There's a sports adage that says special players make special plays on special days. But to the embarrassment of the MSU men's basketball team Sunday, most of the special players donned maize and blue. The plays that determined Sunday's 60-58 loss to intrastate rival Michigan simply didn't turn in the Spartans' favor.
Ann Arbor - There hadn't been so much excitement for an MSU-Michigan basketball game in nearly five years. The Spartan men's basketball team had won the last eight meetings, but were on the ropes, entering the game with a 1-7 record outside the confines of Breslin Center. And the Wolverines were ready to take advantage.
To say the least, the MSU men's basketball team hasn't lived up to any of the preseason hype. In fact, they have turned Final Four aspirations into mediocrity.
Following a disappointing three-game road swing, the MSU men's basketball team took out its frustrations on a team with no conference wins. The Spartans (10-7 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) soundly drubbed Penn State on Wednesday 70-36 at Breslin Center, halting their three-game conference losing streak and holding the Nittany Lions (5-10, 0-4) to their lowest point total since joining the Big Ten. The Spartans' win stemmed from a 19-3 MSU run to end the first half after an offensive stalemate early on.
With his team stuck in a whirlwind of losses and inconsistency, Aloysius Anagonye decided it was time to assert himself as a leader.The senior forward paced the Spartans, as MSU (10-7 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) massacred Penn State 70-36 Wednesday night.After recording his first double-double this season on Saturday with a 12-point, 11-rebound performance against Minnesota, Anagonye dropped in 11 points while adding five rebounds, two assists and a pair of steals in 24 minutes of work.
Following three straight road losses, the MSU men's basketball team is limping back to Breslin Center with a do-or-die attitude for tonight's contest against Penn State at 6 p.m. The Spartans (9-7 overall, 1-3 Big Ten) are losers of five of their last six games and on the brink of starting the Big Ten season 1-4. Don't think it hasn't gotten to head coach Tom Izzo. Izzo again cited MSU's costly turnovers, spotty free-throw shooting and inconsistent field-goal percentage as thorns in the Spartans' side Monday.
On the court, in the classroom and in the locker room, MSU freshman forward Erazem Lorbek is making the adjustment from life and basketball in Europe to the spotlight of the Big Ten. The gangly 6-foot-10 native of Ljubljana, Slovenia, has worked himself into head coach Tom Izzo's rotation since coming to America in August, combining the finesse game he honed playing for Slovenian junior national teams with crashing Big Ten style. While Lorbek is soft-spoken because of the language barrier - sometimes he swears in what looks and sounds like equal parts of English and Slovenian after making the occasional mistake - he said that his adjustment to MSU basketball has been trial by fire. "It's a higher level," Lorbek said of the conference.
Minneapolis - Alan Anderson's homecoming was miserable - again. Against Minnesota, the sophomore forward spent most of his second trip to Williams Arena on the bench because of early foul trouble.
So far 2003 has been an awful year for the MSU men's basketball team. But luckily for the Spartans (9-6 overall, 1-2 Big Ten), it is only 17 days into the new year and there is plenty of time to turn things around. Since the beginning of the year, MSU is 1-3.
West Lafayette, Ind. - Plain and simple, the Spartans eagerly anticipate a return to Breslin Center for a basketball game. But MSU (9-6 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) still has a road contest with Minnesota on Saturday before that happens Wednesday against Penn State (5-8, 0-2). And if this year is any clue, the Spartans could be near the cellar of the conference if they lose to the Golden Gophers. With its loss to Purdue on Tuesday night, the MSU men's basketball team not only lost its fourth game in five contests, but it fell to 2-5 this year when playing on the road or at a neutral site. "The times we've played on the road, things haven't gone our way," senior forward Aloysius Anagonye said.
West Lafayette, Ind. - To those who witnessed MSU's 72-60 loss to Purdue on Tuesday, it was like déj
West Lafayette, Ind. - In basketball, offense plays a critical part in winning games. Tuesday night, the Spartans didn't have much of it.The end result was a 72-60 loss, which gave MSU (9-6 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) its fourth loss in five games.Offensively, the Spartans entered the game shooting 47.6 percent from the field.
The MSU men's basketball team may have fallen from the national rankings following Saturday's 68-64 loss to Iowa, but head coach Tom Izzo said he's far from alarmed."We don't think we're in any panic mode," Izzo said.
Iowa City - If a Spartan found himself on the bench in No. 25 MSU's 68-64 loss to Iowa on Saturday, chances are it was a short-lived rest. The Spartans (9-5 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) substituted players 27 times Saturday, shuffling players in and out to reconfigure the lineup 39 times.
Iowa City - Throughout the 2002-03 season, the MSU men's basketball team has been consistently inconsistent. Those inconsistencies were highlighted Saturday afternoon as the No.
Iowa might not have big names on its roster. But the Hawkeyes pose some problems for the MSU basketball team.Because the Spartans hadn't concluded their game with Ohio State at the time of print, they were null to talk about their matchup with Iowa (9-3, 1-0 Big Ten). And unless they remember much from their games a year ago, MSU players were in the dark about the Hawkeye team."To tell you the truth, we haven't even looked at film on them yet," junior forward Adam Wolfe said following Tuesday's practice.
It was tough, physical and at times downright sloppy during No. 25 MSU's grinding win against Ohio State on Thursday at Breslin Center. The Spartans (9-4 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) outlasted the Buckeyes (7-5, 0-1) 66-55, halting a two-game losing skid.
Heading in to their 53rd season of Big Ten men's basketball, No. 25 MSU is looking for a little charity - from the stripe, that is.After shooting 77.7 percent from the foul line in the first seven games of the season, MSU (8-4) has only shot 67.5 percent in the last five, which is below head coach Tom Izzo's standards.Izzo said missed free throws have "really cost us the last two games, as much as anything."Despite MSU's shooting woes, the Spartans are currently tied for fourth (72.8 percent) among Big Ten teams.
Though all the historical information shows the Spartans should have no problem winning their Big Ten opener, they know Ohio State can't be overlooked.The No.