Michigan State University Basketball Blog

Since wolves are a protected species in the state of Michigan, the MSU Spartans decided to bag themselves a small pack from Raleigh. It was a great hunt as the Sparty men destroyed and manhandled NC State 81 to 58. The Spartans move to 5-1 on the season, while the Wolfpack fall to 4-2.

Coach Tom Izzo must have done something, because the Spartans from the tip off looked very hungry and played with more passion than they have the entire season. Goran Suton looked really sharp, pumping in the team’s first 12 points. By the time the Wolfpack knew what hit them, they were down by double digits. Drew Neitzel then decided to take over and pumped in some big time shots. In fact, for the game, he went an impressive 7 for 10 to lead all scorers with 17 points.

Granted, the Wolfpack played a lot of basketball as of late. Perhaps they had tired legs. But come on, when you’re 19 to 20 years old, the only thing that should be tired in your body is your liver from all the parties. The Spartans simply showed that when they play with passion and focus on both ends of the court, namely defense, they can destroy any team in the land.

This game was in honor of legendary coach Jimmy V. In 1986, I wrote an english paper on the 1983 NC State national championship game. In fact, I was able to present it to my english class in high school. To me it was the greatest college basketball game I have ever watched on TV. To this day, it is still at the top in my books. Long live the legacy of Jimmy V!

Box Score

One should start looking for cheap airline tickets for the choice flights well before time, as soon as the confirmed details of the vacation packages are received. Finding cheap flights or even cheap cruises can be quite a feat. The intensity of difficulty varies with the travel distances of course.

After a weak performance against Oakland University, the Sparty men face off against the 4-1 NC State Wolfpack in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge on Wednesday night. The Wolfpack just beat Villanova to capture the Old Spice tourney in Orlando. So if the Spartans play another lame game, then look for NC State to give them a beating. As Coach Izzo recently stated, “We’re an out of sync basketball team and I don’t know when that is going to change……”

Moving on to Saturday, the Spartans will tangle with Jacksonville University which is also 4-1 as of today. Both games are at home, which should mean wins. But in reality, Oakland would get blasted by both schools. So don’t pencil in any Spartan wins just yet. Tom is still whipping the young guys into shape and hopefully stomping on their massive egos a little. Go Green!

The golf galaxy has always been associated with the best of golf equipment, from golf carts to balls to clubs. To date, any one store that deals with all such accessories for baseball or basketball ceases to exist. From basketball shoes to balls, one has to go and visit different stores to gather all these things.

Joe Rexrode from the Lansing State Journal ran down some of the quotes he got from both MSU and UCLA players after Wednesday’s game.  Good stuff here and I thought the one on how the Spartans rebounded was particularly enlighening.

Just a day after edging Missouri to get into the CBE Classic final, the Spartans lost a tough game to the UCLA Bruins last night.  It was a tale of two halves as the Spartans took care of business in the first half only to give up 43 in the second half to lose to the second ranked team.  Raymar Morgan was really held in check and he took just eight shots while picking up only two rebounds.  Drew Neitzel led the Spartans with just thirteen points.

The Spartans didn’t take care of business on the glass.  Not only were they out rebounded 31-24, but 18 of those 31 rebounds for UCLA were on the offensive glass.  UCLA also got to the line twice as many times as the Spartans.

Still, they kept pace with a team who many thought was the top team in the country.  Next up is Oakland University on Saturday, which should be an easy win, assuming they don’t pull what they did against Grand Valley State.

The Spartans won the Michigan State regional of the CBE Classic rather handily and they wrapped things up last night with a blowout win over Louisiana-Monroe.  They did it with some nice defense in holding their opposition to a .343 field goal percentage and the shot well themselves (.540).  Four different players scored in double figures and it was Chris Allen off the bench who led the team with seventeen points.  Drew Neitzel scored fifteen and Tuesday’s star, Raymar Morgan, scored thirteen and picked up a team high fourteen rebounds.

Next up is Missouri on Monday as the CBE classic continued. It they can beat Missouri, they’ll play the winner of the Maryland/UCLA game.

