It’s rare to receive the finalized ACC/Big Ten Challenge schedule so distant from the beginning of an NCAA basketball season. This year is an exception.
Mere hours after the MSU hockey team’s season-ending loss to Notre Dame in the West Regional final, senior captain Bryan Lerg got a call from his family adviser. He had been offered a contract by the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers.
It’s evident MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo is a football junkie. With Saturday’s intrasquad spring game quickly approaching, MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio made a couple of quick coaching additions – designating Izzo as a coach of the Green squad and men’s soccer coach Joe Baum a coaching member of the White.
It’s not the NFL, but that didn’t stop MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio from conducting a little draft of his own. Dantonio acted as commissioner Monday afternoon as the team’s seniors split up and drafted the rest of the Spartans’ roster to either the Green or White team in preparation for Saturday’s spring game at 1:30 p.m. at Spartan Stadium.
The Iowa Hawkeyes squashed the MSU softball team’s six-game winning streak during the weekend, and it only went downhill from there for the Spartans. MSU posted a 1-3 record on the weekend, losing two games to Iowa and splitting a doubleheader with Illinois — which included a mercy win over the Fighting Illini with an 11-5 victory in five innings.
Freshman standout Aimee Neff has proven to be a vital piece of the MSU women’s golf team. Coming out and sending a message from her opening tee shot to the clubhouse, Neff fired a 69 in her first round as a Spartan on Sept. 8, 2007 at the Mary Fossum Invitational and has used that as motivation throughout the season.
The MSU women’s basketball team handed out its annual awards Sunday night. Junior center Allyssa DeHaan and sophomore forward Kalisha Keane were named co-Players of the Year. DeHaan had 150 blocks on the season, breaking her own Big Ten record of 145 set last season.
With more than 600 wins, three self-authored books and almost 20 years of coaching, MSU head coach Jacquie Joseph still gets as giddy about game day as when she was playing softball at Central Michigan.
MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio conducted a draft today in preparation for Saturday’s Green-White intrasquad game, which will be played at 1:30 p.m. at Spartan Stadium. Two teams, one green and one white, will battle it out in an exhibition-style game for a steak dinner, as opposed to the hated hotdogs and beans meal.
With steady rain and some lightning delays, the weather may have been lackluster at the Spartan Invitational on Saturday, but the MSU track and field team came out in full force, sweeping the event with first place finishes in 22 events.
In a game featuring two dominant pitching performances, it was an awkward ending to Sunday afternoon’s doubleheader between MSU (13-16 overall, 4-7 Big Ten) and Ohio State (18-11, 7-4).
There hadn’t been an offensive explosion all Saturday morning. The MSU defense crushed every running back and swatted swarms of passes thrown into the secondary during a team scrimmage.
Despite a trip plagued by delayed flights and a thunderstorm, the MSU gymnastics team placed third at the 2008 NCAA West Regional on Saturday in Corvalis, Ore.
It all came down to the No. 3 singles match for the MSU women’s tennis team. With the match tied at three points, freshman Manon Noe and Penn State’s Lauren Holzberg had to carry their teams on their backs in hopes of a victory.
Now that the MSU women’s basketball team’s season is over, Suzy Merchant has had time to relax and reflect on her first year as head coach.
When MSU football coach Mark Dantonio left Cincinnati, one vital asset followed. But junior defensive end Trevor Anderson didn’t think trashing his Bearcats uniform and fully diving into the MSU community would be as easy as pie.
Director of track and field Walt Drenth said he’s enthused about the MSU track team’s prospects at the Spartan Invitational on Saturday.
Growing up, freshman captain Bianca Mejia was surrounded by softball. She played for her high school team at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, Calif., and her two older sisters, Krystal and Vanessa, played at Long Island University.
More than any other sport, the game of baseball is based on numbers. From batting average to earned run average, every player is judged by the numbers he puts up on the diamond. In the case of junior catcher Kyle Day, the offensive numbers he has put up through 26 games jump off the stat sheet. He leads the Spartans with a .355 batting average, five home runs and 28 RBIs.
For the MSU baseball team and head coach David Grewe to right the ship this weekend and get on track for the Big Ten race, they’re going to have to go through the “best of the best.”