The MSU hockey team's seven departing players played well on Senior Night, but a pair of sophomores upstaged all of them in the Spartans' regular-season finale. Second-year center Jim Slater, who has been battling a shoulder injury, scored a goal in each period for his first career hat trick Saturday night at Munn Ice Arena.
Columbus, Ohio - The Buckeyes turned into just another victim for the Spartans on Saturday afternoon. MSU dominated Ohio State for most of the game, and despite some defensive lapses, picked up the 72-58 victory at Value City Arena.
Two things are on the Spartans' minds as they wrap up their regular season against Western Michigan this weekend - to get on a roll heading into the playoffs and to honor their seven departing teammates.MSU (19-13-2 overall, 15-10-1 CCHA) and the Broncos (15-17-2, 13-12-1) play Friday at Lawson Arena in Kalamazoo and Saturday at Munn Ice Arena.
He had saved his best game for last, was mobbed by his teammates for the second time this season and kissed the green and white "S" at midcourt for good measure. On a senior night that saw four MSU seniors bid the regular-season hardwood at Breslin Center goodbye, senior forward Adam Ballinger shrugged off the criticism of a lackluster season and led the Spartans to a masterful 82-54 win over Iowa on Wednesday. Ballinger, who set career highs in points (22) and field goals (9, including 4-for-5 from 3-point range), set the tone for MSU's (17-11 overall, 8-6 Big Ten) game-winning 16-0 run to open the game. Ballinger and the Spartans never looked back. "The guys did a good job of getting me going," Ballinger said after the game, "Things just flowed.
On the third day of the third month in the third year of this century, No. 3 on the MSU men's basketball team announced this season, his third playing, would be his last. Junior forward Adam Wolfe announced Monday he is "99 percent" sure he will forego his final season of eligibility and leave the team following the completion of this season. Though Wolfe made the announcement abruptly, the decision is not entirely shocking.
Detroit - When the MSU hockey team smacked No. 8 Michigan 4-0 on Friday night, almost every bounce of the puck went its way. But the Spartans'puck luck ran out in Saturday's rematch at Joe Louis Arena. U-M head coach Red Berenson notched his 500th career win with a 5-4 victory infront of 20,058 fans. "You know me, it's not a big thing until it's all over," Berenson said of his milestone mark.
Another must-win situation turned into a Spartan victory. The Spartans recovered from a sloppy first half and a lousy start to the second half to defeat the Purdue 69-61 Saturday afternoon at Breslin Center. "It was a strange game - game where there wasn't a lot of flow to it," MSU head coach Tom Izzo said.
Tomorrow is the first day of March, which means the madness of college basketball is almost upon us. During a three-week span (perfect for hoops junkies), reputations are built, hearts are broken and legends are made. This is by far the greatest sporting event of them all.
Here we go again. Just two weeks after archrivals MSU and No. 8 Michigan split a hard-fought, home-and-home hockey series, they'll bump heads two more times this weekend - tonight in Ann Arbor and Saturday in Detroit.
The Spartans are inching closer and closer to the NCAA Tournament. But the road leading to the first round still has sharp turns.
Ann Arbor - Nothing could go wrong for the MSU hockey team Friday night at Yost Ice Arena. In thumping archrival No.
It would probably be in the best interest of Spartan athletes to continue facing the U.S. flag during the national anthem, MSU Athletics Director Ron Mason said. His caveat comes after spectators and media have paid increased attention to the unusual action of a women's basketball player at New York's Manhattanville College.
Dagenais promoted to associate head coach MSU volleyball assistant coach Todd Dagenais was promoted to associate head coach Thursday by head coach Chuck Erbe. Dagenais, who spent 1997 working as a volunteer assistant and 1999-2002 as an assistant coach, has completed five seasons of service to the Spartan team.
The Spartans needed to play with desperation Wednesday night. And they did just that. Despite leading by double-digits for most of the game, the Spartans (15-11 overall, 7-6 Big Ten) softened in the latter half of the contest.
Michigan left wing Jeff Tambellini played so well against MSU two weeks ago that, when asked to describe the dynamic freshman, Spartan head coach Rick Comley said he didn't have a big enough adjective to do the job. One suggestion would be "dominating," considering Tambellini scored four of U-M's six goals against the Spartans that weekend.
For the second time this week, the women's basketball team faces a Big Ten team it hasn't seen this season when it takes on Iowa today.Despite the reduced preparation time for the matchup due to the Spartans' game on Monday, junior forward Julie Pagel said the Spartans (15-10 overall, 8-6 Big Ten) aren't worried.Heading into Tuesday's practice Pagel said the team didn't know much about this year's Hawkeyes (14-11, 6-8) but still had two days to soak up information, combined with a few veterans to aid the learning."Our plan is always to take one game at a time," Pagel said.
It was a traffic jam of a game.Stops and starts of plays, officials' whistles and the timekeeper's horn were the most distinguishable features of MSU's 71-61 win over Minnesota on Wednesday night in front of a capacity Breslin Center crowd.Officials whistled 55 personal fouls against the Spartans (15-11 overall, 7-6 Big Ten) and Golden Gophers (16-8, 8-5), 27 and 28 each respectively.
MSU is walking into a win-lose situation heading into tonight's matchup with Minnesota. Win and keep hopes of an NCAA Tournament berth alive; lose and consider its dance card lost in the mail.A loss at the Breslin Center tonight for the Spartans (14-11 overall, 6-6 Big Ten) could be catastrophic and running the table in the Big Ten Tournament might be the Spartans only hope for reaching the NCAA Tournament.The Golden Gophers, on the other hand, are looking to steal a conference game on the road to keep their own tourney hopes afloat.Minnesota (16-7, 8-4) strung several lopsided runs together en route to a 77-69 win in January when the teams met at Williams Arena in Minneapolis.
The Spartans were in a must-win situation Wednesday night and they didn't let the opportunity slide by.MSU (15-11 overall, 7-6 Big Ten) kept its NCAA Tournament hopes alive by defeating Minnesota 71-61 in front of a boisterous Breslin Center crowd.Sophomore forward/guard Alan Anderson led the Spartans with 18 points, while sophomore guard Kelvin Torbert added 17.
MSU head coach Rick Comley's second go-around with Northern Michigan still felt weird. However, it wasn't quite as strange as his first encounter with the team he coached for 26 seasons before coming to East Lansing this year. This weekend, Comley and his family reacquainted themselves with several old friends from Northern who traveled to MSU for the teams' two-game series. Of course, he saw many of the same people when the Spartans traveled to Marquette for a series in October.