CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A touch more of offensive prowess would have been a blessing for the MSU women’s basketball team Sunday. Its defensive know-how kept the team on top most of the game against Illinois, but a late-game dip in offense let the Fighting Illini break away with a 52-50 win.
DETROIT - When two teams are as evenly matched as No. 1 MSU and No. 5 Michigan, whichever team has the better special teams usually wins. Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena, the Spartans got that spark. MSU tallied three special teams goals - two on the power play and one shorthanded - in its 4-2 victory over archrival U-M, after both the power play and penalty killing units had struggled recently. Junior right wing Adam Hall did most of the damage, notching the shorthanded marker and one of the power play goals, to boost his season total to 15. “Power play is one of those things you can’t force, sometimes it’s there and sometimes it’s not,” Hall said.
Following its own advice - defense wins championships - MSU blanketed Iowa defensively en route to a 94-70 victory.MSU head coach Tom Izzo has criticized the No.
Being from the West Coast, I have always been an avid fan of the Pac 10. It is a tradition for anyone in my family to go to a Rose Bowl celebration every New Year’s Day.
A little home cooking was the perfect medicine for the 14th-ranked MSU wrestling squad this weekend, as it recorded two wins over Indiana and Penn State.
Just two weeks after assuming the post of MSU football defensive secondary coach, Kevin Ramsey opted to leave the program for the opportunity to coach at the same position with the Arizona Cardinals.Ramsey, 39, was hired on Jan.
The MSU women’s golf team opened its spring season by finishing 16th out of 18 teams after Wednesday’s final round of the TRW Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif., according to MSU Sports Information. The competition was stiff for the Spartans, as the three-day tournament featured 15 teams ranked in the top 25. MSU, which was ranked 25th by www.golfstat.com entering the tournament, finished with a final team score of 941 - 57 strokes behind tournament winner and No.
Daune Koester calls her new position as assistant coach of the MSU women’s volleyball team an “awesome opportunity.” The 26-year-old Detroit native said though she has had many years of volleyball experience, this will be a new one. “I’ve never been this excited about working - it’s a great job and a great conference,” she said. Koester, hired this month, replaced former assistant coach Laura Abbinante and joins head coach Chuck Erbe and first assistant Todd Dagenais.
As a senior at Woodham high school in Pensacola, Florida no one gave Reggie Evans a second glance, but as the nation’s leading rebounder the junior is regarded as one of Division I’s best forwards.“Coming out of high school I didn’t get any scholarship offers at all,” Evans said of Division I programs.
Despite the fact No. 25 Iowa has lost three straight conference games, Sunday’s matchup against No.
A mid-season turnaround could start tonight as the women’s basketball team travels to Evanston, Ill., to face Big Ten doormat Northwestern at 8:00 p.m.Although the Spartans (8-15 overall, 2-10 Big Ten) have lost their last nine games, their play in the two most recent games was dramatically improved, and head coach Joanne P.
There’s an old saying that there’s no “I” in “team,” but that still didn’t diminish the accomplishments of two MSU wrestlers last weekend during two tough losses.The first big performance came in a 32-3 loss to top-ranked Minnesota on Friday, as senior Pat McNamara defeated third-ranked Brett Lawrence 6-0 in the 133 pound weight class.The victory pushed McNamara from sixth to fourth in the www.intermatwrestle.com rankings at 133 pounds.Sophomore Karl Nadolsky followed that up with a 5-3 upset over fifth-ranked Mike Zadick of Iowa at 149 pounds during the third-ranked Hawkeyes’ 31-9 win over the Spartans on Sunday.Friday’s match against Lawrence was a homecoming for McNamara, who is a native of Jordan, Minn.“It’s nice to go home and win in front of your family and friends - I enjoyed that part of the weekend,” he said.
Record-breaking MSU goaltender Ryan Miller will participate in a chat on ESPN.com today at 2 p.m. Fans can ask the sophomore questions by clicking on the “chat” link at the top of the ESPN.com main page or a link on the front page of msuspartans.com. Miller broke the 70-year-old NCAA record for career shutouts with his 17th against Alaska-Fairbanks last Saturday.
As a shooter, when your shot doesn’t fall, life can be tough. And senior forward Mike Chappell knows that feeling well.When Chappell transferred to MSU after his sophomore year at Duke in 1998, Spartan fans and coaches thought he’d become the three-point specialist the team lacked, but that never materialized.“It’s been a struggle for him.
Ask senior guard Christie Pung if Big Ten women’s basketball games are physical, and she might mention the black eye she had two weeks ago. Or the one she had before that.
The MSU football team beefed up its 2001 recruiting class, literally and figuratively, with the signing of defensive end Kevin Vickerson on Monday.
If a college basketball player’s toughness is based on the battles one has experienced, then David Thomas is MSU’s “General Patton.” Thomas, 24 and in his fifth season, said he is thankful for getting more opportunities to play this season after suffering knee and foot injuries in two of his first three playing seasons.
Maybe nice guys do finish first.The top-ranked Spartans, the least-penalized team in the CCHA, have a five-point lead in the league and their tendency toward good behavior might have something to do with it.The Spartans have tallied nine goals in their last three games - all officiated by CCHA referee Duke Shegos - while only being whistled for six penalties.“The refs have been letting a lot of stuff go, but I think we’ve been playing pretty disciplined as a team,” junior defenseman Andrew Hutchinson said.“We’ve had low penalties the whole year and we’ve just been fortunate that we haven’t taken any these past few games.”MSU averages 15.35 penalty minutes per league game, almost a full minute less than second-place Northern Michigan.The Spartans actually started their current three-game stretch of sainthood - Feb.
Over the last three games, MSU has given up 108 points on three-pointers compared to 18 points off its own three-pointers.“There’s definitely a deficiency between what teams are scoring against us and what we’re scoring against them,” said MSU head coach Tom Izzo of the No.
Minneapolis, Minn. - The Spartans made it clear they came to play in Minneapolis from the opening tip with an alley-oop dunk by junior guard Jason Richardson.“It was just a great chance for us to get going,” he said.