Kalin Lucas has never lost to Texas — and he doesn’t plan on starting this season. MSU’s junior guard has been a key cog in MSU’s two neutral site victories against the Longhorns the last two seasons. This season, however, the stakes are higher, as the Spartans have the opportunity to make a splash on the national scene by beating the No. 2 Longhorns on Tuesday in Austin, Texas.
It’s safe to say a tape of Saturday’s game between the MSU women’s basketball team and Washington won’t ever be heading to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The two teams combined to shoot 31.1 percent, commit 36 turnovers and 48 personal fouls, but the No. 16 Spartans were much more efficient on both ends of the floor, knocking off the Huskies 69-52 at Breslin Center.
The MSU men’s basketball team stuck with what has worked for most of the season in its 80-58 win Saturday against IPFW at Breslin Center — stumble into halftime with a marginal lead and gradually pull away in the later moments of the second half.
Although final exams come every year, dealing with them this season was a much different story for MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo.
Everywhere he goes, senior safety Danny Fortener has been hearing that the MSU football team’s defense has no shot of stopping Texas Tech’s potent passing offense.
As much as MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio may want to move past it, the fact that 12 players have been suspended from the Valero Alamo Bowl and two others have been removed from the team is something that will follow the Spartans to San Antonio, Texas.
Of the four wide receivers listed on the MSU football team’s depth chart for the Valero Alamo Bowl, only one came to campus on scholarship — sophomore Keshawn Martin.
Florida Gulf Coast head coach Karl Smesko came into Sunday’s game with MSU looking to make the Spartans’ offensively-passive guards hit outside shots by packing in the paint. He came to regret that decision less than three minutes into the game.
Corey Tropp wouldn’t have been able to imagine it entering the season.
Outside, temperatures plummeted to the low teens and a bone-chilling wind chill was enough to keep anyone indoors.
Even though the football team was up and down this decade, there were plenty of talented players to wear the Green and White.
The MSU hockey all-decade first and second teams have a nice blend of players from each era of the decade. The toughest choice in the selection process came between the pipes. Jeff Lerg had a tremendous career for MSU, but we had to give the nod to Ryan Miller, who was only the second Spartan win the Hobey Baker Award.
Four of the five players on the first team come from the program’s best team in 2004-05. Liz Shimek and Lindsey Bowen are the top two scorers in program history, and Kristen Haynie was the cornerstone of that team.
It’s only right that the decade’s best team is well-represented on the All-Decade team. Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson already have had their numbers retired, and Charlie Bell also might get that honor some day, but he gets knocked out of the starting lineup for Alan Anderson — just barely.
Our list of best freshman performances of the decade is higlighted by a group of athletes who not only had phenomenal breakout seasons, but went on to have illustrious careers.
I couldn’t speak. My eyes were sprung open wide as a garage door, my legs seemingly bolted to the ground beneath me and my breathing heavy and panicked.
Throughout her college career, Liz Shimek kept getting better. Her success helped bring the MSU women’s basketball team to a level of national prominence previously unseen.
The most difficult thing about picking MSU’s male player of the decade is that there are many different ways to approach the question.
Championships and All-Americans. Memorable moments and jaw-dropping plays. The 2000-09 decade has given MSU sports fans memories they will never forget. The next eight pages are filled with the best of the best in the last decade of MSU athletics.
Everything MSU was missing during its sluggish effort Sunday against Indiana was there — and more — Wednesday night against No. 8 Xavier. The Spartans brought the energy, excitement and enthusiasm that head coach Suzy Merchant thought was missing Sunday in a dominating 66-53 win against the Musketeers Wednesday night at Breslin Center.