From the moment head coach Mark Dantonio and the MSU football team arrived in Arizona on Christmas Eve, they’ve been mulling over a season that didn’t go according to plan.
Brandan Kearney reportedly is leaving the MSU basketball program. Head coach Tom Izzo told reporters after practice on Friday the sophomore guard has decided to leave after being unhappy in his role. On numerous occasions, Izzo said Kearney was among the best on the team at understanding his role and how he fits into the scheme of the program.
It’s no secret that Derrick Nix’s journey hasn’t been an easy one. Since his freshman season in 2009, Nix has been embroiled in battles over his weight, his footwork, his conditioning, his maturity within the locker room and, more notably, his highly-publicized personal demons.
One week ago, after a victory over Division II Tuskegee, Tom Izzo said he was excited to enter a “dogfight” every time his basketball team took the court the rest of the season.
From his opening bucket where he drained a hook shot and pumped his fists as he ran back on defense, Derrick Nix was on his game.
The MSU women’s basketball team won’t be returning from Sin City empty-handed. The Spartans claimed the 2012 South Point Holiday Hoops Classic championship in Las Vegas Thursday evening after beating Texas Tech 50-48 in overtime. On Wednesday, the first day of the two-game tournament, MSU (11-1 overall) knocked off Oregon State, 49-35, with a dominating defensive effort. With six minutes left in the game, the Spartans held a 38-31 lead, before Texas Tech (8-2) came storming back and cut the MSU lead to one with less than two minutes to play. Sophomore guard Kiana Johnson, who made her first appearance for MSU this season on Sunday following a nine-game suspension to start the season, came up clutch for the Spartans in the tournament final.
Parker’s announcement means MSU’s 2013 recruiting class still is without any committed players, and it’s possible the Spartans might not bring in any new recruits next season for the first time in head coach Tom Izzo’s tenure. This shouldn’t be a cause for panic among MSU basketball fans.
Standing in front of his friends, family and a large television audience at Chicago Simeon High, the 6-foot-8 small forward Jabari Parker announced his intentions to attend Duke following a long recruiting process.
The MSU women’s basketball team didn’t need help from lady luck Wednesday night in Las Vegas in its first game of the 2012 South Point Holiday Hoops Classic, cruising to a 49-35 win over Oregon State. In Suzy Merchant’s 500th career game as a head coach, the Spartans (10-1 overall) never trailed Oregon State (6-5) at any point in the contest.
After taking the then-No. 5 MSU men’s basketball team into Bowling Green and losing more than 20 years ago, head coach Jud Heathcote vowed he would not return to Anderson Arena, now called the Stroh Center.
“It’s a big week,” Nix said. “We ain’t got no more cupcakes. Let the party start.”
Kiana Johnson had spent exactly three months dreaming of this day, but when she finally awoke, she almost hit the snooze button. “I woke up at like 7 (AM) and I was going to go back to sleep for 10 minutes, and I’m like ‘what am I doing?
The Spartans went 41.4 percent from the floor and 86.7 percent from the free throw line as they led 40-11 at the end of the first half, but the second half was a different story, as MSU was outscored by the Mastodons 25-24.
The MSU women’s basketball team (9-1) seemed right at home in their return to Jenison Field House, pummeling IPFW (3-7) 64-36 Sunday afternoon.
The game was played in Jenison Field House to commemorate the “Game of Change” nearly 50 years ago, when the stadium hosted an NCAA Tournament game between Loyola-Chicago and Mississippi State, in which Mississippi State had to sneak out of its state to play an integrated basketball game during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
It was a night of historic moments that certainly wasn’t lost on head coach Tom Izzo, who imparted the lessons taken away from the positives of such a cultural shift in American history.
In the first game at Jenison Field House in more than two decades, the No. 19 MSU men’s basketball team overcame an ugly first half to defeat Division II Tuskegee 92-56.
The Commodores had come and gone, the new lights were shining bright and an electric crowd had found some unusual seats.
For the last six games, the MSU hockey team lost its offense.
When Keith Appling thinks of Jenison Field House, three people come to mind: Jud Heathcote, Magic Johnson and Gregory Kelser.