As the banner commemorating the MSU men’s basketball team’s secondstraight Big Ten title and sixth during head coach Tom Izzo’s Hall of Fame career ascended to the ceiling, the Spartan Brass proudly played MSU Shadows, the university’s alma mater. The only tune more appropriate would have been the rock ballad from Bachman-Turner Overdrive: Takin’ Care of Business.
In his final game at Breslin Center on Sunday, senior forward Raymar Morgan scored a season-high 22 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, kissed the ‘S’ at midcourt and watched a Big Ten Championship banner raise to the rafters in front of Spartan legends Mateen Cleaves and Charlie Bell as the MSU men’s basketball team throttled archrival Michigan, 64-48.
Indianapolis — Iowa, the only team to beat the MSU women’s basketball team during its run to end the regular season, did so again Saturday, knocking the Spartans out of the Big Ten Tournament with a 59-54 win at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Indianapolis — The MSU women’s basketball team found a way to win without Allyssa DeHaan, who left Friday’s Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal game with Michigan midway through the first half with back spasms.
The MSU women’s basketball team advanced to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals with a 61-50 win against Michigan on Friday afternoon at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The Spartans, the hottest team in the league, have shown the ability to beat anybody — from the top-tier teams to the squads in the basement — and that’s exactly what a team needs to be successful in the postseason.
Jon Crandell didn’t have the typical path of a walk-on. He was just a normal student during his freshman year, playing intramural basketball, until former MSU walk-on guard DeMarcus Ducre spotted Crandell and told him to look more into basketball.
Isaiah Dahlman is the most likeable player on the MSU men’s basketball team. But it’s not because he’s a lockdown defender or will have the ball in his hands in crunch time. Raymar Morgan is the most frustrating player on the MSU men’s basketball team. But it’s not because he’s cold, indignant or an incompetent basketball player. As the two seniors’ careers in Green and White come to an inevitable end, it’s certain both players — who will go down as some of the program’s most valuable, in their own right — had an indelible impact on the success of MSU basketball through the past four years and its great promise for years to come. “We’re so different,” Dahlman said.
As a season wears on, coaches naturally become concerned with fatigue as their players deal with the rigors of a long season. MSU women’s basketball head coach Suzy Merchant is no different.
The month every college basketball fan salivates over has arrived, and the MSU women’s basketball team will kick off what is sure to be a wild month in this weekend’s Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
How afraid is the No. 11 MSU men’s basketball team of Penn State guard Talor Battle? Frightened enough to place a taped 3-point line four-to-five feet beyond the normal 3-point line.
It appears the Spartans are fully healthy and might have found the chemistry and spark needed after Sunday’s win at then-No. 3 Purdue. To continue their roll, they’ll have to stop the Nittany Lions, who boast one of the Big Ten’s top scorers and have won three of their last four.
Cetera Washington lives by the mantra that while defense wins games, rebounding wins championships. So it should be no surprise the junior forward recently has stepped on the accelerator in both areas, becoming a key force during MSU’s run of 10 wins in its past 11 games.
Four members of the MSU women’s basketball team were honored by the Big Ten on Monday, led by senior center Allyssa DeHaan as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year and junior forward Kalisha Keane as the conference’s Sixth Player of the Year.
With the postseason here, MSU head coach Suzy Merchant is scaling back practices to keep her team fresh for a run in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.
After an unsettling home loss to Ohio State and a long week of practice, the MSU men’s basketball team realized they needed to sleep it off. At Breslin Center.
MSU played a tough, hard-nosed game to beat the Boilermakers on Sunday. For the first time maybe this entire season, the Spartans exhibited coinciding flashes of toughness, grit, heart and, well, good ol’ fashioned MSU basketball.
MSU head coach Suzy Merchant called her four seniors — center Lauren Aitch, center Allyssa DeHaan, forward Aisha Jefferson and guard Mandy Piechowski — in for a meeting Friday, offering them the chance to start together for their final game at Breslin Center on Sunday.
The MSU women’s basketball team’s 70-50 win against Minnesota on Sunday at Breslin Center served three purposes: It sent the team’s four seniors out as winners, clinched the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and also gave the team 10 wins in its last 11 games, the second best regular season finish in program history, trailing only the 2004-05 national runner-up team that won 13 of its last 14.
The No. 14 MSU men’s basketball team overcame a staggering turnover total in a physical game to steal a 53-44 win from No. 3 Purdue on its home floor Sunday. The win keeps the Spartans’ Big Ten regular season championship hopes alive.