" 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 [...]

The Spartans vanquish the Illini 74-66 in a 71-possession game.  StatSheet box score.
I don’t know what it is about this team, but I just can’t get as tense as I’m used to getting late in close games.  Even when Illinois pulled back even seven minutes to go, I had a strange sense of calm about [...]

The Spartans stick it to the Badgers 60-51 in a 59-possessions game.  StatSheet box score.
Let’s start with what still worries me after this game: Three-point shooting.  MSU made just 2 of 9 attempts from beyond the arc, with both makes coming in the final minutes of the game.  That’s our fourth straight game with 3 [...]

Wednesday Night Links

Game 25: Michigan State at Michigan Post Game
Dylan on last night’s game.  Points out that the series of fairly random events that ended the first half was a pretty big key to the MSU win.
Two Winners in Michigan
Hoopraker.  Not sure our Wolverine friends will agree.
Better days at Crisler
Eric Lacy on the UM [...]

Rankings Update

AP: #13 (down from #9)
Coaches: #14 (down from #9)
Sagarin: #11 (down from #8)
Kenpom: #21 (steady from last week)
RPI: #5 (steady from last week)
Bracketology: #3 seed (down from #3 seed)
Crashing the Dance: #3 seed

Purdue is ranked one spot ahead of us in both the human polls, reflecting that we’re now basically back to being dead [...]

The Nittany Lions bomb the Spartans into submission 72-68 in a 62-possession game.  StatSheet box score.
Before we get to the insanity-inducing angst part, let’s start with a couple graphical aids.
First, the four factors graph:
Stats by StatSheet.com

The Spartans did what they always do–outrebound the other team–and they did what they don’t usually do–turn the ball over [...]

MSU beats down Iowa 71-56 in a 62-possession game (a regular track meet by Hawkeye standards).  StatSheet box score.
This one played out according to plan–MSU’s plan, that is.  We dominated on the boards (although that edge faded some in the second half), forced Iowa to take a lot of tough 3-point shots (8/26=30.8%), and manged [...]