" title="Spartans Weblog">Spartans Weblog

First, a few links:
Joe Rexrode notes that winning in Champaign is not going to be a cakewalk.
Eric Gordon hurt his left (non-shooting) wrist but will play tonight in Madison.
Dave Dye points out how unselfish the Spartans are–ranking 5th nationally in assists per game.
This last link leads to the reader feedback question of the week:
For a [...]

MSU pulls it out, 51-41.  If I had to describe this game in four words, they would be U-G-L-Y.
On defense, things went swimmingly.  Illinois is a very poor shooting team to start out with, and MSU played tough man-to-man defense all night.  The result:

11-28 shooting on 2-pointers (39.3%)
4-22 shooting on 3-pointers (18.2%)
7-19 shooting from the [...]

9:00 Wednesday. The Breslin Center. BTN.
Conference play is not treating the Illini well. They’ve won just two of eight Big Ten games–home games against Michigan and Northwestern. For what it’s worth, they’re coming off the win vs. Northwestern–a 70-37 drubbing.
The tempo-free stat sheet tells the story of Illinois’ struggles. On [...]

Kalin Lucas is really, really quick.
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 [...]

Updated Rankings
MSU jumps up to #8/7 in the AP and coaches’ polls. They leapfrogged Washington State and IU in both polls, and moved ahead of Tenneessee in the coaches’ poll. IU and Wisconsin are ranked 11th and 13th, respectively, in both polls. Purdue is now receiving honorable mention votes in both polls.
The Spartans [...]

Kudos to #11.  Full release here.
Michigan State men’s basketball senior guard Drew Neitzel was named Big Ten Player of the Week on Jan. 28. In wins over Northwestern and Michigan, Neitzel averaged 19.0 points, 6.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds, shooting .583 from the field and .500 from 3-point range. This is the first weekly accolade [...]

MSU wins comfortably, 77-62.  The final score was very close to the Kenpom prediction of 78-59.
The Spartans made Michigan pay for only having two reliable scoring options.  Travis Walton hounded Manny Harris all game long.  And, despite pickup up a number of fouls guarding him, Drew Naymick made sure DeShaun Sims never got going.  Harris [...]