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Sports | Basketball

BASKETBALL

Determined

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.

BASKETBALL

Spartans dominate Penn State, rekindle intensity

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.

BASKETBALL

Spartans look to contain Wildcats' post play

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.

BASKETBALL

A lot still up for grabs in Big Ten race

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.

BASKETBALL

No-nonsense policy has team on track

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.

BASKETBALL

Turnover troubles still biggest obstacle

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.

BASKETBALL

Help wanted

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.

BASKETBALL

Turnover turmoil

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.

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Merchant searches for winning formula

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.

BASKETBALL

Injuries - not Merchant - to blame for rough 1st year

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.