In MSU’s first official game of the season, the Spartans didn’t disappoint in a 86-53 ass-whipping of Chicago State. After barely going 1-1 against Division II GLIAC opponents, the Sparty men manned up and showed the basketball world what they are really made of. It was good to see, considering they got schooled by Grand Valley and then schooled by Marquette native Tim Strom.

Raymar Morgan put in 25 points and 15 boards for his personal best. Let’s hope he stays another year or two to raise those totals to an even higher margin! Freshmen studs Chris Allen added 13 points while Durrell Summers pumped in 12.

Coach Tom Izzo seemed to be finally pleased with the Spartans: I guess I have a wonderful sense of the obvious, but there were a lot of guys who did some good things. I thought Kalin Lucas did a great job pushing the ball early, he got a lot of people the ball. I thought (Raymar) Morgan - it was one game, but it was one game that he played a little bit more possessed. I thought (Morgan’s) points were great, and the rebounding led to a lot of points. I think on six offensive rebounds, he scored on five of them. I thought Drew Neitzel did a good job, he was hot early. I don’t know if we just did a good job of getting him the ball there for a minute, but with eight assists and no turnovers, it was a great night for him. I thought Travis (Walton) did a good job coming off the bench. I thought our young guys, especially (Durrell) Summers played well. Our bigs have a ways to go yet, but we made some progress.

Box Score

Over at Basketbal Prospectus, two of their experts chatted about college basketball’s opening weekend.  Probably the most interesting items regard Michigan, who’s off to a decent start.  Of course it couldn’t have been that big of a deal because this UM blogger didn’t even cover the game. He’s right not to get too excited because just like you can expect MSU football to choke during a given season, you can expect the same thing from Michigan basketball.  They might look like a tournament team in January, but when March rolls around, they’ll have had a collapse that’ll keep them out of it.

John Gasaway over at Basketball Prospectus (a kick ass site if you haven’t checked it out yet, I can’t wait for that book next year) recently previewed half of the teams in the Big Ten including Michigan State.  He talks about how MSU turned the ball over so much last year and he focuses on that as a key to the 2008 season.   Good stuff and he talks about some a few of the other teams including Michigan.

It looks like Tom Izzo is getting a little worried because while the Spartans beat Michigan Tech in their second exhibition game, it wasn’t an easy win.  The final was 61-55 but at one point late in the game, Tech had to pulled to within three points.

Drew Neitzel struggled on the court and that’s particularly disconcerting.  He shot just five for fifteen and it looks like he never really got going in the game.  Kalin Lucas led the way with 16 points while Goran Suton put 15 points on the board.

The Spartans open their season next Wednesday against Chicago State in the CBE Classic - Michigan State Regional.  Hopefully Izzo will have worked out what problems this team is having and we can kick off the season with a couple of wins.

Move over Appalachian State, hello Grand Valley State. Man alive, the Spartans lost 85-82 in OT. Forget the late turnover in regulation that enabled Grand Valley to take the lead. There is NO excuse for losing to a D-II opponent at home!

Is this a sign of bad things to come, or just a hiccup? Keep in mind that GVSU is an elite D-II team, capable of going to the Final Four. So far, it appears that Tom Izzo has not done a good job of preparing his men for battle. He better bring out the pads and whip these guys into game shape–mentally and physically. They got another D-II team on deck in Michigan Tech. They better be ready for this one!


Game Box Score

The MSU Spartans begin the season in an exhibition contest against Division II power Grand Valley State on Friday night.  Before you think this game will be a cake-walk, think again.  Grand Valley was 29-5 last season and finished in the D-II Elite Eight.

Don’t get me wrong, Sparty will win this game and probably by close to 20 points.  If MSU’s football team played GVSU, that would be a different story.  Hands down, the Lakers would whip Sparty’s ass.  But thanks to Tom Izzo, the basketball program is the king of Michigan and for that matter, looking to be king of the U.S.A. in 2007-08.  Go Green!