Tom Izzo’s version of the MSU men’s basketball program was built on defense. After back-to-back 20-point losses and five losses in six games, the defense is the biggest culprit.
The No. 11 MSU women’s basketball team is excelling in almost all aspects of the game this season. It hold the highest national ranking in the Big Ten, id second place in the conference standings and among the top five in the league in most of the statistical categories.
The titles “leading scorer” and “record breaker” usually aren’t connected to senior guard Brittney Thomas.
Maybe it was the racket. After losing the first set, 6-0, MSU sophomore Denis Bogatov was left searching for answers. He decided to start the second set with a new racket, hoping a change would help get him back on track. And the racket seemed to help as Bogatov rolled to an impressive come-from-behind victory over Wake Forest’s Jonathan Wolff (0-6, 6-4, 6-3). “I just told myself that I couldn’t continue playing as horribly as I did in the first set,” Bogatov said.
Opening the match against No. 3 Penn State, junior 184-pounder Ian Hinton’s 13-1 major decision loss to Penn State’s No. 14 Quentin Wright foreshadowed the course of the match for MSU on Friday at Jenison Field House.
It was same story, different venue for the MSU men’s basketball team. Following a 20-point loss at Iowa on Wednesday, the Spartans lost, 82-56, at Wisconsin on Sunday. For the sixth-straight game, a Spartan opponent made at least 49 percent of its shots.
The MSU hockey team continued to match its opponents’ intensity level but didn’t register its first sweep of the season in a weekend split with Ohio State. On Friday freshman goalie Will Yanakeff led the Spartans with 32 saves in his second shutout in his past four starts, and junior defenseman Tim Buttery scored his first goal of the season, while sophomore forward Derek Grant tallied an empty netter to lift the Spartans to a 2-0 win.
The No. 11 MSU women’s basketball team faced off against Purdue in a battle of the Big Ten’s best defenses and came away with a 76-57 victory.
The MSU hockey team failed to earn its first series sweep of the season Saturday, as it fell, 4-2, at Ohio State.
Freshman goalie Will Yanakeff’s fifth consecutive win led the MSU hockey team to a 2-0 victory against Ohio State on Friday.
One day after the MSU’s 72-52 loss to Iowa — a loss head coach Tom Izzo called “embarrassing” — the Spartans had the day off from practice. Instead, with a game at Wisconsin looking on Sunday, they gathered at the Alfred Berkowitz Basketball Complex for three hours of meetings. “We just met and talked about what we wanted to do,” junior forward Delvon Roe said.
Recently-dismissed junior guard Korie Lucious is in Ames, Iowa visiting Iowa State.
The scene was set for a night to remember for Badger fans, defeating one of the best teams in the country, remaining in a tie for first place in the Big Ten and allowing head coach Lisa Stone to celebrate her 500th career victory.
About two and a half months ago, the MSU men’s basketball team had a team evaluation meeting. Players were told areas they needed to work on. Sophomore center Derrick Nix decided to write down the needed improvements and hang them above his locker so he remembered.
With 32 athletes and four coaches, the MSU wrestling team has made room on its roster for one additional purple, blue and yellow member of the team. Indigo — head coach Tom Minkel’s colorful hyacinth macaw — attends wrestling practice most days of the week and has become a valuable member of the MSU wrestling family.
Moving up the CCHA standings has been about as difficult as walking through a snowdrift as several quality teams occupy the middle of the conference. Moving up will be the MSU hockey team’s objective, however, when they visit Ohio State for a series this weekend to try to climb out of 10th place in the CCHA and continue a 5-3-1 run in its past nine games.
After losing to Western Michigan earlier this season for the first time in program history, the MSU gymnastics team has had two weeks off to prepare for the meet against its new in-state rival on Sunday in Kalamazoo. “They beat us for the first time ever in the history of MSU and Western gymnastics in January right after (senior gymnast Kathryn Mahoney’s) injury, and that didn’t feel so good,” head coach Kathie Klages said.
Most years, if my team isn’t in the Super Bowl then I watch with no rooting interest. This year, however, thanks to one unsuspected source, when Sunday rolls around and Super Bowl XLV kicks off, I will be all in for the Green Bay Packers. Now I know I’m not alone, and leading up to Sunday’s game most people are expressing their distaste toward Steeler Nation.
After the MSU men’s basketball team lost to Michigan for the first time in three years last Thursday, I wrote that it couldn’t get any worse for the 2010-11 Spartans. A little less than one week later, it’s pretty obvious I jumped the gun with that conclusion.
The Hawkeyes (9-13 overall, 2-8 Big Ten) pounded MSU (13-9, 5-5), 72-52, in Iowa City, Iowa on Wednesday night.