Spartans Weblog

The Spartans Weblog extended family will be departing shortly for Indianapolis. So it’s Coffee Talk day. We’ll open things up to anything anyone feels about talking about (as long as it’s at least tangentially related to MSU basketball).

Here are a couple pieces from the mainstream media to spark some conversation:

Dave Dye thinks Morgan has been MSU’s MVP to date this season. It’s a tough choice, as none of the Spartans has really had a breakout season. It may seem odd for me to say, given that his stats aren’t that great, but I’d probably go with Lucas. At the times the MSU offense has been clicking, he’s been the engine making it go.

Michael Rosenberg provides some much needed balance to the critiques of Izzo that have sprung up in recent weeks (including some griping from this blog):

Next week, Michigan State will make its 11th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. That is the second-longest streak in Big Ten history and the fifth-longest active streak, behind Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky and Duke.

And Arizona is in danger of missing this year’s tournament.

And Kentucky was in danger until beating Florida last weekend.

In other words, Michigan State is one of the most stable contenders in the country. You might argue that MSU is not Kansas, Kentucky or Duke. To which I respond: That’s the point. Fifteen years ago, only a few people thought Michigan State was capable of this kind of continued success.

It’s something all MSU fans — and critics — should think about before complaining about the lack of a Big Ten title lately.

Read the whole piece; it’s a good one. One program Rosenberg didn’t mention, but could have: Syracuse. There’s a team with a hall-of-fame coach and a national championship in its recent past. And they’re about to make their second consecutive trip to the NIT. It’s not as easy as it looks to maintain a program at a consistent top-25 level.

OK, the rest of today’s musings are left up to you. My hope is to get at least a couple posts up from Indianapolis. But it remains to be seen whether free wifi spots and kids going to sleep at night will allow for that. If not, go ahead and use this thread to chat amongst yourselves about the tournament results.

Lastly, we’ve received 26 entries (including mine) to the First Annual and World’s Only (As Far As We Know) Big Ten Tournament Bracket Contest. Here’s a breakdown of the picks for the tournament champion:

• MSU: 12 entries
• Purdue: 7 entries
• Wisconsin: 5 entries
• Indiana: 2 entries

May the best man (or woman) win. For all our sakes, I hope it’s one of the 12 who stuck with the Spartans, and not of the 14 of us (minus the outside bloggers) who weren’t true to our school.