With arguably the toughest four-game stretch in program history on the horizon, MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo is preparing for a stressful holiday season. “This might be toughest four-game stretch because … none of (the games) are at home,” Izzo said. “It just gives me something else to worry about over Thanksgiving.”
Two MSU field hockey players were named to All-America teams Monday. Junior midfielder Floor Rijpma was named first-team NFHCA All-America, leading MSU with 18 goals and 40 total points, while netting two game-winning shots. She earned third-team honors last season.
The MSU women’s cross country team finished 11th out of 31 teams at the NCAA Championships on Monday in Terre Haute, Ind. Senior Nicole Bush, MSU’s most decorated runner, placed seventh with a time of 20 minutes, 8 seconds.
The men’s basketball team isn’t the only hoops squad that has to endure a tough stretch of games the next week. The No. 24 women’s basketball team, fresh off winning the TD Banknorth Classic championship, now has to face No. 23 Old Dominion and No. 14 Notre Dame this week, something head coach Suzy Merchant said she is looking forward to.
In a few days, when the sting of Saturday’s 49-18 beatdown in Beaver Stadium wears off, the MSU football team will be able to reflect on its 9-3 season. The No. 22 Spartans (9-3 overall, 6-2 Big Ten) can take pride in likely becoming the first MSU team to reach a New Year’s Day bowl game since 2000, when the Spartans stunned Florida with a 37-34 win in the Citrus Bowl (now known as the Capital One Bowl). MSU will either receive a berth in the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Fla., or the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla.
Mark Dantonio can be described many ways. He can be called old-school, perhaps a traditionalist. Or he can be defined by any one of his Dantonioisms, such as “Stay the course” and “They all count one.”
The Spartans passed on the cupcakes and traveled out West to open the 2008 season against the Golden Bears, who were ranked as high as No. 2 in 2007. The Spartans made mistakes early and played catch-up from the opening quarter.
If you don’t allow goals, you can’t lose. That’s the motto the MSU men’s soccer team has been living by this season. And it’s working perfectly for the Spartans, as they have racked up seven straight shutouts. With an established scorer in Doug DeMartin up top, head coach Joe Baum has been able to focus his attention on molding the defensive unit into a back line that has been impenetrable of late.
State College, Pa. — The last time MSU beat Penn State in Beaver Stadium, the Vietnam War had just started, Lyndon B. Johnson was president and Spartans’ head coach Mark Dantonio had yet to celebrate his 10th birthday.
State College, Pa. —- They came to Penn State following a 4-7 record in 2004, but four years and two Big Ten Championships later, the 17 seniors on the Nittany Lions are leaving as a group that brought Penn State back to national prominence.
State College, Pa. — Sometimes the explanation is as simple as it looks.
State College, Pa. — First came the light snow.
State College, Pa. —- Playing on the program’s biggest stage in 18 years, the No. 17 MSU football team stumbled and came to a crashing fall under the bright lights of Beaver Stadium, losing in convincing fashion to No. 7 Penn State 49-18.
It started out as a vision. Perhaps the idea could be called a pipe dream. But when George Perles, then-MSU’s football coach and Athletics Director, emerged from the Spartan Stadium tunnel for MSU’s regular season finale against Illinois in 1991 and saw a mere 61,721 fans in the crowd, he decided the MSU football program needed a change.
The MSU football team had little to play for against Penn State on Nov. 18, 2006. The Spartans were the bottom of program valley, 4-7 with one game remaining, with head coach John L. Smith orchestrating his final game at MSU.
Williams is one of the premiere return men in the conference, ranking first with 28.6 yards per kick return and sixth in punt returns with an average of 9.4 yards.
Some students go out and party on Thursday nights. Others stay in to refresh the sports page over and over and over again so that they can be first ones to read Prognosticators. Well, it’s go time, sports fans. Prognosticators is here.
Not even two big handfuls of mistakes could knock the MSU women’s basketball team off its path. Despite 24 turnovers and 49 missed shots from the floor and free-throw line, the Spartans still rolled over Detroit Mercy 85-48 on Wednesday at Breslin Center — remaining unbeaten this season.
Cross country senior Nicole Bush has broken individual MSU records, won high school state titles and earned conference awards in her illustrious running career. Yet the crowning achievement in an already overflowing trophy case — an NCAA national championship — has alluded the Wyoming, Mich., native. Bush and the 10th-ranked Spartans women’s team will travel to Terre Haute, Ind., on Monday for the NCAA Championships, where Bush will look to best her fifth-place finish in 2007.
It’s not over ‘til it’s over. That’s the attitude the MSU volleyball team is taking into the last two weeks of the regular season. The team (14-13 overall, 6-10 Big Ten) still holds an outside chance of making the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid and is looking to take every opportunity to slip into the Big Dance.