The madness has arrived. This weekend, the No. 10-seed MSU women’s basketball team (20-11) will open the first round of the NCAA Tournament against No. 7-seed Louisville (22-9) on Saturday (1:45 p.m., ESPN2) in College Park, Md.
Brandon Wood hasn’t always had it this good. Now a senior guard with the MSU men’s basketball team, it wasn’t long ago that Wood was playing at mid-major schools and community colleges.
As 15 former Spartans worked out before 52 NFL representatives to prove their worth in the upcoming NFL Draft at MSU’s Pro Day on Wednesday, they also helped to prove the worth of MSU football.
When looking at the MSU softball team’s record (7-15) the initial impulse is to assume the team isn’t very good. But the Spartans have gone through a grueling preseason that head coach Jacquie Joseph touts as the toughest in the country and said, as a result, the team’s record is deceiving.
As the MSU and Cincinnati men’s basketball teams prepare for the end of their season in the NCAA Tournament, the seasons of its respective baseball programs are just starting to come together. The Spartans (7-7) are looking for their bats to heat up and create a little March Madness this weekend in a three-game road series with the Bearcats (8-6) at Marge Schott Stadium in Cincinnati.
After the MSU gymnastics team jumped from No. 44 to No. 28 in the Regional Qualifying Score, or RQS, rankings this past week, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Spartans got complacent and fell off a bit in their final meet of the season. But head coach Kathie Klages doesn’t think getting her team to stay focused will be an issue, considering the competition her gymnasts are up against this week.
With session one of the NCAA Tournament in the books, three of the six Spartans that made the trip to St. Louis have kept their championship dreams alive.
After he transferred to MSU from Oklahoma following his freshman year of college, Keith Nichol always has been out to prove himself. Coming in as a quarterback, Nichol saw his playing time quickly evaporate in favor of Kirk Cousins.
It surprised few when Jerel Worthy decided to forgo his senior season and declare for the 2012 NFL Draft. Sitting next to MSU head coach Mark Dantonio at the Clara Bell Smith Student-Athlete Academic Center in January, the first team All-American junior defensive tackle came to the decision to leave following MSU’s 33-30 triple overtime victory against Georgia in the 2012 Outback Bowl.
If there’s one thing about Kirk Cousins that stands out above all the rest, it’s the way he leads his team. So then it should come as no surprise that during MSU’s Pro Day at Duffy Daugherty Football Building on Wednesday, the former Spartan quarterback found a way to showcase his leadership before representatives from 32 NFL teams.
With only the NCAA Tournament remaining — starting Thursday and continuing through the weekend in St. Louis — six members of the MSU wrestling team will have one final opportunity to end their seasons on a high note.
When Branden Dawson went down with a season-ending knee injury in the MSU men’s basketball team’s regular season finale a week and a half ago, the Spartans didn’t have much time to adjust. Four days later, MSU traveled to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Tournament without the freshman guard — who started all 31 games before tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, in a 72-70 loss to Ohio State.
The thought of returning home has crossed Taylor Alton’s mind more than once this season. The senior forward is a Colorado native, and after learning this year’s Final Four will be held in Denver, Alton said her teammates began telling her they would help her find her way home.
As the four CCHA Tournament semifinalists gear up for a chance at the title and an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament this weekend in Detroit, the No. 16 MSU hockey team is forced to wait to know its fate.
In spending the first 17 games of its season on the road, the prospect of making a return to McLane Baseball Stadium at Kobs Field is more than appealing at this point to head coach Jake Boss and the MSU baseball team.
Spartans aren’t known to root for Wolverines, but as the MSU women’s basketball team (20-11 overall, 11-5 Big Ten) waited to see if it made the NCAA Tournament, the school from Ann Arbor gave reason to hope.
Entering the Big Ten Tournament, the MSU men’s basketball team dropped two in a row and a chance at an outright Big Ten regular-season title,but the Spartans (27-7) bounced back and won their outright title on Sunday and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
When the MSU men’s basketball program won its last national championship in 2000, the current Spartans were in grade school, still familiarizing themselves with the game of basketball.
The MSU men’s basketball team got its outright conference championship in the Big Ten Tournament title game, where the Spartans bested Ohio State, 68-64. Just as head coach Tom Izzo promised last week at Senior Day, after a loss to Ohio State, they won their title back.
For much of the season, the No. 15 MSU hockey team has been waiting patiently to procure its first playoff win in more than four years. After dropping two games and being eliminated from the CCHA Tournament this weekend, that wait might be a little longer.