DETROIT - In the end, 65 minutes was just too much to ask of four defensemen.When Michigan right wing Andy Hilbert blew past MSU sophomore defenseman Brad Fast and scored the game-winning goal in overtime Saturday night, it was the culmination of the most taxing game the NCAA-leading Spartan defensive corps has faced all year.
Columbus, Ohio - It was a similar scenario, a game Charlie Bell refers to as “The Twilight Zone.”MSU shot under 40 percent from the field, its leading scorer was held below his average, and opposing fans flooded the court after upsetting the Spartans.
The MSU women’s swimming and diving team fell this weekend to Penn State and Indiana, leaving the Spartans 3-5 overall in dual meets.
Make it 0-3 for MSU athletic teams against Michigan in the past four days. The 8th-ranked Spartan wrestling team was the latest casualty Sunday, losing to the 7th- ranked Wolverines 20-12 before a raucous crowd at Jenison Field House.
Wincing in disgust even thinking of the possibility, I still realize it could happen. Driving back from Columbus late Saturday night, foreshadowing images were running through my mind - visions of turnovers, careless passes and weak rebounding. It was those failed aspects of the game that made all the difference in MSU’s 64-55 loss to the Buckeyes.
When a wrestling team is ranked eighth in the nation, it usually isn’t the underdog in most of its matches.
They work their hardest in practice and push the starters to the limit every day. Then as match time approaches, they promptly sit and watch, hoping the next time it will be them on the mat trying to contribute to the eighth-ranked MSU wrestling squad in the same way their counterparts in practice do.
The Baltimore Ravens’ record-setting defense will get most of the national attention this Super Bowl weekend, but there’s also a dominant defensive crew based in East Lansing. The top-ranked Spartan hockey team (21-1-4 overall, 14-1-3 CCHA) has suffocated opposing offenses in 2001, allowing only one goal in seven games in the new year.
With their first Big Ten road win behind them, the Spartans head into Columbus, Ohio on Saturday for a rematch with Ohio State.No.
Area kids, sports lovers and women’s athletic supporters alike will have a chance to shoot around with Detroit Shock power forward Wendy Palmer when she leads a basketball clinic from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
By LARRY LAGE The Associated Press Marty Mornhinweg, offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, was hired Wednesday to replace Gary Moeller as coach of the Detroit Lions. Mornhinweg was one of five coaches interviewed for the job since Matt Millen took over as president of the Lions earlier this month. Moeller, who took over in midseason for Bobby Ross, was fired to make way for Mornhinweg. The 38-year-old Mornhinweg reached an agreement with the team following a final interview Tuesday, said a football source who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Lions did not immediately schedule a news conference. According to www.ESPN.com, Mornhinweg agreed in principle to a five-year deal worth about $5 million and the Lions are expected to introduce him Thursday. Mornhinweg has spent the last four seasons as the 49ers’ offensive coordinator after two years as an offensive assistant and quarterbacks coach for the Green Bay Packers. Moeller was given a three-year contract when hired.
Joanne P. McCallie heard stories about the rivalry between MSU and Michigan during her collegiate years at Northwestern.Today McCallie, the MSU women’s head basketball coach, will get her first real taste of just how bitter that rivalry can be.The Spartans (2-3 Big Ten, 8-9 overall) will host the Wolverines (4-4, 11-7) today at 8 p.m.
In college football, the Heisman Trophy traditionally goes to the player who single-handedly makes his team great.College hockey’s equivalent, the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, might wind up in East Lansing at season’s end if sophomore goaltender Ryan Miller keeps up his amazing play.The East Lansing native is listed on USA Today’s 14-player Hobey Baker Watch and he is one of 40 players that advanced past the award’s first official cut-down earlier this month.The award presentation will take place April 6 at the Frozen Four in Albany, N.Y.“When they first mentioned the Hobey, I got really nervous,” Miller said.
Holding only 8,117 fans, Northwestern’s Welsh-Ryan Arena looks more like a high school gym than a collegiate athletics center. But Charlie Bell knows it can provide just as deadly results against opponents. “It’s one of the tougher places to play,” the senior guard said.
For a moment, imagine you’re in the position of the MSU women’s basketball team. For months, you’ve been weight lifting, training and preparing for another unpredictable Big Ten season.
After six seasons as MSU football’s defensive secondary coach and one as the associate head coach, Mark Dantonio opted to leave the Spartans for the defensive coordinator position at Ohio State.“It was a very difficult decision to leave Michigan State,” Dantonio said in a prepared statement Monday.
The only thing elevating more than Jason Richardson dunking over opponents this season could be his professional stock as an NBA prospect. Richardson is averaging 16 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists this season and has scored in double figures in 14 of No.
If the possibility of knocking off the No. 1 team in the nation isn’t enough motivation for Lake Superior State tonight at Munn Ice Arena, they will also have revenge on their minds. Nine days ago, top-ranked MSU (20-1-4 overall, 13-1-3 CCHA) looted the Lakers on their home ice and stole four CCHA points from Sault Ste.
The MSU wrestling team rebounded from a tough loss last week at Oklahoma State with convincing victories over Division II Findlay (Ohio) and Grand Valley State.
In the first few weeks of the new year, MSU football has made a push to boost its 2001 recruiting class.News of their most recent addition came Tuesday when Robert Strickland, a four-star wide receiver out of Detroit’s Denby High School, verbally committed to the Spartans.Strickland, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound senior is ranked the twenty-ninth best wide receiver in high school football by popular recruiting publication www.rivals.com.