Grand Rapids — They weren't supposed to beat Boston on Friday night, and God forbid if they did, there was no way they were going to beat the top-seeded Fighting Irish on Saturday to punch a ticket to the Frozen Four in St.
THEY HAVE: Rhett the Terrier WE HAVE: Sparty the … Spartan? THEY HAVE: Campus located parallel to the Charles River in Boston, Mass. WE HAVE: Campus along the Red Cedar River in East Lansing, Mich.
Grand Rapids — It shouldn't surprise many people that Boston and MSU have similar hockey teams.
With the dust settled and the smoke cleared, the NCAA Tournament's trip to East Lansing is considered a success on all fronts. MSU hosted the first and second rounds of the women's tournament at Breslin Center this past Saturday through Tuesday and led all eight cities hosting opening-round games in attendance. Reported attendance • East Lansing — 21,340 • Pittsburgh — 21,181 • Hartford — 20,714 • Raleigh — 12,372 • Minneapolis — 12,218 • Austin — 11,697 • Stanford — 4,111 (No reported first-round attendance) • Los Angeles — 3,386 • Along with the attendance numbers, approximately 200 members of the media held credentials, according to MSU Sports Information.
Now that the MSU basketball team's season has come to a close, it's time to hand out some awards. Most likely to say something that can't be printed in The State News without heavy editing — sophomore guard Travis Walton Walton is pretty tame when he's speaking at the podium during post-game press conferences, but if you're in earshot when the Spartans huddle up before taking the court, prepare for some fantastic sound bites.
The MSU hockey team prepares to play Boston tonight in Grand Rapids in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Athletes probably get used to being overlooked when they're 5-foot-6. But not sophomore goaltender Jeff Lerg. Lerg, who was named the team's Most Valuable Player on Monday, may be forgotten among Hobey Baker candidates such as Notre Dame goaltender David Brown and Boston goaltender John Curry.
The locker room is empty. The equipment is packed away. The players are on hiatus for two weeks — "13 1/2 more days than last year," head coach Tom Izzo said. The season is over for the MSU men's basketball team — a grueling campaign that saw the Spartans go from preseason doormat to a few minutes away from a Sweet 16 berth. "The biggest problem now is where do we go?" Izzo said Wednesday at his year-end press conference.
What started out as a joke has now taken on a sort of truth for junior defenseman Daniel Vukovic. When Vukovic scored his first goal of the season to lift MSU in a come-from-behind victory over Miami (Ohio) on Jan.
State News women's basketball reporter Matt Bishop discusses the women's basketball team's loss to Rutgers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, how this season will be remembered and the situation surrounding head coach Joanne P.
After a record-breaking performance Sunday, Spartans gymnast Kristen Coleman was named Big Ten gymnast of the week on Wednesday. The senior from Cornwall, Ontario, Canada broke her own all-around performance record against Western Michigan with a 39.625 tally, a full point higher than her previously set school record. Coleman set a personal high on floor exercise Sunday with a 9.950, her highest individual apparatus score of the night.
Senior SirDarean Adams has a goal. And it's not a pretty one. "Just come out and just flat-out kill somebody," he said Tuesday after MSU's first spring practice. Don't be alarmed — it's not what you think.
Eleven MSU players earned team honors at the annual hockey banquet on Monday. Sophomore goaltender Jeff Lerg earned the 2007 Spartan Hockey Most Valuable Player Award.
State News basketball reporter Tom Keller covered MSU's postseason run last week in Winston-Salem, N.C., and was reminded why this is his favorite — and most fattening — time of year. If you don't like the NCAA Tournament, I'm not sure we can be friends.
Breslin Center was half full for Sunday's game against Delaware. Butu when those fans are as loud as they were during the first-round tournament win, it doesn't necessarily matter how many people are in the seats. "It felt almost like it was a sellout," sophomore guard Mia Johnson said.
Senior gymnast Kristen Coleman set the MSU record in the all-around performance Sunday with a 39.625 overall score in a dual match at Western Michigan.
Finally, the pressure to get in is gone. MSU is in the NCAA Tournament, and one could only imagine the metaphorical sigh of relief the entire team released when it found out. After weeks of struggling, there is indeed a silver lining. There's a postseason. But still, the team has a longing to play as it did in its run that spanned more than two months.
Winston-Salem, N.C. — It was supposed to be over by now, but there were eight minutes left to play and ninth-seeded MSU was leading top-seeded North Carolina by a point.
After six straight NCAA Tournament-less seasons, Michigan fired men's basketball coach Tommy Amaker on Saturday.
MSU won't have to travel far for its first-round NCAA Tournament matchup, but at least it won't be sitting at home watching. After a lackluster end to the regular season and a CCHA Tournament semifinal loss to Michigan, the Spartans earned a No.