Three seasons ago, Brandon Gentile donned a red, white and blue jersey while playing for the U.S. National Team Development Program Under-18 Team.
With a Big Ten showdown against Northwestern looming on the horizon, the MSU men's soccer team could easily have looked past its Wednesday opponent, Valparaiso. Instead, the Spartans came out and played suffocating defense from the first whistle to the last, crushing the Crusaders, 2-0, at Old College Field. "Today was what we call a Spartan effort," MSU head coach Joe Baum said.
The last time the Detroit Tigers won a World Series title, most MSU athletes were in diapers or had not even been born. "None of the players on our team have experienced the Tigers win," MSU baseball head coach David Grewe said.
The MSU men's soccer team will play Valparaiso in its second-to-last home game of the season at 4 p.m.
Grown men were brought to tears. Homeless people and residents from places like Farmington Hills united with fist pumps and chanted cheers. More than 40,000 people decked out in navy and orange flooded the streets.
In the No. 8 MSU hockey team's 3-2 loss Sunday at Western Michigan, head coach Rick Comley's fears about the depth of his team proved to be accurate. "It's thin right now, "Comley said.
It was a long, hard offseason for Travis Walton. Last season, the then-freshman guard was known primarily as a defensive stopper.
After surrendering 772 yards and 69 points combined in its last two losses, MSU's defense will get shaken up for Saturday's game against Northwestern. Most glaring are the position changes for two Spartans who have started every game in 2006.
Junior outside hitter Ashley Schatzle was named the Big Ten Volleyball Player of the Week after leading the Spartans to wins against Michigan and Iowa. The honor is the first for an MSU volleyball player since the 2003 season. Schatzle averaged 6.5 kills per game and hit .423 for the week.
The MSU football team has received another verbal commitment from the class of 2007, this one from Mark Wetterer, an offensive lineman from Anderson High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Prior to the season, Wetterer had offers from 12 Division-1 schools, including West Virginia and Maryland, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. He is ranked 28th in the state of Ohio by recruiting service Rivals.com. The Web site also ranks him as a three-star recruit out of five.
Kalamazoo — MSU hockey head coach Rick Comley summed up the No. 4 Spartans' 3-2 loss at Western Michigan on Sunday as a "reality check." But Comley also knows that championships are not won in October. "We're still developing," Comley said.
Many questions are up for debate in college football, but there's one truth that is nearly indisputable: Regardless of where he's playing or whom he's playing against, Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith is always the coolest guy on the field. Smith proved himself unflappable in early-season road games against Texas and Iowa.
Sandy Sullivan, a candidate in the Wisconsin secretary of state election, has drawn attention for a self-published memoir that details her sexual exploits with Green Bay Packers' players in the 1960s. In a stunning twist, Gov.
Instead of his classy suits and ties or MSU warm-ups, Tom Izzo went for a darker, more gruesome look Friday night. With slicked-back hair, white makeup and a long red-lined cape, the MSU men's basketball head coach was ready to suck some blood as a vampire at the MSU men's and women's basketball teams' annual midnight madness kickoff event. Playing off the "Fright Night" theme, students and community members came out in costume to meet the teams and see them scrimmage.
Confidence. It can make all the difference in the world in football, and MSU is no exception. The team always seems to need only one big play — be it a long pass, a broken tackle, a fumble recovery or a vicious hit — to get the wheels turning. But the team has had such a horrendous stretch of games that every last bit of confidence has disappeared, and you have to wonder if the players can get it back this season.
The struggles of the MSU field hockey team continued Saturday as the Spartans failed to capitalize on numerous opportunities in a 2-1 double-overtime loss to Iowa at the MSU Field Hockey Complex. MSU dropped to 4-10 on the season and has yet to pick up a Big Ten win in four tries. "We need to find what it takes for us to win," sophomore forward Gwen Riley said.
With losses in five of its last seven games, the MSU women's soccer team knew Sunday's game against Iowa was as close to a must-win as you can get at this point of the regular season, especially considering the Spartans' 3-0 loss to Illinois on Friday.
If MSU had scripted the beginning of Saturday's game against Ohio State, it probably couldn't have turned out any better than what actually happened. After forcing the Buckeyes to start at the 20-yard line, the Spartans defense caused a turnover, giving the offense the ball deep in Ohio State territory. On MSU's first offensive play, junior running back Jehuu Caulcrick caught a screen pass and rumbled just short of the goal line.
It's tough to defend this MSU football team. I want to. I want the Spartans to win. I want them to run the table the rest of the way.
If there's one thing MSU head coach Rick Comley likes about his No. 4 Spartans this early in the season, it's the strength of his best players. The top two forward lines — juniors Jim McKenzie, Chris Mueller and Bryan Lerg, and the sophomore trio of Tim Kennedy, Tim Crowder and Justin Abdelkader — have already proven themselves. But sometimes, the most difficult job a coach has is rounding out those third and fourth lines to get the most out of everyone. "The top part of our team is pretty darn good," Comley said.