Although the home team was dressed in an unfamiliar green jersey, the Breslin Center crowd knew exactly who to cheer for Sunday in the MSU women’s basketball team’s 60-59 win over Middle Tennessee State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
With less than two minutes remaining in the game, Middle Tennessee State’s Alysha Clark drove to the basket for what could have been one more bucket to add to a stunning point total. Instead, she missed a layup and knocked junior forward Aisha Jefferson to the ground in pursuit of the rebound. The whistle sounded, resulting in Clark’s fifth foul and a pivotal moment in MSU’s 60-59 NCAA Tournament victory against the Blue Raiders on Sunday at Breslin Center.
Call it a senior moment. With the score tied in a 57-57 game with Middle Tennessee State, guard Mia Johnson, the MSU women’s basketball team’s lone senior, got the ball on the wing and fired a three-point shot over an outstretched Blue Raiders defender. Johnson, who missed a three on the previous possession, watched the shot fall effortlessly through the basket, giving the Spartans a 60-57 lead with 1:10 remaining in a game they eventually would go on to win 60-59.
After falling short as a favorite in the NCAA Championships just a year ago, junior wrestler Franklin Gomez vowed to learn from his mistakes this season. Gomez did just that, taking charge in the finals and winning the national championship in the 133-pound weight class with a 5-4 win over Ohio State’s Reece Humphrey on Saturday at Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
Minneapolis — If MSU senior guard Travis Walton has learned anything over the years, it’s to not judge a team by its seed. That theory will hold especially true Sunday, when the Spartans take on No. 10-seed Southern Cal in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Minneapolis — In a perfect world, Southern Cal men’s basketball coach Tim Floyd said he’d like his team to be able to play as many players as the opposition. Come Sunday evening, however, Floyd’s Trojans are going to be far from a perfect world. The No. 10 seeded Trojans, who mainly rely on four players, play at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Metrodome against an MSU team that often goes as many as nine or 10-men deep.
The MSU women’s basketball team got one last day of practice in before facing off against Middle Tennessee State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Breslin Center. Playing on a court that no longer bared the familiar “S” in the middle of the court, the team worked diligently on working against pressure, something that Middle Tennessee does as well as any team in the country.
Throw conferences, strength of schedule and RPI out the window. When coming up against the top scorer in the nation, you can’t help but take notice. The MSU women’s basketball team will do just that in its first round NCAA Tournament game against Middle Tennessee State on Sunday, taking the floor against star junior forward Alysha Clark, who leads the nation with 27.3 points per game. In addition, she averages 9.8 rebounds per contest.
Minneapolis — Before heading back to the locker room after pregame warm-ups, MSU sophomore guard Chris Allen has a little ritual: He always takes the last shot.
Minneapolis — To this day, Travis Walton remembers the MSU men’s basketball team’s 81-67 loss to North Carolina in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. The now-senior guard said he played awful as a sophomore point guard on that team, hanging his head in despair as the Spartans’ deficit grew deeper and deeper.
Minneapolis — All season long players on the MSU men’s basketball team have been saying they have depth. On Friday night they went out and proved it.
Minneapolis — It’s been several years since Jimmy Langhurst played AAU ball with Raymar Morgan, but the Robert Morris guard said he hadn’t forgotten what type of ability Morgan possessed. Now, maybe the rest of the world will remember. Morgan completed a furious alley-oop dunk on the first play of the game and never hit the brakes, scoring a team-high 16 points to motor No. 2-seed MSU past Robert Morris 77-62 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday at the Metrodome.
Sophomore forward Corey Tropp has been reinstated to the MSU hockey team, head coach Rick Comley announced Friday.
The madness is coming to East Lansing. Breslin Center will shed its green and white in favor of NCAA blue this weekend as MSU plays host to four teams, hundreds of media members and thousands of screaming fans for the first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament. No stranger to postseason play, Breslin Center was home to MSU’s deep WNIT run last season and the Spartans’ first-round NCAA Tournament win in 2007, making it the third consecutive year East Lansing will play host to a title dream.
MSU head coach Tom Izzo couldn’t help but laugh when told of what Raymar Morgan said to the media Thursday afternoon at the Metrodome. Morgan, a junior forward on the MSU men’s basketball team, said the Spartans have played exceptionally well during their last two practices.
Step right up and take your shots at Raymar Morgan. You won’t be the first. Call him too sensitive — it’s not like the junior forward hasn’t heard that one before. Compare his up-and-down play to the stock market, a jab taken at him by a TV commentator earlier this year. Even snicker that he has invented “new ways to travel,” a quip authored by a Sporting News reporter before the season even started. Say whatever you want — just don’t expect Morgan to listen to you.
Finally, Joanne P. McCallie has come back to East Lansing. It’s been exactly two years since the former MSU women’s basketball coach has been on the public stage in East Lansing. That was following her team’s loss to Rutgers in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament.
Preparing to face the nation’s leading scorer and a team that loves to push the ball, the MSU women’s basketball team has had only one thing on its mind this week — transition.
A look at MSU’s first-round opponent, as well as a preview of the next round.
A look at MSU’s first-round opponent, as well as a preview of the next round.