AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Tom Izzo had spent a good portion of the past four years doing everything he could to keep Derrick Nix on the floor, at times fighting his big man to do so.
The MSU women’s basketball players boarded their flight to College Park, Md., yesterday with three letters on their mind: WTW.
By this point, Derrick Nix knows what’s on the line.
In the first game of the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the MSU men’s basketball team (25-8) has a commanding 35-18 lead over Valparaiso (26-7)
One of the biggest lessons Tom Izzo said he’s learned from his first NCAA Tournament is to prepare not just for his first opponent, but instead for the entire weekend.
When Marist women’s basketball coach Brian Giorgis looks at his team, he sees an interesting comparison to his first-round opponent in the NCAA Tournament this weekend.
The squeaks of sneakers sprinting across MSU’s basketball practice court suddenly stopped as the 2009 Final Four banner billowed briskly against the wall Monday afternoon.
Go ahead and ask Brandon Wood who he’s rooting for — at this point, nearly everyone else has.
The story always reads the same way.
Seventeen hours after Tom Izzo said he wanted to see more film of the Spartans’ first NCAA Tournament opponent before commenting on them, MSU’s head coach made his way back to the very same podium with some bags under his eyes and very possibly the same set of clothes on.
Selection Sunday has come and gone, and the MSU men’s basketball team now knows it will travel less than 90 miles to begin its quest for a third national title.
As legions of MSU men’s basketball fans made the trip to Chicago, the thoughts of many were tied to a weekend of basketball.
Chicago – Few college basketball players are criticized quite like Aaron Craft. Whether it is his rosy red cheeks, his subtly confident personality or even his skin tone, Craft has been the subject of much abuse from fans and media since he arrived at Ohio State.
A rematch of last year’s Big Ten Tournament title game wasn’t without controversy, as a late flagrant foul and a dominant second half from Aaron Craft helped lift the Buckeyes.
It was a rematch of last year’s Big Ten Tournament title game and, for 20 minutes, both teams already appeared in championship form.
Now that the Spartans have fought their way into the Big Ten Tournament’s semifinals, it’s time to look ahead to the team standing in their way from a return trip to the championship round.
In the college basketball world, desperation can be a strange feeling.
With a potential NCAA Tournament bid on the line, many expected Fran McCaffery and No. 6 seed Iowa to come out swinging in a second-round matchup against the No. 8 seed MSU men’s basketball team. And after one half of play, the Hawkeyes look like a team who wants to go dancing.
Derrick Nix is many things. Articulate, brash, confident, cocky, funny, stubborn. But one word likely has never been used — softy.