It’s 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon in the Duffy Daugherty Football Building weight room, and less than a dozen MSU athletes are working out. Aisha Jefferson, a 6-foot-1 junior forward on the MSU women’s basketball team, has already been going hard for close to an hour, and the perspiration is building on her forehead.
Oh, how things change when Penn State doesn’t attempt 51 free throws in a game. The MSU men’s basketball team kept the fouls to a minimum and the high-speed to a maximum, defeating the Nittany Lions, 86-49, Wednesday night at Breslin Center.
The MSU women’s basketball team will look to extend its winning streak to four games tonight against Northwestern. After alternating wins and losses for much of the Big Ten season, the Spartans have won three straight for the first time since late November.
The season’s women’s Big Ten race is turning into a mad dash. Usually by now there are about two or three teams that have any chance at first place and have anywhere from zero to two losses. Not this year.
After two straight losses and a locker room full of hung heads, maybe all the MSU men’s basketball team needs to bounce back tonight against Penn State is a little magic.
It’s official — MSU women’s basketball head coach Suzy Merchant has put her foot down once and for all. She will not, under any circumstance, allow any of her players to perform in an ill-advised fashion.
MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo had much to say at his weekly news conference Monday, but there was one significant word that echoed — turnover. Coming off the first back-to-back losses of the season at Purdue and Indiana last week, Izzo said he spent the rest of the weekend reviewing what the No.
The MSU men’s basketball team traveled to Indiana for a Big Ten slugfest with its rear end on the line and got its butt kicked. The Spartans, in desperate need of a key road win to maintain any hope for a conference title, came out on fire before a pumped-up Hoosiers squad extinguished the flame, en route to the Spartans’ worst loss of the season — an 80-61 trouncing Saturday night at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind.
So you throw him under the bus until his team starts prevailing, then loudly chant his name like nothing ever happened? Uhhh … Indiana fans, I don’t get it.
The MSU women’s basketball team pummeled Penn State on Sunday afternoon at Bryce Jordan Center, notching their first win in the teams’ 13-year series history.
Boy, this team is tough to figure out. From individual and team standpoints, the MSU men’s basketball team is erratic, to say the least.
Bloomington, Ind. — Problems are not being corrected. Nineteen turnovers, 9 assists — not exactly a statistic MSU men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo can stomach anymore.
The MSU women’s basketball team claimed another last-minute win, pulling to .500 in the Big Ten, Thursday against Indiana at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind., while simultaneously breaking its win-loss trade-off trend.
Women’s basketball head coach Suzy Merchant is having an interesting first year at MSU. Untimely injuries, combined with early departures and inconsistency, has left the Spartans floundering at the middle-to-bottom of the Big Ten.
Take it to the bank: Suzy Merchant will succeed as MSU women’s basketball coach. Although some have criticized MSU’s first-year head coach for her team’s tough season, a lot of what’s contributed to the rough start thus far has been out of her control.
Being a Division I athlete is hard enough, but when you throw in the fact that they’re also students, it gets even tougher. Well, it doesn’t seem to be too difficult for the Minnesota women’s basketball team, as the Golden Gophers landed four players on ESPN The Magazine’s Academic All-District team.
Toward the end of the national anthem before basketball games, Marquise Gray raises one finger to the sky. The moment is one of solitude, thought and dedication for the junior forward, and it has special significance — both for Gray’s immediate family and for his Spartans family.
Like a broken record, the MSU women’s basketball team’s rebounding problems are happening again and again. MSU head coach Suzy Merchant said rebounding will be one of the big keys to beat Indiana tonight — especially after being outrebounded by 12 the first time the two teams met on Jan. 20. The Spartans dropped the game, 70-56.
Anyone watching the MSU men’s basketball game Tuesday night at Purdue witnessed a real coming of age. Kalin Lucas took the last step in his maturation process from a Spartan boy to a man. The freshman guard has emerged this season as a prolific scorer, but on Tuesday he became the Spartans’ go-to guy.
A Boilermaker couldn’t have been a more fitting mascot to cheer for Purdue’s team Tuesday night. The No. 1 team in the Big Ten never came to a screeching halt — or showed signs of slowing down. They chugged along and steamrolled the MSU men’s basketball team, 60-54, at Mackey Arena, giving the Spartans their third conference and road loss of the season.