Michigan State University Basketball Blog

MSU senior guard Drew Neitzel captured Big Ten Player of the Week for is big time performances against both Northwestern and Michigan.  Drew pumped in a two-game average of 19 points.  Against Michigan on Sunday, he smoked the Wolverines for 18 points in the first half and then cruised as the entire team did.  If Drew keeps this up, he is going to help MSU become a major factor in the Big Ten race and a darkhorse come NCAA tourney time!  Drew’s mom and dad must be the most famous TV parents in college basketball.  It seems that when Drew is on fire, ESPN or CBS shows a shot of his mom and dad.  That’s a tribute to his fine character and leadership, being raised in Wyoming, MI.  Good man, Drew!

For the second time in a matter of a couple weeks this season, the Spartans tangled against the Gophers. Once again, this game could have gone either way. But senior leader Drew Neitzel manned up big time, pumping in 19 points, including 5 3-pointers! Drew looked like a man amongst boys, bringing flashbacks of his supreme greatness from last season. Now that this is Big Ten season, I am getting the sense that he is really pumped up looking to make history, and go out a champion. Yes!

In front of a packed house in icy and frigid Minneapolis, Tubby’s Gophers played another tough game against MSU. The Spartans looked very ugly once again this season, turning the ball over 18 times!! Unreal. I know the freshmen Kalin Lucas and Chris Allen played great games, scoring a combined 23 points, but they also turned the damn ball over 6 times. If these young bucks can get the TO ratio down, this club has a good shot at winning the Big Ten. If not, then Bucky and Indiana are going to snare it from our grasp.

Next on deck for the Sparty men is feeble Northwestern (6-9, 0-5 Big Ten) in Chicagoland.

Box Score

This was three smaller games crammed into one.  The first game was MSU dominating the Buckeyes in the first fifteen minutes of the game.  The Spartans built up leads of 27-7 and 32-11 and this game looked like it was going to be a blowout.

The second game was OSU’s big run.  They closed out the second half on a 10-2 run and this carried over into the second half when they expanded their run to 25-7 to make it a three point game.

The third game was a back and forth game.  OSU would pull to within five points before MSU would go on a mini-run and while they never got it back to a ten point lead, they did enough to hold on to win.  The final minutes dragged on with OSU fouling to try to get back into it but the Sparants ended up winning it 66-60.

Raymar Morgan disappeared in this one, mostly due to foul trouble.  He scored just six points and his first field goal didn’t come until there was just 13 points left in the second half.  Drew Neitzel led the way with thirteen and he had three big three pointers.  Two of those were early and the third was in the middle of OSU’s big run and it made the difference between MSU keeping the lead and OSU tying it up.

The Spartans completely dominated on the glass.  They had 39 rebounds with 17 of those being on the offensive glass.  This made up for the pathetic nine for seventeen that the Spartans shot from the line.

Next up are the Gophers on Sunday.  Game time is 4 pm.

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Here’s a great column on how the Spartans aren’t quite over their turnover woes yet.  A lot of good stuff in here.

MSU continued another very ugly Big Ten performance tonight in Iowa City against the Iowa Hawkeyes. This was officially the 2nd road game for MSU the entire season. So no wonder why they struggled so much. They had a cupcake schedule all season with great home cookin’. The Sparty men must have gotten home-sick during their flight to Iowa, becuase their performance was pathetic. Come on guys, your girlfriends and pizza in the fridge will still be there when you get back in one day.

For the game, MSU shot 30.2% from the field and 25% from 3-point range (3-12). The real kicker was turnovers. The Spartans turned the ball over 18 times while Iowa only lost the pill 7 times. Raymar Morgan and Drew Neitzel led the way with 10 points a piece, but had a combined 5 turnovers and shot a mere 9 for 26 from the field.

I may be acting grumpy, but the Spartans tonight let the wind out of my NCAA and Big Ten champ sail. True champions don’t lose to teams 7-9 overall and 0-3 in the Big Ten with a brand new coach and transition period on hand. Tom better get the damn pads out in practice and really work this spoiled bunch of Sparty men over and get them playing some good ball! Take them outside in the cold in their shorts and toughen’ these men up! Go GREEN!

Box Score

It was not pretty, but nothing ever is against a team coached by the legendary Tubby Smith. MSU was able to beat the world’s dumbest and ugliest mascot–the Gophers of Minnesota by a score of 65 to 59.

The man of the night was Raymar Morgan. Raymar was 11 of 17 from the field, and 9 of 12 from the charity line totaling 31 points—a career high. This was by far Raymar’s best game of his young Sparty career. I don’t want to talk about any other Spartans but Raymar. He was the man, period. I don’t know how far MSU will go this year in terms of a Big Ten title or getting out of the first or second round of the NCAA’s, but if Raymar keeps improving like he has over the past year and 1/2, then the sky is the limit!

I do not know who created the Gopher as the mascot of Minnesota, but they should be put to sleep. Nothing worse than looking at a buck-toothed, yellow tooth, smelly varmit on your jerseys. I am so proud to be an alum of a Spartan! Go Green!

Box Score

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Basketball Prospectus runs down the Big Ten race in a nice column and he points to the Spartans lack of turnovers being a major bright spot for the team.   It’s looking like it’ll be a three team race with MSU at the top of the heap and Indiana and Wisconsin chasing MSU’s tail.  MSU kicks things off in the Big Ten tomorrow at home against Minnesota.

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