" title="Spartans Weblog">Spartans Weblog

Lucious, Allen break bones
Talk about a game going as badly as it possibly could have.  On a positive note, my sense is that a broken bone doesn’t involve major rehab.  (Hat tip: MooTheKow.)
Spartans can find motivation in loss to Tar Heels
Draymond Green: Leader.  (Hat tip: Jason.)
2009-10 Insanely Too Early Rankings
Consensus: MSU is #3, behind Kansas [...]

Going into NCAA Tournament play, our starting lineup looks like it may finally be completely healthy.  Kalin Lucas, Travis Walton, Raymar Morgan, Delvon Roe, and Goran Suton should all be able to play 25-30 minutes per game at near 100%.  (Roe is perhaps the exception to this statement, but he’s certainly as ready to contribute [...]

Minnesota Game Recap
MSU advances past Minnesota 64-56 in a 64-possession game.  StatSheet box score.
Having digested 5 full hours of basketball since the game ended (we bolted at halftime of the last game), all I can give you is a graph:
NCAA Basketball Stats

And some bullets:

Disappointingly small rebounding advantage and a negative turnover differential.  Three-point shooting (41.7% [...]

Izzo over Crean 75-47 in a 69-possession game.  StatSheet box score.
The mind of Ed Hightower is an enigma wrapped in a riddle.
Due to the generosity of a professional acquaintance, I sat in the second row behind the scorer’s table today.  So I had an up-close view of the “nuts” incident.  If you have the game [...]

MSU’s Izzo: Pick up the purpose
100 three-point makes for Chris Allen after every practice.  For whatever reason, he’s never really looked like a Respert/Neitzel-like shooter to me in terms of consistency.
Green Lenses Takes Izzo and the Pistons Under the Microscope
Spartan Nation takes Tom Izzo to task for Wednesday’s loss.  Agree they didn’t attack the [...]

The Wildcats stun the Spartans 70-63 in a 63-possession game.  StatSheet box score.
The Spartan fan half of my brain is pretty mad about this one.  We lost to Northwestern, of all teams, to end a 28-game home court winning streak and ruin a perfect conference record.  And we did it by completely losing our composure [...]

Michigan State pushes past Illinois 63-57 in a 66-possession game.  Statsheet box score.

First things first: It was great to be there for the Morris Peterson jersey retirement ceremony.  Nine years ago, my wife and I sat/stood in the second row of the student section and watched that man do amazing things en route to a [...]