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Sports

SPORTS

Grapplers downed by No. 9 CMU, remain winless in season at 0-4

John Hudson
January 8, 2007

With his face strained and muscles taut, senior wrestler Tony Greathouse scored a takedown in the final seconds of the fifth match to overcome Central Michigan's Andy Keller against the Chippewas on Friday night at Jenison Field House. But the Spartans' glory didn't last through the duration of the match. While Greathouse's takedown served as an exclamation point at the end of a dominant start for the Spartans, the No.

SPORTS

Monday musings

Tom Keller
January 8, 2007

Playing its first game since head coach Mark Dantonio left for MSU, the Cincinnati football team defeated Western Michigan in the International Bowl on Saturday. MSU immediately fired Dantonio in hopes that it will also play better without him. Former MSU football head coach Nick Saban left the Miami Dolphins last week to assume the vacant coaching position at Alabama. MSU officials had reportedly made overtures to Saban to return to the Spartans, but their interest waned when Saban wouldn't stop laughing on the other end of the phone. An Air Force B-1B bomber will do a fly-over of University of Phoenix stadium just before the start of today's championship game. Bowl officials expect it to be the loudest noise in the stadium until Florida fans start calling for backup quarterback Tim Tebow in the second quarter. The Dallas Cowboys' postseason ended Saturday when quarterback Tony Romo botched the hold of a potential game-winning field goal in the game's final minutes. Reporters waited anxiously to ask Romo what went wrong on the failed play, but his answer was inaudible after he dropped the microphone on the ground. Miami Heat head coach Pat Riley, whose team has dropped five straight games since losing Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal to injury, underwent surgery on his right knee last week. Riley said doctors told him the surgery would sideline him until a few days after Wade and O'Neal return.

SPORTS

Women's team to learn from rout

Matt Bishop
January 8, 2007

College Park, Md. — News flash: Maryland is pretty good. After stomping MSU, 97-57, on Saturday to remain undefeated, the Terrapins looked well on their way to another Final Four appearance and a chance to defend their national championship. After being outrebounded in their previous game against North Carolina State, Maryland came out with an aggressiveness that MSU had yet to see this season and took it to the Spartans on the glass, winning the rebounding battle by 24. "That was, I think, the second time in two years that we were outrebounded," Maryland head coach Brenda Frese said.

ICE HOCKEY

U.P. trip a homecoming for Comley

Eric Fish
December 8, 2006

The city of Marquette still holds a special place in the heart of MSU hockey head coach Rick Comley. Not only did he coach at Northern Michigan from 1976 to 2002, but he was the first head coach in Wildcats history and was pivotally involved in the construction of their hockey rink. Comley's grandest coaching achievement with the Wildcats came in the 1990-91 season, when he guided the team to a 38-5-4 overall record and a national championship. This weekend, Comley will take his No.

SPORTS

High school teammates having big success at MSU

Joey Nowak
December 7, 2006

Russ Cozart has been around high school wrestling for 27 years — long enough to know when he's got something special. When his son, Rocky, was 4 years old, Cozart knew Rocky could be in for an illustrious career. "When he was old enough to put on a singlet and basically try to push somebody down, he started wrestling," Russ said. A decade later, Rocky Cozart joined the wrestling team his dad coached at Brandon High School in Brandon, Florida. Two years later, Franklin Gomez transferred to the same school and joined the team. By the time the two graduated in 2005, they had combined for five national championships and four state championships.

ICE HOCKEY

Abdelkader picked for U.S. squad

Eric Fish
December 7, 2006

Sophomore forward Justin Abdelkader will be temporarily trading in his green and white sweater for a red, white and blue one later this month. Abdelkader was selected Tuesday to represent Team USA at the 2007 International Ice Hockey Federation's World Junior Championships from Dec.

ICE HOCKEY

Up-and-down Spartans search for continuity

Eric Fish
December 6, 2006

The MSU hockey team is almost at the halfway point of the season, and there have been 15 games of mixed emotions for head coach Rick Comley. The positive: The Spartans have defeated top national teams Michigan and Notre Dame. The negative: MSU's spotty offense and shallow lineup have prevented it from consistently carrying over quality play from game to game and have left the Spartans with a .500 overall record. "We don't need excuses — we just have to get better," Comley said Monday at his weekly press conference.

BASKETBALL

Hoops preview

TONIGHT'S HOOPS GAME What: MSU men's basketball (7-2) vs. IPFW (3-5) Where: Breslin Center When: 7 p.m. NOTES: • MSU leads the Big Ten with a plus-11.4 rebounding margin.

