For 17 years of MSU basketball games, Barry Greer has directed the Spartan Brass, jeered opponents with the Izzone, given high fives to players before games and offered coaching tips in the locker room after the buzzer. And he does it all with Down syndrome, a genetic condition that causes a mental disability.
All season, MSU wrestling head coach Tom Minkel has drawn attention to the youth in his team’s lineup. This weekend, the best wrestlers in the country will take notice.
Like most coaches, Tom Izzo sits down before every season to evaluate his MSU men’s basketball team’s potential and predict wins, losses and where the Spartans can finish the season.
A collective cheer took a year’s worth of grief off the shoulders of the MSU women’s basketball team. After being left out of the NCAA Tournament last season, the Spartans were awarded a No. 9 seed this season and will play No. 8 Middle Tennessee State in the first round of the tournament.
Having trouble with your bracket? The State News is on the job. Men’s basketball reporters Alex Altman and Cash Kruth dissect this year’s field of 65.
The highs, lows and inconsistencies of the MSU men’s basketball team’s regular season are in the past. All that matters now is that the Spartans (22-6) are officially in one-and-done territory, learning Sunday evening they earned the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional, drawing No. 15 seed Robert Morris in the first round on Friday at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
This was a season the MSU hockey program would like to forget. After one of the worst regular seasons in program history, the Spartans were eliminated from postseason play in the first round of the CCHA playoffs.
In the final two weeks of the MSU hockey season, senior goaltender Jeff Lerg was playing with a torn ACL, his father, Ken Lerg said.
As the MSU women’s basketball team waits to hear its NCAA Tournament fate tonight, it has a lot to look forward to in what could be an exciting postseason.
With the Big Ten Tournament done and the NCAA Tournament on the horizon, men’s basketball reporter Cash Kruth examines four questions surrounding the Spartans as they look to rebound from a disappointing conference tournament with a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
The MSU women’s basketball team failed to capitalize on an opportunity to seal the deal on an NCAA Tournament spot and, instead, put itself back on the bubble with a loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals last weekend.
After his team’s season-ending victory against Purdue, MSU senior guard Travis Walton made a bold guarantee during the Senior Day celebration. “We’re gonna raise another banner up in here,” said Walton, moments before the team hoisted its 2008-09 regular season championship banner into the rafters.
Indianapolis — For the second straight game, the MSU men’s basketball team was beat at its own game. This time, however, the Spartans couldn’t get away from a subpar performance, falling to Ohio State 82-70 at Conseco Fieldhouse
Indianapolis — The talk of a potential No. 1 seed can stop. The questions of how far the MSU men’s basketball team is capable of going in the NCAA Tournament — and how far it actually will — can start once again. The No. 7 Spartans struggled offensively, defensively and every which way, losing 82-70 to Ohio State on Saturday in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Indianapolis — Senior guard Travis Walton said Minnesota probably had all of three sentences on freshman forward Draymond Green in its scouting report. Same with senior forward Marquise Gray, who had barely played the last eight games.
Indianapolis — Maybe it’s the pressure, maybe it’s the bright lights. Whatever the reason, Chris Allen sure likes playing in the postseason. The sophomore guard picked up where he left off in Houston during last year’s Sweet 16, swishing 3-pointers, hitting shots in traffic, and making plays for the MSU men’s basketball team, which dispatched Minnesota 64-56 Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse.
MSU junior Franklin Gomez defended his Big Ten title in the 133-pound weight class on Monday, earning the title against Ohio State’s Reece Humphrey in State College, Penn.
MSU sophomore guard Kalin Lucas has been crowned Big Ten Player of the Year, the conference announced Monday night. Lucas was a consensus pick for the award.
If you had told MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo at the beginning of the season that the Spartans would win the Big Ten by four games, he’d have called you crazy. If you had told him that after doing that, the team still wouldn’t have met his expectations, he’d probably think you were insane.
It’s been an entire decade since its last conference championship, but the MSU men’s basketball team hasn’t forgotten how to party. The Spartans threw a party for the ages after their 62-51 season-ending victory over Purdue, combining an extravagant Senior Day celebration with a decorated banner-raising ceremony. After the final horn sounded, the public address announcer requested that fans stay seated for the post-game celebration.