" title="Spartans Weblog">Spartans Weblog

MSU guts out their 15th conference win 62-51 in a 68-possession.  StatSheet box score.
Raise your hand if you had us winning the conference by FOUR games:

TEAM
CONFERENCE

OVERALL

Michigan State
15-3
25-5

Illinois
11-7
23-8

Purdue
11-7
22-9

Ohio State
10-8
20-9

Penn State
10-8
21-10

Wisconsin
10-8
19-11

Minnesota
9-9
21-9

Michigan
9-9
19-12

Northwestern
8-10
17-12

Iowa
5-13
15-16

Indiana
1-17
6-24

In a conference with 8 teams deserving of an NCAA bid–and a 9th team that will probably end up a couple blown leads away from the Big [...]

. . . now THAT’S a Tuffy!
What’s to be done about hanging a banner?
Certainly, he [Tom Izzo] doesn’t want to show any disrespect to the Boilermakers, or fire them up, by dropping the banner before the game. And, such a ceremony might feel hollow if MSU loses to a motivated Purdue team, which is playing [...]

Suton says Badgers play ‘dirty’
In the past, I’ve always felt bad about how much I dislike Wisconsin.  This helps with that.
Suton calls Wisconsin ‘dirty’
Bucky’s 5th Quarter reviews why Suton isn’t so fond of the Badgers.  (Caution: Clicking on this link will lead to anger, which will lead to hate, which will lead to the dark [...]

Game 25: Michigan State at Michigan Preview
Dylan’s preview.
A Rivalry Renewed
More Dylan, filling in at MGoBlog.
Bubble Math
Can more than five Big Ten teams get into the Big Dance?
ATHLETIC MARVEL: Oregon is among the schools on the radar for Wisconsin prep star Jamil Wilson
Less than a month until announcement day.

Peterson turned himself into an MSU legend
I had forgotten he had a redshirt year.
MoPete’s top five
Izzo: “OK, fine. But if you hit the tuba player with that pass, I’m going to kill you.”
Mateen Cleaves on The Huge Show: Kalin Lucas doing a ‘great’ job running Spartans
Haven’t had a chance to listen to this.
Illini Flying Under [...]

Thursday Night Links

The 2008 Big Ten/ACC Challenge: Best Ever?
No so much for us.
SPARTANS DOWN, NOT OUT
Travis Walton to Jeff Goodman: “Don’t worry.  We’ll take care of you.”
Kaizen: Making sense of a 35-point loss
I link to anyone who calls me “insightful.”
MSU makes Wisconsin star’s final four
Marquette apparently still on Jamil Wilson’s list.
The Big Ten-SEC Challenge
Fun football [...]

Jamil Wilson is down to MSU, Oregon, and Texas.  Marquette is out of the picture.  Wilson says he didn’t like them “playing head games” with him.
Meanwhile, his head coach is hoping he’ll enjoy playing basketball more this season:
“But Jamil needs to just relax sometimes and not get too worked up over things. Sometimes people don’t [...]