BASKETBALL

MSU supports Ohio State in suit against former coach

Laura Collins
December 6, 2006

MSU was part of an 18-university group that filed a brief last week supporting Ohio State in its bid to overturn a $2.4 million award to former men's basketball coach Jim O'Brien. O'Brien was fired in 2004 after he admitted giving $6,000 to the mother of a 7-foot-3 Serbian recruit, Aleksander Radojevic. The Ohio Court of Claims ruled earlier this year that although O'Brien committed NCAA violations, the university improperly fired him by not following the terms of his contract. All 10 Big Ten schools other than Ohio State signed the brief, as did the Big Ten, Pacific-10 and Big 12 conferences.

SPORTS

DeHaan earns Big Ten honor, is on pace to shatter MSU blocks record

Matt Bishop
December 5, 2006

After a week in which she averaged 24 points, 9.5 rebounds and 6.5 blocks, 6-foot-9 freshman center Allyssa DeHaan was rewarded Monday with Big Ten Player of the Week honors, becoming the first MSU freshman to win the award in five years. "I'm certainly excited for Allyssa to get some recognition," MSU head coach Joanne P.

BASKETBALL

Morgan has stress fracture, may miss up to 3 weeks

Ethan Conley
December 5, 2006

MSU's most promising and versatile young player has been sidelined by an injury that has plagued the program for years — a stress fracture. Head coach Tom Izzo said Monday that freshman forward Raymar Morgan will miss Wednesday's game against IPFW with a stress fracture in his right shin.

BASKETBALL

Izzo still concerned about crowd

Ethan Conley
December 5, 2006

Tom Izzo wants more from you. The MSU head coach is looking for better crowd support. He said before the season he was worried that fans have become numb to success because of the team's recent history of Final Four appearances, and his concerns haven't been helped by sparse crowds at MSU's first few home games. "I hope we're not getting fat and sassy," Izzo said. MSU has reported a sellout in each of its seven home games thus far, but plenty of empty seats have been visible in both the Izzone and the regular-seating sections.

FOOTBALL

Dantonio, new staff on whirlwind recruit trip

Ethan Conley
December 4, 2006

Mark Dantonio is wasting no time in his effort to turn around the MSU football program. On Thursday, he penciled four names into his coaching staff: offensive coordinator Don Treadwell, defensive line coach Ted Gill, offensive line coach Dan Roushar and tackles/tight ends coach Mark Staten, who also will serve as recruiting coordinator. On Friday, he named three additional position coaches: secondary coach Harlon Barnett, linebackers and special teams coach Mike Tressel and quarterbacks coach Dave Warner. All seven worked under Dantonio at Cincinnati. "When I first found out and knew that there were possibilities about coming to Michigan State, the first thing I did was check with our staff, in terms of where they would be at with everything," Dantonio said Friday.

SPORTS

Broken nose? No problem

Joey Nowak
December 4, 2006

Senior forward Katrina Grantham played Sunday's game with a protective face mask after suffering a broken nose when she collided with senior guard Victoria Lucas-Perry in practice Saturday. "We almost lost two players before this game," MSU head coach Joanne P.

ICE HOCKEY

Special teams struggles limit Spartans to split

Eric Fish
December 4, 2006

The story of the season so far for the No. 12 Spartans has been inconsistency of play and inability to carry momentum from game to game. After splitting a home weekend series with Ohio State, the Spartans aren't any closer to solving those problems. Following a 4-1 win against Ohio State in the series opener Friday night, MSU gave up two shorthanded goals and two power-play goals in a 4-1 loss Saturday — the Spartans' first regular-season loss at Munn Ice Arena this season. "I was hoping we would take a step (Saturday) and take the game to them," MSU head coach Rick Comley said. "I didn't see that." Friday's contest could have been called The Tim Kennedy and Chris Mueller Show.

BASKETBALL

Trannon out, others step up

Joey Nowak
December 4, 2006

Bradley's four-guard lineup Sunday normally would have meant extended minutes for senior forward Matt Trannon, whose versatility has helped neutralize smaller post players in the past. But Trannon didn't play a single minute Sunday and won't for the rest of the season — head coach Tom Izzo announced Friday that Trannon won't return to the basketball team and instead will prepare for the NFL Draft. Trannon averaged 4.6 points and 4.3 rebounds a game last season and was one of MSU's best defenders.

BASKETBALL

Spartans bounce back with win

Ethan Conley
December 4, 2006

Tom Izzo wasn't particularly happy with any of his players following MSU's loss to Boston College on Wednesday, and sophomore forward Marquise Gray was responsible for a large part of the coach's ire.