Men's basketball coach Tom Izzo has a new benchmate. Former University of North Carolina assistant coach Doug Wojcik said on Tuesday he'll fill one of the team's two assistant coaching vacancies.
With the defections of assistant coach Mike Garland (Cleveland State) and associate head coach Brian Gregory (Dayton) for head-coaching jobs, MSU head coach Tom Izzo is in search of two replacements.Izzo said his challenge will be to replace two monumental parts of his staff and two close friends."Those two guys are 66 percent of my staff," he said.
MSU assistant coach Mike Garland is en route to Cleveland State to become the Vikings' new men's basketball head coach. The former assistant coach told senior Brian Westrick the news, as the two crossed paths in the Union on Tuesday morning. Garland's departure means MSU will have two vacancies to fill on its coaching staff next season.
After much speculation, MSU basketball associate head coach Brian Gregory accepted the head-coaching position at Dayton on Wednesday afternoon."I'm honored and excited to be named the head basketball coach at the University of Dayton," Gregory said at a press conference.
With closure on the Spartan basketball season, much optimism is already surrounding the 2003-04 campaign. The Spartans stumbled out of the gate, and by early January, the Spartans were the "biggest disappointment" of the season.
You can take the coach out of the Final Four, but you won't be able to take the Final Four out of the coach. MSU Sports Information Assistant Director Matt Larson confirmed Tuesday MSU head coach Tom Izzo will join anchors Greg Gumbel and Clark Kellogg in CBS studios for analysis of this weekend's national semifinal and championship games.
San Antonio - The motivation for the MSU men's basketball team this postseason was to make a name for itself instead of chasing the glory of seasons' past. Mission accomplished? "It was a good run, not many people gave us a chance to get this far," sophomore forward/guard Alan Anderson said.
San Antonio - Defense. It's what the recent MSU legacy has been based on and it's what propelled the Spartans into the Elite 8 with a 60-58 slugfest victory over Maryland Friday night.The Spartans' stone cold defense suffocated the sixth-seeded Terrapins all night.
San Antonio - MSU's team effort to make a mark on the 2003 NCAA Tournament is going on to live another day.
In the second half of No. 7 seed MSU's 68-46 win over No. 2 seed Florida, sophomore forward/guard Alan Anderson dropped a pretty dime to freshman forward Erazem Lorbek for an easy deuce. As associate head coach Brian Gregory strolled by head coach Tom Izzo to call plays he asked, "Where did that come from?" Gregory was referring to Anderson's true point guard-type pass, however, he could have been talking about the entire team's performance.
MSU's recent success is no secret. It's chemistry. The Spartans seem visibly more comfortable now than they did all season.
While most people were likely observing high school basketball phenom LeBron James at the McDonald's All American High School Basketball Game on Wednesday in Cleveland, some others were staring fixedly at two MSU recruits. Guards Brandon Cotton and Shannon Brown showed off their skills at the contest. Troy Jackson, Brown's coach at Proviso East High in Illinois, said Brown was impressive. "Shannon played real well, like I expected him to," Jackson said.
For a young team looking to make a name for itself, a senior-led, experience-laden opponent is the last team it'd want to face.
A month ago, the Spartans were 14-11 and the NCAA Tournament was seemingly wishful thinking.Since, the Spartans (21-12) have won seven out of eight games propelling them into the Sweet 16.
Freshman forward Erazem Lorbek can now make three additions to his résumé - Buffalo tamer, Gator slayer and blissfully aloof hero of MSU's first two NCAA Tournament games. The soft-spoken Ljubljana, Slovenia, native has quietly helped MSU past No.
Tampa, Fla. - Freshman guard Anthony Roberson didn't picture it this way. The Saginaw native chose Florida over MSU, and before Sunday, it was hard for anyone to question his decision. The Gators (25-8) were ranked as high as No.
Tampa, Fla. - Florida was in need of Gator aid Sunday evening to quench its thirst for a trip to the Sweet 16.But the Gators came up dry even though the No.
Aloysius Anagonye knows this is his last hurrah. The senior forward, better known as "Big Al," is heading into the NCAA Tournament with a dark reality - his basketball career may soon be over. "It does hit home," he said.
This evening, the MSU men's basketball team is putting a mortgage on the program's future. After a season marred by injuries and deflated expectations, the increasingly healthy No.
Tampa, Fla. - It took the Spartans five months, but they finally granted their head coach his preseason wish Friday evening. In October, MSU head coach Tom Izzo preached that, while he wanted to continue reeking havoc on defense, he wanted to be a more offensive-minded team. MSU did just that with a 79-64 win over Colorado in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the St.