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Road bumps continue with loss at Illinois
Champaign, Ill. — Many wondered if Tuesday night's contest against Illinois would be a "hangover" game for MSU.
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MSU plays Illinois tonight
Saturday's near-win at No. 5 Ohio State showed the MSU men's basketball team's tenacity, but tonight's game against Illinois might be a better indicator of the Spartans' resolve. Less than 72 hours removed from their extremely dramatic and taxing comeback against the Buckeyes, the Spartans (17-5 overall, 4-3 Big Ten) will need to find a way to rebound quickly against the struggling but dangerous Fighting Illini (15-8, 3-5), who are playing to resuscitate their fading postseason bid. "This is where you really make a statement, or you really grow up, or you really have a turning point," head coach Tom Izzo said Monday at his weekly press conference.
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Scrappy comeback shows MSU is for real
Columbus, Ohio — They say close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. We really should consider expanding that saying to include the RPI. Because if MSU's oh-so-close 66-64 loss to No.
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Within their grasp
Columbus, Ohio — Moral victories don't exist. Not in this program. Not when a statue of Earvin "Magic" Johnson graces the entrance to your home arena. Not when two national championship banners hang in the rafters above the floor you practice on every day. And not when "State" is stitched across your chest. So when Maurice Joseph's buzzer-beating 3-point attempt drifted a few inches left of center, preserving No.
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How to defend Oden
Columbus, Ohio — Trying to stop Greg Oden is like playing a game of Russian roulette — you pick your poison and hope you live to tell about it. After Saturday's game, MSU junior center Drew Naymick had no problem reciting the catalog of moves the all-world Ohio State freshman uses on the low post — the head fake, the drop step, the off-arm hook — "it's legal," Naymick said — all performed with textbook precision. "That's what makes him a great player," Naymick said. Oden's expansive repertoire — not to mention his brute force — has opened him up for dozens of uncontested highlight-reel dunks already this season.
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Spartans face Gophers tonight at Breslin
The MSU men's basketball team is about to enter the toughest part of its conference season. The Spartans face a brutal stretch that includes games against national title contenders in hostile environments. They'll face a Wooden Award front-runner (Wisconsin forward Alando Tucker), the likely No.
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Izzo unhappy with Big Ten schedule
The Big Ten scheduling computer has not received a Christmas card from MSU men's basketball head coach Tom Izzo lately. The league plays a 16-game conference schedule, meaning each of its 11 schools plays six opposing teams twice and four teams once.
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Hoops recruits show great potential
Chris Allen, a 6-foot-3, 185-pounder from Lawrenceville Meadowcreek High School in Georgia, scored a career-high 45 points Tuesday night as he led his team to a 75-72 win over Central Gwinnett, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. With 29 points, Kalin Lucas led Orchard Lake St.
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MSU back in Big Ten picture after rout
State College, Pa. — With the way his shot was falling, Drew Neitzel might as well have been shooting at a rusty basket in his driveway back home.
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High-tempo Spartans explode for transition points; Izzo vows team will continue to play faster game
State College, Pa. — The green light is on again. With their perimeter depth at least somewhat restored for Saturday's game against Penn State, the Spartans revived their struggling fast break — just as head coach Tom Izzo had been aching to do all season. The Spartans had three transition baskets in the first seven minutes of their 91-64 romp, and they finished the game with a 16-9 edge in fast-break points. "We're going to keep running," Izzo vowed afterward. Part of the equation was intense ball pressure up top from junior guard Drew Neitzel and sophomore guard Travis Walton, which forced several turnovers that led to transition baskets. "You pressure the ball, get a couple turnovers, (and) it gets you going on defense, it gets you going on offense," Walton said. But even on missed Penn State shots, the Spartans were getting back up the court with the urgency of someone trying to catch a bus, and Neitzel and Walton did a superb job of getting the ball ahead to streaking finishers.
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Spartans look to forget slow Big Ten start
Tom Izzo knew this year's team would struggle at times, but that doesn't mean he has to accept those struggles. Road losses to Iowa and Indiana put the Spartans in an 0-2 hole in the Big Ten, and Izzo is wondering what happened to the squad that played so well in the early portion of the season, when the Spartans topped Texas and hung tight with Maryland. "The last five games have not been played nearly as well as the first seven," Izzo said Monday in his weekly press conference.
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More road woes
Bloomington, Ind. — Not counting walk-ons, nine Spartans saw the floor in Sunday's game against Indiana.
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MSU supports Ohio State in suit against former coach
MSU was part of an 18-university group that filed a brief last week supporting Ohio State in its bid to overturn a $2.4 million award to former men's basketball coach Jim O'Brien. O'Brien was fired in 2004 after he admitted giving $6,000 to the mother of a 7-foot-3 Serbian recruit, Aleksander Radojevic. The Ohio Court of Claims ruled earlier this year that although O'Brien committed NCAA violations, the university improperly fired him by not following the terms of his contract. All 10 Big Ten schools other than Ohio State signed the brief, as did the Big Ten, Pacific-10 and Big 12 conferences.
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Hoops preview
TONIGHT'S HOOPS GAME What: MSU men's basketball (7-2) vs. IPFW (3-5) Where: Breslin Center When: 7 p.m. NOTES: • MSU leads the Big Ten with a plus-11.4 rebounding margin.
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Izzo still concerned about crowd
Tom Izzo wants more from you. The MSU head coach is looking for better crowd support. He said before the season he was worried that fans have become numb to success because of the team's recent history of Final Four appearances, and his concerns haven't been helped by sparse crowds at MSU's first few home games. "I hope we're not getting fat and sassy," Izzo said. MSU has reported a sellout in each of its seven home games thus far, but plenty of empty seats have been visible in both the Izzone and the regular-seating sections.
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Morgan has stress fracture, may miss up to 3 weeks
MSU's most promising and versatile young player has been sidelined by an injury that has plagued the program for years — a stress fracture. Head coach Tom Izzo said Monday that freshman forward Raymar Morgan will miss Wednesday's game against IPFW with a stress fracture in his right shin.
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Spartans bounce back with win
Tom Izzo wasn't particularly happy with any of his players following MSU's loss to Boston College on Wednesday, and sophomore forward Marquise Gray was responsible for a large part of the coach's ire.
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Trannon out, others step up
Bradley's four-guard lineup Sunday normally would have meant extended minutes for senior forward Matt Trannon, whose versatility has helped neutralize smaller post players in the past. But Trannon didn't play a single minute Sunday and won't for the rest of the season — head coach Tom Izzo announced Friday that Trannon won't return to the basketball team and instead will prepare for the NFL Draft. Trannon averaged 4.6 points and 4.3 rebounds a game last season and was one of MSU's best defenders.
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As the turkey digests, let's reflect on MSU hoops
1. Junior guard Drew Neitzel has embraced his role as the team's go-to scorer. Neitzel averaged 33 points per game as a senior at Wyoming Park High School but was more of a distributor during his first two years at MSU, deferring to Paul Davis, Maurice Ager and Shannon Brown.
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MSU's primary color
Marquise Gray's college basketball career has been a roller-coaster ride. In three up-and-down seasons, the sophomore forward has battled several injuries and has struggled to live up to the hype that came with being an elite recruit. Gray's performance against Oakland (4-3) on Saturday was one of the "up" days.