Auburn Hills — It was all smiles for Tom Izzo and the MSU men’s basketball team as they arrived at the Palace of Auburn Hills in preparation for their opening NCAA Tournament game today, and while their focus was on the task at hand, a bit of good news about the future made its way down the pike later in the day.
The squeaks of sneakers sprinting across MSU’s basketball practice court suddenly stopped as the 2009 Final Four banner billowed briskly against the wall Monday afternoon.
Go ahead and ask Brandon Wood who he’s rooting for — at this point, nearly everyone else has.
The MSU women’s basketball team is headed to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth-consecutive postseason. “The Spartans who fell to Purdue in the “finals of the Big Ten Tournament on March 10 — were given a No. 5 seed, sending them to College Park, Md., to face No. 12 seed Marist.
The story always reads the same way.
Seventeen hours after Tom Izzo said he wanted to see more film of the Spartans’ first NCAA Tournament opponent before commenting on them, MSU’s head coach made his way back to the very same podium with some bags under his eyes and very possibly the same set of clothes on.
Selection Sunday has come and gone, and the MSU men’s basketball team now knows it will travel less than 90 miles to begin its quest for a third national title.
At last, it’s time to break out the dancing shoes. Following a semifinal exit in the Big Ten Tournament, the No.
As legions of MSU men’s basketball fans made the trip to Chicago, the thoughts of many were tied to a weekend of basketball.
Chicago — As soon as he heard the name, Keith Appling couldn’t hide a look of disgust as he began to shake his head.
Chicago – Few college basketball players are criticized quite like Aaron Craft. Whether it is his rosy red cheeks, his subtly confident personality or even his skin tone, Craft has been the subject of much abuse from fans and media since he arrived at Ohio State.
A rematch of last year’s Big Ten Tournament title game wasn’t without controversy, as a late flagrant foul and a dominant second half from Aaron Craft helped lift the Buckeyes.
It was a rematch of last year’s Big Ten Tournament title game and, for 20 minutes, both teams already appeared in championship form.
Now that the Spartans have fought their way into the Big Ten Tournament’s semifinals, it’s time to look ahead to the team standing in their way from a return trip to the championship round.
In the college basketball world, desperation can be a strange feeling.
With a potential NCAA Tournament bid on the line, many expected Fran McCaffery and No. 6 seed Iowa to come out swinging in a second-round matchup against the No. 8 seed MSU men’s basketball team. And after one half of play, the Hawkeyes look like a team who wants to go dancing.
Tom Izzo has never been afraid to send a message. Coming off a loss to then-No. 7 Indiana, the MSU basketball team returned to Breslin Center in January in need of a victory against a tough Illinois team.
Derrick Nix is many things. Articulate, brash, confident, cocky, funny, stubborn. But one word likely has never been used — softy.
MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo described it as a “historic” tournament for the conference — the first time the Big Ten has had a field featuring six teams ranked in the top 10 during the course of the season.