I recently received two e-mails from readers that I thought were worth passing along.
First, Mblemieux provides a status report on the beginning of Drew Neitzel’s professional career in Germany:
The Basketball Bundesliga began recently and Neitzel played in both of the Artland Dragons loses. Against Alba Berlin, Drew had nine points in 20 minutes. Only one turnover. He had 8 points in 22 minutes against WALTER Tigers Tübingen and no turnovers. You can find box scores here.
Next up are the Giessen 46ers, a game which should be currently in progress. [Ed.: Neitzel was scoreless in 15 minutes, I'm afraid. I note the stats pages on the Bundesliga website include a stat called "EFF"--for efficiency, I assume. Makes sense coming from the home of German engineering, I suppose.]
I live about an hour from where the Artland team plays. I’d be happy to keep you posted on Drew’s progress, although you may be paying attention (which isn’t easy to do with the Bundesliga, even here in Germany).
Thanks, Mr. LeMieux. You are hereby appointed the Official Basketball Bundesliga Correspondent of the Spartans Weblog. Also, as I’ve noted previously, the word “Bundesliga” is really fun to say. Try it. Bundesliga, Bundesliga . . .
Second, a reader named Joe poses the following questions:
Historically we had a pretty good rivalry with Notre Dame. With a few short breaks we played basically every year from 1908 to 1975. Even after we joined the B10 there were some years we played them twice. To put things in perspective, we’ve played Northwestern 110 times, Indiana 108 and Illinois 102. Without playing Notre Dame since 1979 we still have managed to play them 94 times.
So I guess this is a three part question:
1. Why did the series against Notre Dame end? Did we end the series or did they?
2. I’ve heard (you know one of those, “well I heard…”) that we don’t play them anymore because after we beat them enroute to the ’79 title Digger Phelps got his panties in a bunch and refused to ever play us again. As he was coach until 1991, he effectively killed the rivalry by “banning” it for 12 years. Any truth to this rumor?
3. Now that Notre Dame is starting to be nationally recognized again is there any chance we begin to schedule them again? Seems pretty silly not to play against a nationally ranked team in our backyard that we have a long history with. (Beyond the Arc has ND at 22).
Anyone have any information on this? I’d never thought about the possibility of scheduling Notre Dame for basketball, but I like the idea. It’d be cool to have an annual nonconference rivalry game to get up for like Indiana has with Kentucky or Michigan used to have with Duke.
Quick Neitzel update. The Artland Dragons were victorious Saturday night. Drew played 15 minutes, going 0-4 from behind the arch. He is not starting, but is seeing regular minutes on a team that appears to be playing at least 8 guys each night. Up-to-date stats for the Dragons can be found here:
http://www.basketball-bundesliga.de/linkit.php?menuid=2&topmenu=270&keepmenu=inactive
and team info here:
http://www.basketball-bundesliga.de/linkit.php?menuid=2&topmenu=270&keepmenu=inactive
The team homepage does have some English on it, but otherwise the content is in German. However, the language of box scores and team stats for basketball appear to be universal.
” I’d never thought about the possibility of scheduling Notre Dame for basketball, but I like the idea. It’d be cool to have an annual nonconference rivalry game to get up for like Indiana has with Kentucky or Michigan used to have with Duke.”
Also, MSU can never beat the Irish enough times for me. I’ve been saying we should start playing them in basketball for a while, but I was unaware of the previous series.
I also heard that Digger is the reason we do not play ND. Its so funny whenever he comments on an upcoming MSU game, guess who he always picks to lose? In the NCAA he picked Temple, Pitt and Memphis. He had to be right eventually though….ass.
I have never been sure of the story because as Joe put it, its a “what I heard” statement. The story that I’ve always heard is basically exactly what Joe stated. If anyone has some factual knowledge on the topic I’m sure we would all love to hear it!
Hear, hear! I’d love to see MSU basketball involved in a significant non-conference rivalry with the status of Indiana-Kentucky. (Apologies to Oakland…) That could only boost the status of MSU basketball in the national eye. At the very least, maybe the basketball teams could meet whenever the football teams don’t?
Belatedly–thanks to kj for a great blog. It’s an honor to be a friend of Spartans Weblog.
I think the last time they played–other than 79–was in ’75 at South Bend and we won a close one. In ’74, that weasel Billy Paterno made a shot at the buzzer for a two point win in Jenison. After ’75, Digger was too busy playing the Notre Dame-DePaul game of the week every week on NBC to play MSU. In ’75 the Big Ten went to the 18 game round robin schedule from the 14 gamer that had obtained up until then. At that point, with the November & December cupcakes plus the one big game per year, there wasn’t really much need for an MSU-ND series. Then came the embarrassment of ’79. A few years ago when Duke-bags Brey at ND and Amaker at UM tried to start a series, Izzo said he would be very interested in a series with ND. To say that Brey was unenthusiastic about the idea would be to overstate his emotional committment to such an idea. Why would he want to get his ass kicked every year when there’s a win against UM out there and if not UM then a payday with Valpo at home or one with (insert mid level ACC team here) at the Garden or the Meadowlands? I’d love to see the series reinstituted, but don’t foresee it in my lifetime.