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Sports | Basketball

BASKETBALL

Allen must get Izzo's message for team success

With about four minutes remaining in the MSU men’s basketball team’s Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal game Friday, head coach Tom Izzo walked to the end of the bench and spoke briefly with Chris Allen. Normally, that’s presubstitution standard procedure — offer a few words of instruction and send him in to relieve a teammate. You can bet that’s what both Izzo and the junior guard wished the meeting was about.

BASKETBALL

Spartans to march West

Joey Nowak
March 14, 2010

The No. 5 seed MSU men’s basketball team will start its march to the Final Four in Indianapolis against No. 12 seed New Mexico State at 7:20 p.m. Friday at Spokane, Wash. The Spartans or the Aggies will face the winner of the first round match between No. 4 seed Maryland and No. 13 seed Houston on Sunday.

BASKETBALL

Spartans' leaders can't orchestrate tournament win

Indianapolis – The same group of upperclassmen, captains and leaders who put the MSU men’s basketball team on their back Friday against Minnesota were the same ones that clanked late free throws and ran out of gas down the stretch in the Spartans’ 72-67 loss.

BASKETBALL

Minnesota knocks MSU out of Big Ten Tournament in OT

Chris Vannini
March 12, 2010

Indianapolis — Two pairs of missed free throws in overtime and clutch shooting from Minnesota hurt the MSU men’s basketball team Friday night as the Spartans lost, 72-67, to the Golden Gophers at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Spartans’ quarterfinal loss in the Big Ten Tournament means they will be off until the start of the NCAA Tournament next week.

BASKETBALL

Minnesota win sets up Friday tournament match with Spartans

Joey Nowak
March 11, 2010

Indianapolis — With a dominating 76-55 win Thursday against No. 11 seed Penn State in the first round of the men’s Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse, the No. 6 seed Minnesota Golden Gophers advance to face MSU, which defeated Minnesota twice already this year and had a first-round bye. Minnesota and MSU are scheduled to tip-off at 9 p.m. Friday.

BASKETBALL

Spartans take care of business

As the banner commemorating the MSU men’s basketball team’s secondstraight Big Ten title and sixth during head coach Tom Izzo’s Hall of Fame career ascended to the ceiling, the Spartan Brass proudly played MSU Shadows, the university’s alma mater. The only tune more appropriate would have been the rock ballad from Bachman-Turner Overdrive: Takin’ Care of Business.

BASKETBALL

Champions again! MSU clinches share of Big Ten title, rout Wolverines

Chris Vannini
March 7, 2010

In his final game at Breslin Center on Sunday, senior forward Raymar Morgan scored a season-high 22 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, kissed the ‘S’ at midcourt and watched a Big Ten Championship banner raise to the rafters in front of Spartan legends Mateen Cleaves and Charlie Bell as the MSU men’s basketball team throttled archrival Michigan, 64-48.

BASKETBALL

MSU in prime shape to take tourney title

The Spartans, the hottest team in the league, have shown the ability to beat anybody — from the top-tier teams to the squads in the basement — and that’s exactly what a team needs to be successful in the postseason.

BASKETBALL

Walk-on known for energy, toughness

Chris Vannini
March 4, 2010

Jon Crandell didn’t have the typical path of a walk-on. He was just a normal student during his freshman year, playing intramural basketball, until former MSU walk-on guard DeMarcus Ducre spotted Crandell and told him to look more into basketball.

BASKETBALL

Senior duo has led Spartans in different ways

Isaiah Dahlman is the most likeable player on the MSU men’s basketball team. But it’s not because he’s a lockdown defender or will have the ball in his hands in crunch time. Raymar Morgan is the most frustrating player on the MSU men’s basketball team. But it’s not because he’s cold, indignant or an incompetent basketball player. As the two seniors’ careers in Green and White come to an inevitable end, it’s certain both players — who will go down as some of the program’s most valuable, in their own right — had an indelible impact on the success of MSU basketball through the past four years and its great promise for years to come. “We’re so different,” Dahlman said.

BASKETBALL

Let the madness begin

Matt Bishop
March 4, 2010

The month every college basketball fan salivates over has arrived, and the MSU women’s basketball team will kick off what is sure to be a wild month in this weekend’s Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.