Plain and simple, Thursday’s Penn State team is a different team than the one that lost to MSU by 16 points on the eve of the Rose Bowl.
After nearly a monthlong hiatus, Adreian Payne is back in action. The senior forward went from rehabbing on the treadmill to playing on the hardwood for Tuesday’s practice, making it his first contact since playing against Ohio State on Jan.
Tom Izzo got a full tour of the Big Apple this weekend.
Well, this has been fun so far. Taking a nine-day break between conference games, the Spartans now are halfway through the behemoth Big Ten season.
As I was watching the MSU men’s basketball team take on Georgetown Saturday afternoon, it finally occurred to me.
MSU essentially failed at every facet of basketball as the No. 7 Spartans fell to Georgetown, 64-60, at Madison Square Garden.
Taking a break from Big Ten play, the bronze-clad Spartans are besting Georgetown at halftime in Madison Square Garden, 30-29. Ten Spartans have made their way onto the court, with eight scoring at least once to give MSU the early lead.
The day before the Super Bowl kicks off just outside of New York City, the No. 7 men’s basketball team will be playing on one of the biggest stages in basketball — Madison Square Garden.
All Tom Izzo wants for his birthday is a healthy basketball team.
_It’s Saturday, the day before Super Bowl Sunday, and I’m walking into the world-famous Madison Square Garden.
The MSU men’s basketball team beat No. 15 Iowa 71-69 in Iowa City in an overtime thriller Tuesday night. Iowa hit 30 free throws, but didn’t score for more than 15 minutes during the second half and overtime.
It took a mob. It couldn’t have been just two people to make noise in place of Branden Dawson and Adreian Payne against the Hawkeyes on the road – it needed to be a mob. Luckily for MSU, the Byrd took the slew of role players on his wings down the stretch.
The last team to beat Iowa in Iowa City was the MSU men’s basketball team, and they did it again Tuesday night as the No.
In a game that few thought would be low scoring, MSU trails Iowa 30-26 at the half in Iowa City, Iowa.
Two days after sitting in the locker room with tears in his eyes after losing to Michigan, senior guard Keith Appling was nearly all smiles at Monday’s press conference. But just because he was wearing a smile doesn’t mean the pain of MSU’s 80-75 loss has gone away. “That’s a game not only myself, but my teammates wanted that win very badly,” Appling said.
It doesn’t get any easier from here on out. Following the No. 7 MSU men’s basketball team 80-75 “loss to No.
Two days after sitting in the locker room with tears in his eyes after losing to Michigan, senior guard Keith Appling was nearly all smiles at Monday’s press conference.
Keith Appling is tough, but he’s not Superman. The senior guard fought his way through 37 minutes in the No.
When MSU fans were sulking after the 80-75 loss to No. 21 Michigan, Tom Izzo took the podium to address the heartbreaking game. “In the 30 years I’ve been here, I’ve never been more proud of a team,” he said. Wait, what? MSU just dropped a game against their rival to fall behind in the Big Ten title race, and he used the word “proud?” Well, as weird as it seems to say after losing such a marquee game, he’s right on the money. There is no question the Wolverines deserved to win Saturday’s game — they hit all the shots when they needed to in front of the delirious Breslin Center crowd. Yet at the same time, the Spartans took a few steps in the right direction without two of their biggest players. Missing two starters in Adreian Payne and Branden Dawson, Izzo was forced to play some guys who usually only see the court during warmups. Besides Gary Harris’s 27 points and Keith Appling’s double-double, freshman guard Alvin Ellis was the bright point during a loss at the hands of the Wolverines. To be honest, Ellis looked like anything but a first-year player.
Sophomore guard Gary Harris and senior guard Keith Appling might have carried the No. 3 MSU men’s basketball team as far as they could Saturday night, but it was the unsung heroes that nearly pulled the game out. Players like junior guard Russell Byrd, freshman guard Alvin Ellis and freshman forward Gavin Schilling stepped up and mad big plays to keep the Spartans in it. “I had some guys who stepped up,” head coach Tom Izzo said.