It’s one of the most common and difficult barriers in all of collegiate athletics: the freshman wall. A talented freshman excels for the first several months of the season before experiencing a sudden and noticeable decline. Though difficult to predict when it might happen or the reason behind its occurrence, it’s a physical barrier facing many of college basketball’s diaper dandies.
The buzzer sounded as the ball miraculously floated through the net.
The MSU women’s basketball team kicked off a challenging four-game stretch that features three road games with a 56-46 win on Sunday at Indiana behind sophomore guard Kiana Johnson’s15-point performance.
An impressive all-around outing from sophomore guard Kiana Johnson powered MSU to a 56-46 win at Indiana Sunday afternoon. Johnson paced MSU (16-2 overall, 4-1 Big Ten) with 15 points while adding five assists and four rebounds. The Spartans’ win begins a stretch that includes three road trips in the next four games.
If Klarissa Bell, MSU’s leading scorer, didn’t have the attention of the visiting Hawkeyes when they got off the bus, they definitely did when her half court heave tied Thursday’s game at 25 at the halftime buzzer. Behind Bell’s career-high 25 points, the Spartans downed Iowa 65-54. Tied at 51 apiece with 3:37 left to play, MSU took advantage of a 9-0 run over the next three minutes to pull away — led by Bell and the outside shooting of junior forward Annalise Pickrel. Pickrel was fouled with 59 seconds left and hit one of two free throws to give the Spartans a 13-point lead at which point Iowa stopped fouling and let the time run out.
The Hawkeyes jumped out to an early 8-2 lead as MSU struggled shooting from the floor in the early going. The Spartans battled through a shooting slump that dipped to 21.4 percent at one point halfway through the first 20 minutes and kept the margin within five.
The MSU women’s basketball team hopes to welcome back redshirt freshman forward Akyah Taylor to the rotation for tonight’s home game against Iowa at 6 p.m. Normally, the Spartans (14-2 overall, 2-1 Big Ten ) would not make a big deal out of the return of a player who has averaged 9.3 minutes of play in four game appearances.
We sat down with one of The Daily Collegian’s men’s basketball reporters, John McGonigal, to discuss the three keys for Penn State to pull off an upset.
After Wednesday’s game against Penn State (8-8 overall, 0-4 Big Ten), eight of the Spartans’ (14-3, 3-1) next 14 games come against teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25. Of the final 15 games, eight come on the road, including historically tough venues at Wisconsin and Purdue.
As men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo spoke to the media, he described the No. 18 MSU men’s basketball team (14-3 overall, 3-1 Big Ten) as a group of “grinder kids” that battle through close games by playing to the level of their competition, something he isn’t particularly thrilled about.
As much as modern society moves towards a new world order of social media, Tom Izzo still isn’t buying it. Izzo doesn’t like Twitter — a sentiment he attempts to pass along to his players. Izzo’s not impressed by the many photo filters of Instagram. Don’t look for the 18-year head coach on Pinterest, either.
Branden Dawson has developed a reputation for making crowds gasp from seeing his highlight reel dunks and athleticism at both ends of the floor. Yet on Sunday, the sophomore guard made the Breslin Center crowd gasp for a different reason.
After a tough road win against Iowa last week, the No. 22 MSU men’s basketball team (13-3 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) returned home Sunday night with many expecting a slight reprieve.
The Spartans hung on late to close out a win in their first road game of the Big Ten season Sunday evening, knocking off Illinois 79-75. Though the up-and-down pace favored the high-scoring Illini for most of the game, the balanced scoring and defensive disposition of the MSU women’s basketball team prevailed in Champaigne, Ill.
On Sunday the MSU women’s basketball team will hit the road for the first time in the young Big Ten season to take on a high-scoring Illinois squad. In a strength versus strength matchup, the defensive-minded Spartans (13-2 Big Ten, 1-1 Overall), who allow 45.6 points per game, will be tested by the Illini offense that averages 72.7 points per contest led star forward Karisma Penn. Four Illinois (9-6, 2-1) starters average 13 points or more, headlined by Penn’s 20-points and 10-plus rebounds per contest.
It’s been nearly 10 months since Denzel Valentine and Anthony Clemmons set foot on a basketball court as teammates. A lifetime of preparation, early-morning workouts and practices that sometimes roared into the darkness of a winter evening led to the Lansing Sexton High seniors capturing their second consecutive MHSAA Class B state championship. In moments of elation about what the future held, it became difficult not to think back to all they’ve been through together.
As the Big Ten season moves along, the importance of each game on the schedule is not to be understated by teams in the conference. After watching No. 5 Indiana survive a New Year’s Eve scare against Iowa and Purdue upset then-No. 11 Illinois on Jan. 2, the notion of any team competing on any given day is less cliché and more reality this season for MSU head coach Tom Izzo.
When Tom Izzo tried to recall the Big Ten’s winningest coaches, his memory stopped after two — Gene Keady and Bob Knight. The legendary former Purdue and Indiana basketball head coaches, respectively, have led the Big Ten in wins for the better part of a decade, but it wasn’t until moments before the MSU men’s basketball team took on Purdue on Saturday that Izzo learned about the next man in line.
It’s been established Gary Harris sprained his left shoulder in a November game against Boise State. However, head coach Tom Izzo revealed at his press conference Monday the freshman guard has been dealing with an additional shoulder injury.
Following the Spartans’ 66-51 victory in the Big Ten season-opener against Minnesota last Thursday, some players and members of the media questioned whether the MSU women’s hoops team deserved to be ranked. It was a legitimate discussion at the time.