Suzy Merchant believes no Big Ten team has been tested like hers in the nonconference season. Monday’s game with St. Bonaventure was just another reason why. On the cusp of the top-25, the Bonnies came into Breslin Center unbeaten at 11-0 with several quality wins, so it was no surprise to anyone when they kept fighting back.
Kalin Lucas has never lost to Texas — and he doesn’t plan on starting this season. MSU’s junior guard has been a key cog in MSU’s two neutral site victories against the Longhorns the last two seasons. This season, however, the stakes are higher, as the Spartans have the opportunity to make a splash on the national scene by beating the No. 2 Longhorns on Tuesday in Austin, Texas.
It’s safe to say a tape of Saturday’s game between the MSU women’s basketball team and Washington won’t ever be heading to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The two teams combined to shoot 31.1 percent, commit 36 turnovers and 48 personal fouls, but the No. 16 Spartans were much more efficient on both ends of the floor, knocking off the Huskies 69-52 at Breslin Center.
The MSU men’s basketball team stuck with what has worked for most of the season in its 80-58 win Saturday against IPFW at Breslin Center — stumble into halftime with a marginal lead and gradually pull away in the later moments of the second half.
Although final exams come every year, dealing with them this season was a much different story for MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo.
Florida Gulf Coast head coach Karl Smesko came into Sunday’s game with MSU looking to make the Spartans’ offensively-passive guards hit outside shots by packing in the paint. He came to regret that decision less than three minutes into the game.
Outside, temperatures plummeted to the low teens and a bone-chilling wind chill was enough to keep anyone indoors.
Four of the five players on the first team come from the program’s best team in 2004-05. Liz Shimek and Lindsey Bowen are the top two scorers in program history, and Kristen Haynie was the cornerstone of that team.
It’s only right that the decade’s best team is well-represented on the All-Decade team. Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson already have had their numbers retired, and Charlie Bell also might get that honor some day, but he gets knocked out of the starting lineup for Alan Anderson — just barely.
Throughout her college career, Liz Shimek kept getting better. Her success helped bring the MSU women’s basketball team to a level of national prominence previously unseen.
Everything MSU was missing during its sluggish effort Sunday against Indiana was there — and more — Wednesday night against No. 8 Xavier. The Spartans brought the energy, excitement and enthusiasm that head coach Suzy Merchant thought was missing Sunday in a dominating 66-53 win against the Musketeers Wednesday night at Breslin Center.
The hits keep coming for the MSU women’s basketball team. The No. 21 Spartans will meet their third top-10 opponent this season when they play No. 8 Xavier 7 p.m. tonight at Breslin Center.
The MSU men’s basketball team’s past two games against mid-majors have been closer than expected for the No. 12 team in the country. Thursday’s game against Oakland will be no different.
The MSU men’s basketball team knew The Citadel’s 3-point shooting would give the Spartans fits Monday.
In the span of three days, the MSU women’s basketball team went from a game it’ll always remember to one it can’t wait to forget. The Spartans opened Big Ten play against Indiana on Sunday but failed to capture the magic they had against North Carolina, despite head coach Suzy Merchant calling it the team’s most important game to this point.
The MSU men’s basketball team is on the road once again. But instead of playing at North Carolina’s Dean Edwards Smith Center or in Atlantic City, N.J., the Spartans are heading to a small military college for their next challenge.
Nathan Dahlman needed to sit. The excitement of the past few hours, in which he saw his two sons, Isaiah, a senior guard on the MSU men’s basketball team, and Noah, a junior forward for Wofford, play against each other Friday evening had been too overwhelming.
Although there still are 18 days until Christmas, the MSU women’s basketball team gave Indiana the biggest present it’ll receive this year. Following their big win against North Carolina on Thursday, head coach Suzy Merchant said the No. 22 Spartans played without the same energy, enthusiasm and excitement as they did against the Tar Heels.
Despite leading by as many as 13 in the first half, the MSU women’s basketball team collapsed in the second half, shooting 21.2 percent and allowing Indiana to grab a late lead it would never relinquish in a 68-63 loss to the Hoosiers on Sunday afternoon at Breslin Center.
The Wofford Terriers came to East Lansing looking to give the MSU men’s basketball team a dogfight. And, for most of the night, they did.