" title="Spartans Weblog">Spartans Weblog

A blog about Michigan State basketball and tempo-free statistics

Monday Night Musings

Posted by kj on Monday, March 3rd, 2008

Rankings Update

One ugly road loss, one beautiful home win, and we’re right back where we were last Monday.

Nearly all the bracket projectors have us as a #5 seed again this week.  There’s still 3-5 games left for MSU to enhance it position for the Big Dance.  A #4 seed seems within reach with three wins of some sort; a #3 seed seems possible with four or five wins; a #2 seed seems out of reach at this point.

Ohio State has nearly dropped off the bubble now.  If the Buckeyes manage to beat Purdue tomorrow night, they could be a very dangerous foe Sunday, as they’ll be playing to claw back into the tournament field.

The Spartans are locked into the #4 seed in the Big Ten tournament now.  They’ll open at 2:30 on Friday in the 4/5 game.  Hoops and Scoops has the skinny on potential tie-breakers between the two teams–Ohio State and Minnesota–positioned at 8-8 for the last remaining first-round bye as the #5 seed.  It looks like they key factor is whether Ohio State beats Purdue.  I’d say we’d marginally rather play the Gophers, given their more up-tempo style.

From the Realm of Journalism-Like Substances

Spartalytical went and stole all my thunder on Drew Sharp’s latest attempt at basketball commentary.  Let me just say this: I’d be very interested to see how the average high school English teacher would grade a Drew Sharp column in terms of being able to, you know, put together a cohesive series of thoughts.  In the course of today’s column, he packs in the following ideas, which are related only in the sense that they have something to do with the Michigan State basketball team, broadly speaking:

  • It’s cool hearing the taco chant in the first half.
  • The team is still a big disappointment.
  • Drew Neitzel is too inconsistent.
  • But he’s a good student and really good guy.
  • MSU just needs to believe in itself more.

The column consists entirely of (1) facts we could have acquired through any number of other sources and (2) vague opinions backed by no substantive analysis.  But I guess I should stop expecting anything more.

Moving on, I note that Free Press management has come up an ingenious new form of journalism: Asking sports radio talk shows what their opinions are.  This from some chap named Mike Valenti:

Look, I guess the whole point is how many Big Ten titles does he [Neitzel] have? Zero? You make the Final Four and it takes some of the sting off. But some Michigan State fans are happy with winning nothing and going to a Final Four. I’m not. Big Ten titles and banners are what matter, and then the Final Four is the icing on the cake. So yeah, if they have a magic run and go to the Final Four, sure it will look a little bit better. But I don’t see any jewelry on his finger. So it’d be a disappointment if I were him.

I’m not going to comment on the substance of the quote.  This is clearly a guy simply looking to make abrasive statements to try to boost his radio audience.  My question is of a more general nature.  The piece is introduced as follows:

Free Press special writer Anthony Fenech talked to 97.1 FM host Mike Valenti on Michigan State basketball:

What exactly makes Anthony Fenech’s writing so “special”?  Does it take extraordinary skill to call up a radio talk show host and ask for a series of random opinions on a particular topic?  Do they teach you how to do this in journalism school?  Why not just run the transcript of Valenti’s show and the let the callers do the work for you?

I really shouldn’t peruse the sports section of the Free Press website any more.  It’s not good for my psychological state of being.  But I can’t help myself for some reason.

The Detroit News’ Bob Wojnowski does provide an actual reasoned opinion from the land of Detroit sports journalism.  He thinks MSU needs to run more to win.  I think we’d all agree with that.  It’s a bit of an oversimplification.  Against Wisconsin, for example, there was simply no way the Spartans were going to beat the Badgers in transition.  But it’s real-live journalistic analysis, so we’ll take it.

Actual MSU Basketball News

Delvon Roe was at yesterday’s game, along with Draymond Green, Korie Lucious, and four younger potential future Spartans (including a player named Juwan Howard, Jr.?).  Roe says he expects his knee to be at full strength by October/November.

Goran Suton was named Big Ten Player of the Week after averaging 15.5 points and 12.0 rebounds in the last two games.  Kudos to the big guy.  Some of us were praising him before it was cool to praise him.

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No Responses to “Monday Night Musings”

  1. Spartalyticalon 03 Mar 2008 at 8:38 pm 1

    Sorry about stealing your thunder, but when Sharp and the Freep are involved, there’s plenty of thunder to go around, so don’t hesitate. I agree that the Detroit News provides useful commentary, but those clueless wannabe clowns at the Free Press who aren’t the least bit connected to or aware of anything outside a half-hour radius about the lovely city of Detroit can take a flying leap off the Ambassador Bridge.

    As Dale Gribble would say, their columns are the feces that is produced when shame eats too much stupidity.

    Rant over.

    For now.

    Carry on.

  2. kjon 03 Mar 2008 at 11:03 pm 2

    All for the better for you to steal my thunder. A month ago, I said this about Mr. Sharp:

    MGoBlog ponders why Michigan and MSU bother to talk to Drew Sharp anymore. He concisely and thoroughly analyzes Mr. Sharp’s utter incompetence. This should probably be the final word on that topic. As Brian points out, the only reason the Free Press can possibly still be employing the man is to get angry sports fans to click on his article webpages.

    Clearly, I had more words.

  3. huberton 04 Mar 2008 at 11:05 am 3

    There is a big market for dumb, loud sports columns, I am afraid, and it’s getting bigger. Sharp’s shrillness and prejudices are carefully market-tested, and you guys are just egg head intellectuals for not eating uncritically at the trough.

    So, let me ask you: was sunday’s game a breakthrough game, or do the road woes return thursday night? I think it’s a mixed bag. The turnover issue appears to have been dealt with, but I don’t think Morgan can stay out of foul trouble, and I’m just not sure Neitzel can play a complete game on the road. Illinois, moreover, always slows the game down to mollasses and forces MSU to grind — and this is a team which does not excel at grinding.

    These are key games, though, which will tell us a lot about the team’s progress.

  4. NorthernSpartyon 04 Mar 2008 at 11:44 am 4

    Could you post in your blog about Drew being up for the Lowe’s Senior Class award? We can all vote for it once a day until the Final Four, I think. The link is:

    http://basketball.seniorclassa...../vote.aspx

    Drew’s towards the bottom right now, so we all need to help support him in this one!

    Great posts lately too, by the way.

    Go Green!

  5. witless chumon 06 Mar 2008 at 11:26 am 5

    Better late than never reply from someone in the newspaper business:

    Constructions like “Special” writer or “special to the Dimwit Daily Journal” usually mean its someone who’s not on staff and paid a salary, but paid per story, or per ignorant conversation with Mike Valenti.

    I live in Kazoo, so I don’t hear Valenti on the radio, but he’s the one made semifamous in 2006 for absolutely melting down about the football games collapse at home to the hated Irish. (Personal favorite quote was him calling defensive coordinator Chris Smeland Teddy Ruxspin) MP3s of this abound on the Internet, usually at places that want to mock MSU, but I kinda like it. Only a fruitcake who actually cared about Spartan football would flip out like that.

    But loving MSU doesn’t make Valenti smart or worth hearing from in general.

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