Bridgeport, Conn. – The No. 1-seed Union hockey team proved to be too much for No. 4-seed MSU to handle.
Eventually, the game had to make sense. At some point, Louisville had to stop hitting 3-pointers at a rate so much better than its regular season numbers would indicate, you’d think head coach Rick Pitino spoke to some sort of magician before the game.
Phoenix — The No. 1-seed MSU men’s basketball team ran into a match-up they hadn’t faced all season in a schedule that seemed to have every style of team.
March Magic Hoopfest is just another way Paul Rodenhouse can give back to the community. The MSU graduate student is in his second year of volunteering at March Magic Hoopfest through the College of Osteopathic Medicine. “Basketball is one of my favorite sports,” Rodenhouse said.
Phoenix — Draymond Green ended his career accomplishing one of his many goals — a career that ended three games sooner than he wished in a 57-44 Sweet 16 loss to Louisville. The senior forward surpassed Greg Kelser as the MSU all-time leading rebounder, but in a season he hoped to go to the Final Four, it didn’t matter.
Bridgeport, Conn. — Torey Krug has been through a lot of changes in three years. From bursting on the scene as a talented All-CCHA player as a freshman to being elected a team captain as a sophomore to seeing a coaching change and a shift in the direction of the MSU hockey program, Krug quickly embraced his role as a leader and has found success as the CCHA’s most offensive defenseman in more than two decades.
Despite earning a program-building victory against then-No. 11 St. John’s in its first official game of the season on the road, there’s nothing like a little home cooking for Ryan Jones and the MSU baseball team. Following an opening stretch of 17 games on the road, the Spartans (10-7) return to McLane Baseball Stadium at Kobs Field for the first time in the young season this weekend for a three-game set with Oakland (3-12), starting at 3:05 p.m.
As the fans start to funnel into US Airways Arena in for the Sweet 16 matchup between No. 1-seed MSU and No. 1-seed MSU and No. 4-seed Louisville, the colors are dominated by green and white.
When junior Jacob Jarzen hits the water for each of his swimming races, he said he is in the zone. For the third year in a row, Jarzen has qualified for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. He is the only swimmer representing the Spartans this weekend — competing Thursday through Saturday — at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Seattle, a feat head coach Matt Gianiodis said should not go unnoticed.
A week removed from a strong showing at the Hoosier Classic, the MSU softball team is ready to open the Big Ten season with a three-game weekend series against Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind.
Tom Izzo and Rick Pitino have been around long enough to know what it takes to win this time of year.
After falling to No. 31 in the regional qualifying score, or RQS, rankings, the MSU gymnasts should be on their heels as they head into the Big Ten Championship in Iowa City, Iowa on Saturday. The Spartans (7-3-1) are coming off a tough 196.025-192.700 road loss to No. 21 Michigan, and their score of 192.700 allowed a couple of teams to jump ahead of them in the rankings, dropping three spots from No. 28 and potentially putting them in the hot seat to be one of the teams left out of the top 36 that qualify for regionals.
Brett Perlini and Tanner Sorenson are at the opposite ends of their career at MSU. Both forwards for the Spartan hockey program, one’s a senior, one’s a freshman. One is headed to the NHL after this season, the other more than likely back to his dorm room. One represents the wave of the past, one is a major part of the arc of the future.
About a year ago at this time, the MSU baseball team returned home to a frozen baseball field and the bitter chill of March. This year has been a much different story. Having won six of their last seven games to cap a 17-game road trip, the Spartans (10-7) return home to host Oakland in the first series of the year at McLane Baseball Stadium at Kobs Field.
Madison Williams stood in the locker room, bracing herself to tell her teammates the news she heard only hours earlier. As the three simple letters “A-C-L” left her mouth, the room froze, and she left in tears after coming face to face with the looks of pity and sadness she spent the previous year fighting to move past.
The future of the MSU hockey team’s season was in the hands of Union last weekend. The team was on the bubble for a bid to the NCAA Tournament, but thanks to No. 1-seed Union’s 3-1 win Saturday against Harvard, MSU will travel to Bridgeport, Conn., this weekend to compete against the same team they were rooting for just a few days ago.
Ah yes, an underdog story. Players own the distinction of it. Fans thrive on it. Members of the media write and rewrite their stories to determine if it’s too cheesy — it almost always is. With the NCAA Tournament just days away, the MSU hockey team is about to embark on an underdog story of its own, and the narrative is its for the taking.
With about 100 Izzone members in attendance to send the MSU men’s basketball team off to Phoenix for the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, Andrew Klimbal came away a little disappointed.
With the MSU men’s basketball team locking up its fourth trip to the Sweet 16 in the last five years, the Spartans continue to establish themselves as one of the best tournament programs in the country. And although that’s all fine and good, senior forward Draymond Green said players and teams aren’t remembered for making the Sweet 16.
Curran Jacobs was 60 seconds away from his first All-American honors. Competing for a top-eight spot in the NCAA Tournament this weekend — where the top eight finishers are named All-Americans — the senior 174-pounder was the remaining Spartan participating.