Lindsay Bowen and Liz Shimek stood at midcourt on Senior Day as coaches, teammates and fans thanked them for their four-year tenure at MSU. The duo — who in four short years helped MSU rise to the top of the Big Ten — will certainly be missed by the Spartans' faithful.
But they aren't gone yet.
Isn't the farewell a little premature? It's only February, what happened to "March Madness"?
Bowen said she doesn't consider Senior Day, Feb. 12, or even the Feb. 16 end to conference play, to be the end of the season. According to her, this is the time of the year when things just begin to get interesting.
"We know that there are a lot of games ahead of us, and we're excited about that," Bowen said. "It's not over yet."
The Spartans still have at least two games left — one in the Big Ten Tournament and one in the NCAA tournament. But if they can catch fire, they could have as many as nine more games to play, as well as a chance to add some hardware to their trophy collection.
Building the program
Before Shimek and Bowen arrived in East Lansing, MSU was just a middle-of-the-road team. The pair made an immediate impact, with each averaging at least 10 points per game early in their MSU careers. As freshmen, they helped MSU reach the NCAA Tournament first round for the first time since 1997. As sophomores, they took another climb up the ladder, advancing to the second round.
The 2004-2005 season saw the biggest leap, as Bowen and Shimek contributed to a Spartan squad that won the conference championship, the Big Ten Tournament and even advanced to the NCAA National Championship game.
Heading into this season, expectations were higher than ever. If a team can make it to the title game one year, why shouldn't the road back to the Final Four be all but guaranteed?
This year's season has been a bit of a step back, at least in terms of regular season play. The Spartans looked severely overmatched against the best teams they faced, and struggled to play with the same energy on the road as they did at Breslin Center.
Despite the way the season has played out, Shimek said she's enjoyed the ride.
"My four years here have been amazing," Shimek said. "Full of ups and downs, but a lot more ups than downs, and it's just been really fun."
There's little reason to dwell on the regular season record, anyway. The real season is just around the corner.
The final stretch
Bowen showed no hesitation when asked about her goals for the postseason.
"We're going for championships here," Bowen said.
"This is the time of the year where we just get started. We love going into the tournaments, and anything can happen."
Of course, all the talk of championships will be worthless if the Spartans don't take care of business in their first round games. Though the potential to extend the season exists, Shimek said she and Bowen aren't taking anything for granted.
"There is a month or a month-and-a-half to go," Shimek said. "Lindsay and I, it is our last year here, and we have a minimum of (two) games left, and it could be the last times we put on a Spartan uniform.
"We've just got to go out and stay in the moment and live in the moment."
Even if the championship aspirations fall through, Bowen and Shimek will have left their mark on the program. Before the final buzzer sounds on the season, they'll be the top-two leading career scorers in MSU history.
Shimek said as long as the Spartans give their best effort, she'll leave East Lansing with a smile.
"I just want to be able to leave the court and be able to say, 'We played as a team,'" she said. "'We left it all on the court that night, we fought as much as we could, and just had fun while we were doing it.'"
