With the final week of conference action approaching, the 2005 Big Ten Championship has come down to Penn State, Ohio State or Michigan. The championship will be decided in two contests this weekend when the Buckeyes travel to arch-rival Michigan and MSU plays host to Penn State. "This is the most exciting weekend in Big Ten football," Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel said.
ESPN College GameDay will be coming back to East Lansing this weekend for the second year in a row. The show was here for last year's game against Notre Dame, which the Spartans lost 31-24.
Vanessa King continues to replay in her mind the day when MSU head coach Cathy George asked her to join the volleyball team. "I was talking to her in her office and she goes, 'I want to offer you a full ride,'" said the Spring Lake High School senior.
Based on his team's performance in its first two exhibition games, MSU head coach Tom Izzo said the Spartans are playing well enough to win just one game in their upcoming trip to Hawaii. Since the Spartans are scheduled to play at least three games during their jaunt to the tropics, some improvement is obviously needed — especially with the prospect of games against such top-tier programs as Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas, and Maryland in the Maui Invitational. The Spartans committed 41 total turnovers in their exhibition games against Lake Superior State and Northern Michigan, playing sloppily and out of synch. Sophomore point guard Drew Neitzel said the Spartans' failure to protect the ball and value each possession was out of character for the team.
After starting the season 4-0, many thought recruiting would become easy for MSU head coach John L. Smith. Since then, though, the team has fallen to 5-5 overall and the opposite is being said for the Spartans recruiting efforts. But has it really become harder? "It hasn't," Smith said.
Six games in 12 days — including two consecutive Tuesday night contests — have the MSU hockey team gasping for more air to keep going. After tonight's game against Ohio State at 7:05 p.m.
The MSU men's basketball team was far from impressive during its victory over Northern Michigan in an exhibition game on Saturday night. The Spartans defeated the Wildcats, 77-58, but committed 26 turnovers, including 15 in the first half. MSU head coach Tom Izzo said he was upset with the team's failure to protect the basketball, but attributed some of the sloppiness to the different combinations of lineups he used throughout the exhibition.
The MSU men's soccer team wasn't able to defend its Big Ten championship from last season as it lost to Penn State 2-0 in the semifinals of this year's Big Ten Tournament on Friday. Penn State, which went undefeated in conference play, took the lead midway through the first period, then added another goal in the 89th minute to ice the game. The Nittany Lions were the eventual tournament champions. The Spartans (8-6-5) will find out if their season is over or not today when the NCAA Tournament field is selected.
• Former Spartan hockey great Jim Slater, now with the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers, scored his first We're still waiting for Agim Shabaj to score his first NFL touchdown. • The Sacramento Kings are in a bit of hot water after last week's game against the Detroit Pistons, in which they showed images of abandoned buildings, burned-out cars and trashy streets on their overhead screens during Detroit's pregame introductions. • If the Pistons are looking for a little revenge, here's a suggestion.
Minneapolis, Minn. — Old demons continue to haunt MSU. Once again, drops by MSU's receivers and poor tackling by the MSU defense contributed heavily to the team's 41-18 loss to Minnesota on Saturday. Sophomore wide receiver Terry Love dropped the ball on two consecutive plays — one a deep bomb that would've put MSU inside the red zone, the next, a bubble screen. "The drops today were a nightmare," Love said.
Despite a second-half surge by a pesky Grand Valley State team, the MSU women's basketball team prevail in the final minutes of its exhibition game Sunday, 84-77. MSU went into halftime with a 12-point lead, 50-38, but the Lakers went on a 10-2 run to start the second half.
The MSU women's volleyball team (12-14 overall, 5-11 Big Ten) easily defeated Indiana (9-19, 2-14 Big Ten) for the second time this season, sweeping them 3-0 at Jension Field House on Saturday. It was the Spartans' first Big Ten sweep at home this season. After jumping out to an early 11-9 lead in the first set, the Spartans' offense caught fire, hitting at a .286 clip to give them the 1-0 advantage.
I made one of the biggest mistakes as a Detroit Pistons fan last week. I went to sleep on the Pistons.
Minneapolis, Minn. — The sun was shining brightly over East Lansing during the month of September for the MSU football team. The team started out 4-0 and was riding high after an overtime victory at Notre Dame followed by a 61-point effort at Illinois. Then, something happened.
The MSU women's soccer team did something this weekend it had never done before. The Spartans (12-6-5) whipped Bowling Green 4-0 on Friday for the first NCAA Tournament win in school history.
The MSU hockey team had fewer than 30 seconds left to play before escaping Saturday with a tie. But Nebraska-Omaha forward Scott Parse picked up the puck on a turnover behind the MSU net and fed it up to forward Bill Thomas, who beat MSU freshman goaltender Jeff Lerg on the bottom corner with 27.2 seconds left in overtime. With the 3-2 win, the Mavericks completed a weekend sweep over the No.
The MSU volleyball team will look to sweep Indiana on the season when they host them at 8 p.m. Saturday at Jenison Field House. The Spartans won the previous meeting between the two, 3-1, on Sept.
The MSU wrestling team will host the Michigan State Open at Jenison Field House this Saturday and Sunday in preseason wrestling action. Although no team scores are kept for the tournament, medals are awarded to the top eight wrestlers in each weight class.
The MSU men's tennis team is set to host the Big Ten Indoor Championship this weekend in the second tournament of the Spartans' fall season. The Spartans will be represented by sophomore Nick Rinks, juniors Joseph McWilliams and Michael Flowers, and freshmen Alex Forger, John Allare and Scott Rasmussen out of a 64-player main draw. The tournament will start at 9 a.m.
The No. 10 MSU women's basketball team will have one more chance to tune up for the regular season when it hosts Grand Valley State in an exhibition game at 2 p.m.