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Basketball

BASKETBALL

Lorbek adjusts to college basketball

Patrick Walters
January 21, 2003

On the court, in the classroom and in the locker room, MSU freshman forward Erazem Lorbek is making the adjustment from life and basketball in Europe to the spotlight of the Big Ten. The gangly 6-foot-10 native of Ljubljana, Slovenia, has worked himself into head coach Tom Izzo's rotation since coming to America in August, combining the finesse game he honed playing for Slovenian junior national teams with crashing Big Ten style. While Lorbek is soft-spoken because of the language barrier - sometimes he swears in what looks and sounds like equal parts of English and Slovenian after making the occasional mistake - he said that his adjustment to MSU basketball has been trial by fire. "It's a higher level," Lorbek said of the conference.

BASKETBALL

New Year's resolution: start winning

Chris Mackinder
January 17, 2003

So far 2003 has been an awful year for the MSU men's basketball team. But luckily for the Spartans (9-6 overall, 1-2 Big Ten), it is only 17 days into the new year and there is plenty of time to turn things around. Since the beginning of the year, MSU is 1-3.

BASKETBALL

Spartans need to prove themselves on road

Chris Mackinder
January 16, 2003

West Lafayette, Ind. - Plain and simple, the Spartans eagerly anticipate a return to Breslin Center for a basketball game. But MSU (9-6 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) still has a road contest with Minnesota on Saturday before that happens Wednesday against Penn State (5-8, 0-2). And if this year is any clue, the Spartans could be near the cellar of the conference if they lose to the Golden Gophers. With its loss to Purdue on Tuesday night, the MSU men's basketball team not only lost its fourth game in five contests, but it fell to 2-5 this year when playing on the road or at a neutral site. "The times we've played on the road, things haven't gone our way," senior forward Aloysius Anagonye said.

BASKETBALL

Inconsistency a constant

Chris Mackinder
January 13, 2003

Iowa City - Throughout the 2002-03 season, the MSU men's basketball team has been consistently inconsistent. Those inconsistencies were highlighted Saturday afternoon as the No.

BASKETBALL

Spartans shoot for first Big Ten road triumph

Chris Mackinder
January 10, 2003

Iowa might not have big names on its roster. But the Hawkeyes pose some problems for the MSU basketball team.Because the Spartans hadn't concluded their game with Ohio State at the time of print, they were null to talk about their matchup with Iowa (9-3, 1-0 Big Ten). And unless they remember much from their games a year ago, MSU players were in the dark about the Hawkeye team."To tell you the truth, we haven't even looked at film on them yet," junior forward Adam Wolfe said following Tuesday's practice.

BASKETBALL

Izzo expects players to improve on free throws

Patrick Walters
January 9, 2003

Heading in to their 53rd season of Big Ten men's basketball, No. 25 MSU is looking for a little charity - from the stripe, that is.After shooting 77.7 percent from the foul line in the first seven games of the season, MSU (8-4) has only shot 67.5 percent in the last five, which is below head coach Tom Izzo's standards.Izzo said missed free throws have "really cost us the last two games, as much as anything."Despite MSU's shooting woes, the Spartans are currently tied for fourth (72.8 percent) among Big Ten teams.

BASKETBALL

Tough opponents await Spartans

Patrick Walters
December 6, 2002

Riding the momentum of Wednesday night's 82-75 defeat of No. 22 Virginia, the MSU men's basketball team is looking forward to a challenging road schedule over the holiday break.The Spartans (3-2) will host Cleveland State on Sunday at Breslin Center before being tested on the road by two perennial basketball powerhouses.The team rolls into Lexington, Ky., on Dec.

BASKETBALL

Spartans ready for rematch with No. 22 Cavaliers

Patrick Walters
December 4, 2002

The last time the MSU men's basketball team met Virginia, it was a washout. The game was canceled early in the second half when water on the court in Charlottesville, Va., halted play.The game was played at a minor league hockey facility and the floor was on top of a layer of ice, which caused the condensation.Tonight, the No.

BASKETBALL

WEB ONLY: Women's basketball losses lead, game to Memphis

Dawn Klemish
December 2, 2002

The MSU's women's basketball team's offense stalled toward the end of Saturday's match, resulting in a 59-56 loss to tournament-host Memphis in the championship game of the Lady Tiger Thanksgiving Classic. The Spartans broke the game open four minutes into the contest by going on a 19-3 run to take a 25-11 lead.

BASKETBALL

Team comes home empty

Patrick Walters
December 2, 2002

Maybe Alaska was the wrong place to heat up the MSU men's basketball season. The No. 9 Spartans (2-2) sparked the Great Alaska Shootout tournament with a 80-60 Thanksgiving Day defeat of Montana, but fell in subsequent games to unranked opponents Villanova, 81-73, and Oklahoma State, 64-61. Following Saturday's early exit from Anchorage, Ala., at the hands of the Cowboys, basketball head coach Tom Izzo labeled the weekend as an exercise in poor play from MSU guards and lagging defense. "We don't have very good guard play right now," Izzo said, "and we're not very good defensively.