teams are far from being mirrored.
One team - the women's - has succeeded on the road, defeating 5-of-7 opponents away from its home floor. The men's, meanwhile, which has failed all preseason predictions, picked up its season's first road victory Wednesday at Northwestern.
Before their midweek win, the men had failed to defeat four teams away from Breslin Center and even lost back-to-back games, to No. 20 Oklahoma and No. 9 Kentucky, at neutral sites in Detroit - a city roughly 90 miles from East Lansing. The women, on the other hand, have lost by a total of four points in their two road losses - not too shabby.
The men are starting to salvage their season after a three-game winning streak, including a state-pride victory over Michigan on Saturday. The women also defeated U-M, on Sunday, for a third straight win. Funny as it seems, it's the women, nestled at No. 20 in the AP poll, who have escaped from the men's shadows to play the role of old vets on campus, while the men are just now beginning to muster the momentum needed for NCAA respect.
At this point in the season, faced with three-game road swings (each starting with Northwestern), both groups of Spartans have reached a vital stretch in their seasons. These bus and/or plane rides will not be easy, as any travel comes with extra burdens. The men play the second, and probably toughest, game of their road trip at No. 23 Purdue on Sunday. On the women's side of things, the Spartans play their Sunday contest at No. 9 Minnesota, the lone undefeated team in women's college basketball a week ago.
One clear distinction lies in this analysis of MSU's men's and women's basketball teams - the women are flat out getting it done. The men are attempting to and have been valiant the past week and a half.
Gender aside, protecting your home court is a must in college basketball, and road battles bolster your tournament résumé. At 13-3 (14-3, if they won last night), the Spartan women control their postseason destiny. Potential roadblocks lie at No. 9 Minnesota on Sunday, and home matchups with No. 8 Purdue (Feb. 22) and No. 7 Penn State (Feb. 26).
As for the men and their 8-7 record, the brutal pre-Big Ten pitfall they survived will come into account, but they will have to continue stringing up win after win to protect home court while winning 4-of-6 road games, with question mark games happening in West Lafayette, Ind. (Sunday), Champaign, Ill. (Feb. 10) and Ann Arbor (Feb. 24).
On paper, the toughest of the remaining home contests for the men is the first week of March with a return date at Wisconsin to finish the regular season conference. Add protection of home court and four road wins, and the Spartans have a 13-3 conference record, a probable Big Ten title and the conference tourney's top seed, barring any ties.
Even if the Spartans fail to tread anywhere into the conference tourney's later rounds, 18 wins coupled with their jaw-dropping nonconference schedule would merit a NCAA Tournament invitation. Just look to last season and a lesser regular-season schedule when the men finished 18-11, tying for third in the Big Ten and losing to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament's second round. After all of this, the Spartans were invited to the South Region of the NCAA Tournament.
In this paper, all of the above looks nice to Spartan athletes and fans alike. But as we sit in our MSU classrooms during the second week of spring semester, we must realize the Spartan men and women are continuing in two very different directions.
The road is not only pivotal for the men's and women's teams, but important to their confidence and control of potential conference crowns and national titles.
This is the basketball season's halfway point - the midterm - and all Spartans need to pass.
Paul Day is the State News deputy sports editor. Reach him at daypaul@msu.edu.
