" title="Spartans Weblog">Spartans Weblog

The Spartans grind out a 70-58 victory against the Gophers in a 61-possession game.  Unofficial box score.
MSU’s performance today deserves that oft-used moniker of “workmanlike.”  Outside of a brief Gopher spurt to close MSU’s lead to one point going into halftime, the Spartans played with intensity for 40 minutes, slowly building a lead that eventually [...]

Roe questionable for MSU-Gophers
I’ll be really surprised if he plays.
Michigan State @ Minnesota – TDG Preview
Daily Gopher says Hoffarber knocking down some 3’s and Iverson defending Suton are keys to Gopher victory.
#21 Gophers vs. #10 Michigan State: The most important game in a decade
Well, for you guys, I guess.  From the Barn picks the [...]

A Terrific Tip-Off
You couldn’t have asked for a better game to start the conference season than Illinois’ 71-67 overtime win over Purdue tonight (in roughly a 76-possession game).  This was an extremely hard fought game that went back and forth throughout, featured multiple moments of drama late in the game, and provided 5 minutes of [...]

Now that this blog is over a year old, we can establish traditions simply by doing exactly what we did the previous year.  And, last year, I previewed the Big Ten conference season by producing a tempo-free aerial based on the 11 Big Ten teams’ nonconference efficiency ratings.  To review:

Offensive efficiency is points scored per [...]

Rankings Update
Well, look at that: We’re a top-ten team again.  According to the writers, at least.  The coaches have us at #15.  The bad news is that I’m not convinced we really are a top-ten team at this point.  The good news is that the 9-2 nonconference mark (with the Kansas game pending) is good [...]

I had really hoped we were done with the Delvon Roe injury updates . . .
The LSJ is reporting (via Joe Rexrode’s blog) that Roe hasn’t practiced the last two days:
Coach Tom Izzo said Roe is questionable as of today for Wednesday’s Big Ten opener at Minnesota and would be considered doubtful if the forward [...]

It’s now been 36 days since the Michigan State football team last played a game.  Since then:

The MSU basketball team has played nine games.
The Detroit Lions have played (and lost) six games.
Barack Obama has announced 25 cabinet-level appointees and key advisors.
Over two feet of snow has fallen and subsequently melted in the Lansing area.

This is [...]