Ask senior guard Christie Pung if Big Ten women’s basketball games are physical, and she might mention the black eye she had two weeks ago. Or the one she had before that.
The MSU football team beefed up its 2001 recruiting class, literally and figuratively, with the signing of defensive end Kevin Vickerson on Monday.
If a college basketball player’s toughness is based on the battles one has experienced, then David Thomas is MSU’s “General Patton.” Thomas, 24 and in his fifth season, said he is thankful for getting more opportunities to play this season after suffering knee and foot injuries in two of his first three playing seasons.
Maybe nice guys do finish first.The top-ranked Spartans, the least-penalized team in the CCHA, have a five-point lead in the league and their tendency toward good behavior might have something to do with it.The Spartans have tallied nine goals in their last three games - all officiated by CCHA referee Duke Shegos - while only being whistled for six penalties.“The refs have been letting a lot of stuff go, but I think we’ve been playing pretty disciplined as a team,” junior defenseman Andrew Hutchinson said.“We’ve had low penalties the whole year and we’ve just been fortunate that we haven’t taken any these past few games.”MSU averages 15.35 penalty minutes per league game, almost a full minute less than second-place Northern Michigan.The Spartans actually started their current three-game stretch of sainthood - Feb.
Over the last three games, MSU has given up 108 points on three-pointers compared to 18 points off its own three-pointers.“There’s definitely a deficiency between what teams are scoring against us and what we’re scoring against them,” said MSU head coach Tom Izzo of the No.
Minneapolis, Minn. - The Spartans made it clear they came to play in Minneapolis from the opening tip with an alley-oop dunk by junior guard Jason Richardson.“It was just a great chance for us to get going,” he said.
I had never been to an MSU hockey game at Munn Ice Arena before Saturday night.Boy, did I ever pick a night to finally go.My family has had season tickets for a while, but I was never interested.I don’t know why I suddenly was on Saturday.
It was almost magical, the way senior guard Christie Pung’s layup floated into the basket to tie up the MSU women’s basketball team’s game against Indiana on Sunday.The clock read 18.3 seconds, the scoreboard was lit with matching 50s and the referee blew his whistle.
Jeremy Jackson, who has played in only one game since Jan. 19, was dismissed from the top-ranked Spartan hockey team Thursday.The freshman center from Chilliwack, British Columbia was fourth on the team with 19 points - seven goals and 12 assists - this season, but hasn’t always seen eye-to-eye with MSU head coach Ron Mason.Mason said Jackson was dismissed for “accountability issues in the classroom and with the team.“It’s really too bad,” Mason said.
MINNEAPOLIS - For most of Saturday night’s game against MSU, Williams Arena scorekeepers could only count in threes.Five of Minnesota’s seven scholarship players combined for 16 three-pointers in a display of marksmanship that caused serious breakdowns in the Spartans’ defensive scheme.
Munn Ice Arena had a record-breaking aura this weekend, but even more importantly, the Spartans earned a key sweep in their last home series of the season.No.
“Feed me,” cried the rapidly growing Venus flytrap, Audrey Jr., to nerdy plant shop assistant Seymour - played by Rick Moranis - when in need of nourishment in the cult classic film “Little Shop of Horrors.”The large self-proclaimed “mean green mother from outer space” was hungry for human flesh, and it didn’t hesitate to be vocal about it either.That’s the mindset Andre Hutson should take in the remaining six games of the Big Ten regular season and both the conference and NCAA tournaments.Shooting 68.5 percent (39-of-54) during the past seven games and leading both the conference and team in field-goal percentage, the 6-foot-8 senior forward needs to be “fed” the ball more by teammates.Hutson looked impressive early in MSU’s 77-66 loss to Illinois on Tuesday, scoring six of MSU’s first seven points.
It’s back to the road for the MSU men’s basketball team.The No. 4 Spartans (18-3 overall, 7-3 Big Ten) look to cure their road woes Saturday at Minnesota (16-7, 4-6).“There’s so many things that become factors,” senior forward Andre Hutson said of playing on the road.
MSU has more than just ending a seven-game slide on its mind. These women are hungry for redemption.“It’s a pride thing,” head coach Joanne P.
After months of in-home visits and constant wooing of potential high school football recruits, MSU head coach Bobby Williams announced from inside the Clara Bell Smith Student-Athlete Academic Center the names of 21 recruits who signed a National Letter of Intent with the Spartans. “It really wasn’t an easy decision,” said Gordon Niebylski, a recruit from Birmingham Brother Rice High School in Farmington, Mich.
A long bus trip to Minnesota and Iowa to face the No. 1 and No. 3 teams in the nation may not be the most desirable route to redemption, but that’s exactly the challenge the MSU wrestling team will face this weekend.The No.12 Spartans are coming off losses to Ohio State and Purdue last weekend.
As a freshman in the Big Ten, Marcus Taylor has handled being thrust into the starting lineup of the No.
Postgame interviews are always littered with clichés, ranging from “They were just the better team today” to “We left it all out on the floor.” Usually these shallow phrases give no real insight to the game or its outcome, but one phrase that fits the latest Spartan hoops defeat is “This is a good loss for us.” While no loss is ever “good” by strict definition, MSU’s 77-66 loss to Illinois on Tuesday could be very beneficial to the Spartans in the long run. First of all, every team needs to lose. There has not been a team to finish a season without a loss since Bobby Knight and the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers won the national title. Granted, the Spartans had already lost prior to Tuesday, but a loss at this point in the season can help a team focus for the long road to postseason immortality - a trip to the Final Four. Last season, MSU lost at Purdue.
MSU wrestler Gray Maynard is expected to be out of action for at least a month after having knee surgery Monday.Maynard tore knee cartilage in his victory over Michigan’s Pat Owen on Jan.
MSU’s hockey team held on to its No. 1 national ranking in this week’s USCHO.com poll, but it has to share the top spot in the USA Today rankings with Boston College.The Spartans (22-3-4 overall, 15-3-3 CCHA) split their weekend series with Northern Michigan, allowing BC (20-6-1) to tie.The Eagles and Spartans both have 258 points, but MSU has 10 first-place votes to BC’s eight.In the uscho.com poll, MSU garnered 28 of 40 first-place votes, with Boston College in second with nine votes.North Dakota (20-5-5) kept its three first-place votes from last week’s uscho.com poll and stayed in third place in both rankings.“If it were my choice, I wouldn’t even want to know the rankings during the season,” senior right wing John Nail said.