Chicago - Every season has its changes, but the Big Ten's best are expected to continue performing at an elite level. Michigan and Ohio State are again picked to finish as the top two teams in the conference, with Iowa placing third. The Wolverines return 16 starters including sophomore quarterback Chad Henne and running back Michael Hart.
MSU men's hockey freshman forward Justin Abdelkader was selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the second round of the National Hockey League Entry Draft on Saturday. In addition to Abdelkader, freshman forward Tim Crowder was chosen by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the fifth round and the Washington Capitals picked freshman forward Tim Kennedy in the sixth round. Abdelkader scored 27 goals and 25 assists as a forward on the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders of the United States Hockey League, or USHL.
MSU women's basketball senior forward Liz Shimek was chosen as one of 12 members for the 2005 USA Women's World University Games Team to compete Aug.
It's the middle of the summer and the beginning of August, so it's tough to get excited about the upcoming hockey season, but why not be excited about it? After this weekend, the National Hockey League has a full schedule, rookies from not one year but two - seeing as there was no draft last summer - and the rules are going to be different. Opening night is Oct.
MSU baseball head coach David Grewe announced the hiring of two assistant coaches, Mike Steele and Tony Baldwin, on Tuesday. Steele has been playing Minor League Baseball for the last five years as a pitcher and is a former Central Michigan player and Midland, Mich., native.
MSU redshirt freshman center Goran Suton will travel with the Big Ten Men's Basketball Foreign Tour Team from Aug.
MSU sophomore golfer Ryan Brehm qualified for the 2005 Buick Open, which will be held from Thursday to Sunday at the Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc. Brehm shot a 5-under 67 and tied for third place at the open qualifier on Monday at the Fieldstone Golf Club in Auburn Hills, Mich.
MSU junior guard Victoria Lucas-Perry and junior center Katrina Grantham each scored six points in the fifth and final game of the Big Ten Foreign Tour Team's trip to Europe. The squad finished with a 5-0 record, after a 110-40 rout against Luxembourg Musel Pikes in Remich, Luxembourg, on Monday night. Lucas-Perry led the Big Ten team in rebounding for the tour with an average 4.8 rebounds per game, while averaging 8.2 points and 2.2 assists per game.
Last week, the Big Ten Conference announced its Bowl game lineup for the 2006-09 college football seasons, which will include two new bowls for the conference. The league signed off on four-year extensions with the Capital One, Outback and Alamo Bowls and signed new four-year agreements with the Champs Sports and Insight Bowls.
Oct. 2, 2005 - The Detroit Tigers defeat the Minnesota Twins and win the American League Wild Card by one game. At the beginning of the season, the Wild Card spot was just a tiny thought in the minds of Tigers fans. The Chicago White Sox took control of the Central Division early and have run away with the title, while the Tigers slipped below .500 and into third or fourth place, out of contention for any playoff consideration. However, as of Sunday, the Tigers were back to the .500-mark at 49-49 and only four games out of the Wild Card lead, held by Minnesota and Oakland.
MSU junior guard Victoria Lucas-Perry and junior center Katrina Grantham and the Big Ten Foreign Tour team continued their winning ways in Belgium on Saturday night, with a 78-77 win over the Belgium National Team in Brussels. Lucas-Perry had 11 points and six rebounds, and Grantham had two points and two rebounds in the victory. Lucas-Perry made only one field goal, but made 9-for-10 from the free-throw line, for her second double-digit point total of the tour.
This weekend, MSU football head coach John L. Smith suspended senior cornerback Jaren Hayes for an indefinite period of time. The suspension was for an off-field incident, and it prevents Hayes from participating in any football-related activities. MSU Associate Athletics Director John Lewandowski said there is no timetable for Hayes' return to the team.
MSU junior guard Shannon Brown did not make the cut for the 12-man roster for the Men's USA Basketball under-21 team. Brown, Oklahoma St.
The Big Ten Foreign Tour team and MSU juniors center Katrina Grantham and guard Victoria Lucas-Perry are still undefeated after winning two games over the Netherlands National Team. In a 107-52 win, Grantham had six points and two rebounds, while Lucas-Perry had five points and a team-high five assists. In an 88-52 victory in Amsterdam on Thursday night, the team improved to 3-0 before they headed to Belgium to play the Belgian National Team on Saturday night.
In the next week, MSU could respectively place one woman and one man on the USA World University Games Team and the USA Basketball Men's under-21 Team. From today through Friday, MSU junior guard Shannon Brown will be trying out for the men's under-21 team in Dallas.
MSU junior center Katrina Grantham and junior guard Victoria Lucas-Perry had solid performances in their first game on the Big Ten Foreign Tour team. The two players helped the team to a 119-56 win against the Netherlands National Team in the opening game of the team's tour Tuesday night with a combined 24 points and 11 rebounds.
On Friday, MSU women's golfer and junior Mandi McConnell won the 89th annual Michigan Amateur Championship in Ann Arbor at Radrick Farms Golf Course.
After attending MSU football camp from Sunday through Tuesday last week, Lowell High School junior-to-be quarterback Keith Nichol decided it was the right time to give a verbal commitment to attend MSU in 2007. "There wasn't one coach that I didn't like," Nichol said Thursday.
Former MSU wrestler Chris Williams has been named as a new assistant coach for the team, under head coach Tom Minkel. Williams wrestled at MSU from 1997-2002, highlighted by an All-American season in 2001.
It took MSU athletic director Ron Mason four weeks to find the next MSU head baseball coach, but on Wednesday morning at the Kellogg Center he announced David Grewe will take over that position. "The final decision was mine, but I had some help along the way from some baseball people that I trust," Mason said.