Sure, MSU's Big Three of Maurice Ager, Shannon Brown and Paul Davis are key cogs in the MSU basketball machine, but more than those three, the most important cog is proving to be point guard Drew Neitzel. When Neitzel's game is on, MSU is a hard team to stop.
Get the lowdown on how the next recruiting class has fared lately. Isaiah Dahlman Shooting guard/small forward 6 foot 6, 175 pounds Braham Area High School (Braham, Minn.) Dahlman is one of three finalists for the Mr. Minnesota Basketball Award, along with Minnesota recruit Bryce Webster from St.
Indianapolis — The party line in the MSU locker room after Saturday's 53-48 loss to Iowa was more rigid than Matt Trannon's smile behind that goalie mask. Despite playing their third game in 47 hours and second in less than 14, the Spartans said — insisted — that it wasn't fatigue that rendered them helpless as the Hawkeyes rode their early second-half lead all the way into the tournament finals. Head coach Tom Izzo: "I'd be the first to tell you if I thought it had even a little to do with it.
MSU wrestler Nick Simmons repeated his reign as Big Ten champion and his brother Andy Simmons captured his first conference title at the 2006 Big Ten Championships March 4-5 in Bloomington, Ind. Competing in the 125-pound weight class, Nick Simmons, the tournament's No.
Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, who's credited with inventing the slap shot, died last week at the age of 75. Meanwhile, Russ Tyler, who's credited with inventing the knuckle puck, is reportedly still playing roller hockey on the streets of Los Angeles. Villanova guard Allan Ray's status for the NCAA Tournament is in question after he suffered an inadvertent finger to the eye in a loss to Pittsburgh last week. If Ray can't play, it would be proof once and for all that there's no eye in team. The Gateway Grizzlies, a minor league baseball team located near St.
Indianapolis — After a stretch of three physically and emotionally draining games in 47 hours, Tom Izzo refused to cite fatigue as an excuse after his team shot 28.3 percent while falling 53-48 to Iowa in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Saturday at Conseco Fieldhouse. The MSU head coach felt so strongly about it that he opened up his postgame press conference with an emphatic "no." "Fatigue had zero to do with the loss, zero," Izzo said.
Indianapolis — The MSU women's basketball team easily advanced to the semifinals of last week's Big Ten Tournament, only to run into a scarlet-and-gray wall for the third time this season. The Spartans cruised past Iowa in the quarterfinals on March 3, with a 79-58 score, setting up a showdown with Ohio State on March 5. MSU stayed within striking distance of the Buckeyes for the entire game, but could never grab a lead in the second half.
Photographer Mike Itchue details his trip to Indianapolis for the men's Big Ten Tournament. Conseco Fieldhouse is hands down the nicest arena I have ever been to.
When junior Nick Simmons faced Indiana senior Joe Dubuque last year, he walked away with a win on his way to earning the title of Big Ten wrestling champion. This weekend, No.
The first time around, Wisconsin handed MSU its worst beating of the season, a 82-63 decision at the Kohl Center. Now, it's MSU's turn to protect its home floor when the two teams resume their rivalry at 7 p.m.
Averaging only three goals per game, the No. 4 Spartans are far from flashy. But clutch goaltending, a solidified defense and the ability to put enough goals on the scoreboard have the Spartans riding a nine-game unbeaten streak headed into the postseason. After an up-and-down first half of the season, MSU is 12-2-3 since Jan.
How the men fared: Entering Tuesday's game 1. Ohio State Defeated Michigan 64-54 on Saturday 2.
With a first-round CCHA playoff bye, the No. 4 Spartans are playing the wait-and-see game for who will invade Munn Ice Arena for a best-of-three series the weekend of March 10. But while the Spartans (20-10-8 overall, 14-7-7 CCHA) have the luxury of an off-week to get healthy and stay sharp, MSU head coach Rick Comley will be the first to tell you that he has no idea who his team could face in the second round. "The real nice thing is that there's nobody you really want to play and there's nobody that you don't want to play," Comley said.
Despite tying Minnesota for third place in the final Big Ten standings, the No. 16 MSU women's basketball team is the No.
Not long ago, MSU was shooting for an NCAA Tournament game at The Palace of Auburn Hills and possibly even for a No.
Davis, Ager, Brown or get out of town. MSU's Big Three — senior center Paul Davis, senior guard Maurice Ager and junior guard Shannon Brown — once again dominated the scoresheet Sunday, accounting for all but nine of the Spartans' points in their 78-71 loss to Indiana. MSU got just three points from its bench — all from freshman guard Travis Walton, who played 32 minutes in place of injured senior forward Matt Trannon. The Hoosiers, meanwhile, got 16 points from their bench, including a game-tying free throw by Errek Suhr and a game-tying layup by Roderick Wilmont in the game's final minutes. But MSU head coach Tom Izzo insists he's not looking to his bench to score more. "We don't have a great bench — I told you that in September," Izzo said.
Women's hoops reporter Ethan Conley took a trip down to Ann Arbor for Thursday's regular-season finale victory against Michigan. Heading to Ann Arbor to watch an athletic contest is usually enough to make a Spartan froth at the mouth.
The trade deadline has long been the true halfway point in the NBA season. Rosters are cemented, players are sure of their roles, and teams make eleventh-hour deals to add some missing pieces (see: Wallace, Rasheed). Even more importantly, since both the 41-game mark and the All-Star break have come and gone, Thursday's deadline marked my last chance to hand out some mid-season awards!
After Alexander Ovechkin scored to put Russia up 1-0 on Canada in the Olympic quarterfinal round of hockey, he celebrated like he had just scored the overtime winner to advance his team to the Stanley Cup Finals. Now don't get me wrong, I love watching Ovechkin play.
Detroit — If it weren't for tying Lake Superior, 2-2, in the CCHA regular-season finale Saturday at Joe Louis Arena, the No.