In Chicago, fans of the Cubs have a fun way of dealing with their overwhelming grief and disappointment. When the final curtain drops on another season without a World Series ring, they turn a collar up to the wind coming in off Lake Michigan and mutter between grinding teeth: "Wait 'til next year."

Well, East Lansing might be 220 miles from the Windy City, and it's only been four full seasons since our last national championship, but those four words have been getting a lot of play in our town: "Wait 'til next year." Especially around, oh, let's say, March.

We speak, of course, of the MSU men's basketball team and the riot-inducing, banner-unfurling ride they've taken us these past three seasons. At midnight on Friday night, another season of Spartan hoops will begin when the team takes the floor for a Midnight Mania scrimmage. Chris Hill, Kelvin Torbert and Alan Anderson, the six shoulders that have been carrying this team for three seasons, are now seniors. Paul Davis, the best big man in the nation who has yet to play like the best big man in the nation, is a junior. At long last, we can't "wait 'til next year." This is next year, and the future is now. The grace period is up on Spartans basketball.

They don't have any injuries walking into this season. The deliriously difficult schedule that prepared them for conference play, much like a battering ram prepares a door to be opened, isn't there. Not a great many are expecting MSU to make any noise in the Final Four, and by God, Marcus Taylor would have graduated by now. All excuses are out the window.

We think that you can prognosticate in one hand and play ball with the other. What do you all say to using both hands this time around?