Michigan State University Basketball Blog

On Saturday, the Spartans managed to beat the Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne Mastadons by a score of 79 to 57. However, the score is deceiving as the Mastadons were in the game and close for a solid 30 minutes. Drew Neitzel led all scorers with 18, but in my opinion, at times was sloppy with the ball. Marquise Gray was the Spartans star of the game pumping in 15 points and snaring 4 boards. He looked real good and made some impressive drives to the hoop.

Just for the record, a Mastadon is: Any of several very large, extinct proboscidian mammals of the genus Mammut (sometimes Mastodon), resembling the elephant but having molar teeth of a different structure.

So when you think you’ve heard it all in terms of college mascots, think again. IPFW has you beat! Oh by the way, they are led by Dane Fife, that great guard who played for Indiana–remember him?

Overall, when I watch this Spartan club play, I am very impressed at times, but also very unimpressed as well. This team has the talent to go deep in the NCAA tournament and give Indiana a fight for the Big Ten crown. But right now, they are plagued with a basketball version of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Now, I realize this is a serious illness, so I apologize if insulting those plagues with this condition. I just can’t understand how for a stretch of 5 minutes this team looks unreal, and then they follow it up by turning the ball over, not blocking out on defense, and not taking charge. Izzo hit it on the head when he was quoted as saying, “We still don’t have enough guys driven by excellence,” Izzo said. “When you can’t put a team away at home, you’re settling for mediocrity. They deserve some credit for that, and we deserve some blame.”

Next stop is a battle of the Spartans on Wednesday night at Breslin, San Jose State sytle. Let’s see if Coach Izzo can get his team, riddled by ADD to crank it up for a full 40.

Box Score

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