MSU trails Columbia 26-22 at halftime. Senior center Adreian Payne leads the Spartans with nine points, five boards, and a pair of steals and blocks.
It’s been 4,965 days since the MSU men’s basketball team has been ranked the top team in the nation. But if the No. 2 Spartans (2-0 overall) beat Columbia (1-1) and Portland (1-1) this weekend, MSU most likely will reclaim the No. 1 ranking. The last time an MSU squad has topped the polls was on Jan. 7, 2001.
CHICAGO — He might have said No. 2 MSU didn’t have anything to prove, but Keith Appling proved a little something to the many NBA scouts in attendance for MSU’s 78-74 win against No. 1 Kentucky in the Champions Classic on Tuesday night. While many scouts were at the United Center in Chicago to see likely lottery picks, such as Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins and Julius Randle, MSU’s senior point guard quietly posted one of the best games of the night and of his career.
It did not take long for No. 1 MSU to take the lead against No. 1 Kentucky, and at the end of the first half Tuesday night at the Champions Classic in Chicago, MSU leads 44-32. MSU opened the game on a 10-0 run thanks to a floater by sophomore guard Gary Harris, and a steal and breakaway dunk by senior guard Keith Appling.
As his team prepares for tipoff in a highly touted contest against No. 1 Kentucky in Chicago, head coach Tom Izzo said Monday he can’t remember a non-Final Four matchup with as much national buzz as tonight’s Champions Classic is receiving.
Each and every day, Travis Trice is working to prove himself. On a team with four- and five-star talent, such as Gary Harris, Keith Appling, Adreian Payne and Branden Dawson, Trice can sometimes be lost in the shuffle.
This time last year, Branden Dawson and Travis Trice were coming off of a summer where neither were able play and develop. Dawson, a junior forward, was recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament he sustained in the final regular season game against Ohio State during his freshman year.
The No. 2 MSU men’s basketball team pushed the pace — and cruised to a win. The Spartans (1-0 overall) won the first home opener at Breslin Center since 2010 by beating McNesse State, 98-56.
The regular season has yet to start, but recent rule changes by the NCAA for basketball already have been affecting both men’s and women’s teams at MSU and across the country.
They ran in transition. They showed off improved jumpers and mechanics. They eventually settled into the suffocating defense MSU has become known for under head coach Tom Izzo in their first public performance of the highly-anticipated 2013-14 season.
Basketball season is upon us. After the first half of the first exhibition game, the No. 2 MSU men’s basketball team leads Grand Valley State, 47-24.
It’s only a preseason game, but the No. 2-ranked men’s basketball team will kick off its highly anticipated season at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Breslin Center against Grand Valley State. The Spartans only have three games, including preseason, before they travel to Chicago on Nov. 12 to partake in the Champions Classic against the nation’s No. 1 team, Kentucky.
When Alvin Ellis III was sitting down on Breslin Center’s floor during last week’s media day, with more than 14,000 empty seats above him, his mind went back to Midnight Madness. Before his name was the first one called to introduce the team, Ellis nervously waited walking down the stairs with Future’s “Chosen One” ?blaring from the speakers. But once he emerged, Ellis got a ?feeling for what he will be in for when thousands of seats are filled with a sea of green and white on gameday.
There’s no need to remind them – they already know. The minute the game clock read zeros at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis last March, ending MSU’s season in the Sweet 16, another clock started ticking.
With several NBA departures expected after the 2013-14 season, men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo has been scouring the country looking for players to be part of the next generation of Spartans. On Monday, Izzo secured another one.
For a moment, it seemed as though head coach Tom Izzo had pulled off an impressive Evel Knievel impersonation. Clad in stuntman gear, Izzo rode a cannon, hashtagged #IzzoCannon, into Breslin Center. He joined his wife and kids at the center of the court with a helmet under his arm.
There’s a story of two different Branden Dawsons. One is of a high-flying acrobat with the body of a running back, able to make plays near the basket reminiscent of NBA Dunk Contest champion Jason Richardson. The other is of a timid guard/forward rising to the basket for a dunk, but instead settling for a soft layup in hopes his legs won’t collapse beneath his natural force on the dismount.
The MSU’s men’s basketball team is expected to be among the nation’s best teams for the 2013-14 season, but head coach Tom Izzo wants to keep expectations in perspective. The Spartans are opening up a new campaign and are anticipated to be among the top five teams in the country. They are even being touted as the No. 1 team in the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook Preseason Top 25, ahead of Kentucky, Louisville, Duke and Arizona, respectively.
The Spartans have their next young point guard. Making his announcement Thursday morning at Christian Sunrise Academy in Wichita, Kan., 2014 recruit LouRawls “Tum Tum” Nairn Jr. said he will be attending MSU next fall.
Two down. Two to go? ?Former basketball star Morris Peterson became the second member of the lauded “Flintstones” clique to become inducted to the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame on Thursday, joining childhood friend and teammate Mateen Cleaves (inducted in 2011).