The MSU men's basketball team announced its award winners at its Basketball Bust on Monday. Senior swingman Alan Anderson was named the team's Most Valuable Player by both the team and the media. Along with senior guard Kelvin Torbert, Anderson also was awarded the John E.
For the No. 6 MSU women's basketball team, the seed the Spartans received meant nothing compared to finally knowing who they will play. "We are just glad to finally have an opponent to prepare for," junior forward Liz Shimek said.
Following a close loss to Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament on Friday, MSU head coach Tom Izzo said Sunday was a much better day. With calls from former coach Jud Heathcote and Earvin "Magic" Johnson and individual meetings with players, he said he felt better. "I've tried to come to grips with what this team is all about," Izzo said.
MSU head coach Tom Izzo is sending another apprentice out into the head coaching world. MSU associate head coach Doug Wojcik was hired by Tulsa on Monday to replace interim head coach Alvin Williamson, who led the Golden Hurricane to a 9-20 season after John Phillips resigned in December. Wojcik is the sixth coach under Izzo to nab a head coaching job. Wojcik will stick with MSU for the NCAA Tournament including Friday's opening game against Old Dominion, but has a short timetable to assemble his staff. Izzo joked at his weekly Monday press conference that the bad news was former MSU coach Jud Heathcote called to say he's interested in the position. "But I think I'm going for 10 years younger, and we're going to hire Gene Keady," Izzo said with a laugh. Izzo said when Wojcik came to MSU, there was an understanding it would be a short stop before he snagged a head coaching job but his contribution would help the Spartans and give Wojcik the extra experience he needed. Hiring Wojcik puts Tulsa back on track with past practices of hiring up-and-coming coaches including Tubby Smith, Bill Self and Buzz Peterson. Wojcik has spent two seasons at MSU, specializing in recruiting and scouting.
The Spartans claimed their first-ever No. 1 seeding, but many in the women's college basketball world do not agree with it. After the first three regions were released on Sunday, two candidates were left for the No.
Last year, it was the Pacific Ocean, this year, it's the Atlantic Ocean. So, where in the world is the MSU men's basketball team? Worcester, Mass. The NCAA Tournament selection committee placed the No.
The No. 7 MSU women's basketball team received a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will open up the tournament against No.
Chicago - He came into the game shooting almost 90 percent from the free-throw line. He had missed just 10 free throws all year coming into the game. But in 40 minutes of playing time, MSU senior swingman Alan Anderson missed five free throws, including two crucial misses with 6.5 seconds left in the game that gave Iowa a 71-69 win in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal game Friday at the United Center. For the game, MSU shot 15-for-30 from the charity stripe. "Never would I have thought we would shoot 50 percent from the free-throw line," Anderson said.
The MSU baseball team lost to No. 6 Florida, 13-2, on Saturday at McKethan Stadium. The Gators used an 11-run rally over the final three innings to defeat the Spartans.
Nick Simmons won his first Big Ten Championship, and four Spartans qualified for the NCAA Championships on March 5-6 at the Big Ten Championships in Iowa City, Iowa. MSU finished eighth out of the 11 Big Ten schools, and Illinois won its first Big Ten Championship since 1952. At the NCAA Championships starting Thursday, Simmons will be joined by his brother, sophomore Andy Simmons, and juniors Darren McKnight and R.J.
The MSU men's golf team placed fourth at the Conrad Rehling Alabama Spring Invitational on Sunday.
A.J. Thelen was dismissed from the MSU hockey team for failing to meet student-athlete expectations, head coach Rick Comley announced March 6. Comley said scratching Thelen in the Spartans' victory over Notre Dame on March 4 wasn't his first choice, but that he couldn't address the situation more thoroughly at that point in time. Two days later, Comley announced Thelen had been dismissed.
Indianapolis - For the first time in school history, the No. 7 MSU women's basketball team found its way to the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament and won it, defeating Minnesota, 55-49. The win marked a school-record 12th victory in a row and 10th overall against ranked opponents. The Spartans found themselves in three different types of games: overtime in the quarterfinal game, a shootout in the semifinal game and a defensive battle in the championship. And the Spartans met every challenge presented to them. MSU (28-3 overall, 14-2 Big Ten) played catch-up down the stretch of the second half of the championship game and were finally able to take the lead with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
The MSU softball team fell to Virginia Tech, 2-1, in the championship game of the Stetson Tournament in Florida on Sunday.
The inconsistency with the MSU hockey team has been the inability to pick up series sweeps, with the exception of the sweep over Ferris State, which came in early November. Currently, the Spartans (19-15-4 overall) are riding a five-game winning streak after sweeping Notre Dame on March 4 and 5 to clinch home ice in the first-round CCHA playoffs.
To steal a marketing line from the Detroit Pistons: It's time. It's time for MSU's three biggest winter sports - men's basketball, women's basketball and hockey - to put behind all that has not gone right for the teams in the past and make an impact in its respective postseason tournaments. This will prove to be as big of a week as they come for MSU athletics, as two of the three teams have a long and detailed history of not being able to win when it matters most. When you look at the list of accomplishments for two of the senior classes, it's not pretty. The men's team has an Elite Eight appearance under its belt in the 2002-03 season, but other than that, team accomplishments have been few and far between, with losses in the first round of the NCAA Tournament sandwiched in between. For the hockey team, since Rick Comley took over the reins, the team has won nothing but this year's Great Lakes Invitational with two riveting victories over New Hampshire and Michigan. The biggest successes of the three teams goes to the women's basketball team, which has been steadily climbing to the top since this year's senior class was freshmen. MSU made it to the WNIT semifinals in its first year, lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and lost to then-No.
The MSU gymnastics team swept its weekend meets against Illinois-Chicago and Illinois State on Saturday at Jenison Field House.
MSU football head coach John L. Smith hired Texas-El Paso defensive coordinator Tim Hundley to fill the assistant coaching position, but Hundley reversed his decision to come to MSU due to family reasons. Hundley was scheduled to arrive in East Lansing on today but now Smith must find another replacement in time for spring football. Hundley's original decision was based on a larger salary, but UTEP head coach Mike Price convinced him to reconsider.
Indianapolis - The roars rang through Conseco Fieldhouse from the hundreds of MSU fans, as Big Ten Conference Commissioner Jim Delany announced the first-ever Big Ten Tournament Championship to the MSU women's basketball team. Among those fans yelling and screaming was the Fast Break Club, a sponsored group that came to Indianapolis hoping to see a Big Ten Tournament title run by the No.
The No. 20 MSU wrestling team will head to Iowa this weekend, facing some stiff competition in the 2005 Big Ten Championships, hosted by Iowa. The Spartans will have their work cut out for them, with eight Big Ten schools ranked in front of the Spartans. MSU (7-6-1 overall, 4-3-1 Big Ten) faces another setback as it will be without 184-pound redshirt freshman Joe Williams, due to a nagging knee injury. "He's probably going to have surgery in another week or so," MSU head coach Tom Minkel said.