A few basketball links:
- As part of their “State Project,” Storming the Floor notes that the seven Division 1 basketball programs in Michigan posted an overall losing record last year. And they’ve got the Fab Five just ahead of the Flintstones as the “most memorable team” in the state’s history.
- Snicker-inducing headline for MSU fans: “Spartans, Wolverines face tough Final Four road.”
- A couple geeks try to replace the Wonk. Here’s wishing them success. The team previews they’ve posted to date are promising.
And a few football links:
- G0EL has a “cursory” preview of the EMU game. (Last week, I suggested the acronym GZEL for Pete’s blog, blindly ignoring the fact he had already established an acronym. In my defense, I feel the current acronym makes the blog look like a soccer blog written by a poor speller.)
- Eric Lacy says to keep an eye on whether MSU gives Hoyer enough time to throw the ball to keep defenses honest against Ringer.
- Another key: tackling people.
- Bob Wojnowski wants us, and our Wolverine friends, to “chill out.”
- Off the Tracks has posted another superb preview of all 11 of tomorrow’s Big Ten games. The good news is things are looking promising for the conference to win the unofficial Big Ten-MAC Challenge.
Game time for MSU is noon on the BTN. Eastern comes in at 1-0, after thrashing Division 1-AA Indiana State 52-0 last week. Last season, Eastern finished 4-8. The highlight of their season was an upset of eventual MAC champions Central Michigan. The early Sagarin ratings predict a 23.5-point win for our Spartans.
Mini-Coffee Talk: What scares you more at this point? A Javon Ringer injury or a Brian Hoyer injury?
Feel free to post any other comments about tomorrow’s game (before or after) below.
A Brian Hoyer injury, by far. If Ringer gets injured, MSU has many RBs that can at least make the offense functional. If Hoyer gets injured, MSU is one Cousins ACL tear away from having a season go down the drain.
Ringer’s on pace for 300 yards. Of course, he’s also on pace for 60 carries.
Final count on offensive touches:
Ringer: 35
Rest of the team: 28
I really don’t think you can ride Ringer that hard for 12 games. Hoyer’s (8/12, 148 yards) gotta bear more of the offensive load at some point. The game plan worked today, though.
I can only imagine they decided that they will live and die by the run, so they wanted to use this game to work on as many things as possible (or as many as possible looks in the game film).