MSU Men’s Golf will travel to Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast, Florida for their first match of 2015, the Big Ten Match Play Championship this weekend.
One of the most telling signs of a team is how they respond after facing both success and failure. MSU hockey (10-12-2, 4-4-2-2 Big Ten) has been doing a better job at that as of late, but bouncing back after last weekend’s Hockey City Classic might be a tougher test. The Spartans lost 4-1 to No.
Playing with more urgency, MSU strung together 40 minutes of solid basketball in a 68-44 win over Northwestern. It was a win against a bottom-feeding Northwestern (10-14 overall, 1-9 Big Ten) team but it was also the type of game that MSU (16-8 overall, 7-4 Big Ten) has struggled with this year.
If there was one program in the Big Ten who the Spartans could bully around and pick up an effortless victory on the road, it would be Penn State. The Nittany Lions, plagued with the second-worse scoring offensive in the conference with 63.3 points per game, have sat at the bottom of the standing for longer than they'll admit. Walking in to Happy Valley riding a three-game losing streak, with their most recent loss coming at the hands of Minnesota this past Sunday, an opportunity to pummel last year's regular-season champions fell into the lap of MSU, only for the matchup to go down to the wire. Aerial Powers, the Big Ten's second-highest points scorer, once again dominated on the offensive side of the glass, totaling 26-points en route to a 74-67 win on Wednesday. It appeared that the Spartans were hungry enough to put Penn State out of their misery early on in the first half, increasing their lead to as high as 12 with less than six minutes into the contest. They would later deflate the momentum from the Penn State early on in the second half when a Powers triple from beyond the arc would heighten the MSU lead to 14.
The media room for silent this past Thursday following MSU's crushing defeat to Michigan at the Breslin Center when Suzy Merchant sauntered to the podium. Standing with her head held up high, trying her best to hold back tears, providing no opening statements and going right into the questioning period. A sense of frustration and feeling conquered dwelled upon her that couldn't be overlooked as the veteran head coach went further into detail on what everyone else, fans and media members a like, have been thinking this season. A lack of depth due to an horrendous amount of injuries and a lack of contribution from a majority of the eight players that Merchant is down to is the dark cloud that hangs over the head of the women's basketball team. Even while being equipped with two of the top five players in scoring in Aerial Powers (No.
Heading into the season, men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo had high hopes for freshman forward Javon Bess. Those hopes may have to be put on hold for another year.
The MSU women’s tennis team will travel to Kalamazoo Friday to take on Western Michigan. The Spartans are currently 5-1, with their only loss coming to No. 6 California.
Tom Izzo did the right thing and pulled a struggling Travis Trice from the starting lineupTuesday night for freshman Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn. The move paid immediate dividends for an MSU team in need of a win.
This upcoming Friday the women's gymnastics team will take on rival and conference foe No.
As of Monday, the Spartans are shooting 62.1 percent on free throws — the worst free throw shooting percentage in the Big Ten since the 2004-2005 season.
Behind a first half barrage of threes, the Spartans cruised to a critical 68-44 win. Freshman guard Lourawls Nairn started in place of senior guard Travis Trice, and for at least first five minutes, it took the Spartans some time to really get going. That changed though at the 13:18 mark, Trice connected on a three that ignited an offensive explosion.
Freshman guard Lourawls Nairn got the start over senior guard Travis Trice Tuesday night against Northwestern.
Before addressing the Big Ten matchup against Northwestern on Monday, men's basketball head coach Tom Izzo spent extended time talking about MSU's free throw troubles and questioning the mental toughness of his team. This was before revealing that freshman guard Javon Bess may miss the rest of the season with a setback with his ankle recovery.
There will be no love lost Friday, February 13 when the MSU women’s gymnastics team faces off against school rival University of Michigan in their alumni meet, held at the Jenison Field House, East Lansing.
Game after game, the tune remains the same in the MSU locker room. Despite continually finding ways to lose games, the Spartans maintain that their confidence is high. Most recently, junior guard Bryn Forbes echoed the mantra. “I think we’re still confident, it just makes you mad to see the way it turned out, especially for guys that do this everyday and make free throws everyday and make shots everyday,” Forbes said of the free throw debacle that unraveled on Saturday.
Michigan State wrestling fans had little to cheer about Sunday, as the team fell 33-6 in a route against 10th-ranked Nebraska. The loss marked the third straight for the Spartans, as they are now 0-7 in Big Ten play, and 4-10 overall. Conference play in the Big Ten this season has been fierce, with 11 out of 14 teams ranked in the top 25 for dual meets, including Iowa at #1 and Minnesota at #2 as of Sunday.
Both the women's and men's swimming and diving team were in action over the weekend, and both lost to rival Michigan. The men’s swimming and diving team took a tough 178-106 loss Friday in the season finale. The loss was difficult in more ways than one, because it was also the last time seniors Kyle Workman and David Zoltowski would ever be in McCaffree Pool. With the loss the Spartan men finish the season with an 0-4 Big Ten conference record and a 4-6 record for the season overall.
With 17 seconds left, junior guard Denzel Valentine missed a potential game-tying shot from no more than five feet away from the rim.
It's been a difficult season for sophomore guard Alvin Ellis II. After being set back by a sprained ankle in mid-November, he's struggled to find his place in the rotation.
MSU Softball finished opening weekend with a 4-1 record, and a four-game winning streak. They traveled to DeLand, Florida to participate in the Westin Lake Mary Leadoff Classic at Stetson to play Akron, Rhode Island, Morehead State and Stetson.