michigan-state

Bracket Busted? There’s Still Plenty to Root for During March Madness – It’s Called Life

March 25, 2014 By admin

by Ron Dicker

This Pair’s Beautiful Friendship Will Fill Your Heart With March Gladness

Sometimes stories emerge during March Madness that force you to put down your brackets and pay attention to what’s really important.

The friendship between Michigan State basketball star Adreian Payne and 8-year-old Lacey Holsworth is one of those stories.

They met two years ago when the Spartans visited a hospital where Lacey was getting treatment for neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancer of the nerve tissue. Their relationship has thrived, and they reportedly text every day.

As the Washington Post notes, Payne attended a fundraiser for Lacey, and Lacey, who was Payne’s guest on senior night, helped him cut down the net after Michigan State won the Big Ten tournament.

Now that Payne and Michigan State have advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament, the duo’s touching bond continues to move fans. A video posted by the Big Ten Network earlier this month covers Payne and Lacey in tear duct-draining detail (watch above).

“She’s like a sister to me,” Payne says in the segment. “I love him,” Lacey declares.

If your favorite team has been eliminated, you might just cheer for Payne and Michigan State on the basis of the video alone.

For more….

That’s what its all about.
Ellis Jordan

No. 1 Spartans fall to unranked Tar Heels

December 5, 2013 By admin

By Joe Rexrode

EAST LANSING — If the first glimpse is any indication, Michigan State needs to wake up quickly from its dream week of sports.

Tom Izzo’s top-ranked men’s basketball team started it off Wednesday night against North Carolina at Breslin Center, with a men’s soccer Elite Eight game, women’s volleyball NCAA tournament opener and the main event – the football team against Ohio State for the Big Ten championship Saturday in Indianapolis – still to come.

The unranked Tar Heels crushed the idea of a weeklong party, exploiting MSU inside and running away with a 79-65 victory in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

“We looked like a softer team,” a dejected Izzo said afterward, “and that solely falls on me, no one else.”

That makes it seven straight wins for Roy Williams’ Tar Heels over Izzo’s Spartans, starting with a victory in the 2005 Final Four. This was supposed to be the streak stopper for MSU (7-1), but the Spartans never led and had hobbled players all over the floor by the end of it.

MSU VS. NORTH CAROLINA: Key stretch, unsung hero “My players have played better on game days than his players have — that’s the bottom line,” Williams said when asked to explain his success against Izzo. “I’m not a better coach than he is. … sometimes we’ve had more talent too.”

That wasn’t supposed to be the case this season. Suddenly, Izzo has a team that will lose its No. 1 ranking after three weeks, with no marquee games left until Big Ten play begins.

He has a sophomore shooting guard in Gary Harris (team-high 17 points) whose right ankle appears to be such an issue, Harris missed two point-blank opportunities at the rim in the second half.

And he has a team that can’t play much interior defense unless sophomore center Matt Costello is in the game. Costello had to come off the bench because of what Izzo said is a possible case of mononucleosis, and his gutsy effort was a bright spot on a night with other health issues.

“You want to praise one guy, that’d be the guy to praise,” Izzo said of Costello, who had six points, four blocks and four rebounds in 17 minutes, and who may be affected for “weeks,” Izzo said, by what he termed a “minor” case of mono.

Keith Appling (13 points) left for part of the first half after a scary spill and shot to the hip. He returned and was clearly affected by the hip at times. Adreian Payne (16 points) cramped multiple times in the second half, and Izzo said his ongoing issues with plantar fasciitis are limiting his practice time and conditioning.

For more….

4-Point RoundUp & AP Top 25

November 26, 2013 By admin

1. Spartans more known for creeping up on teams later in the season and tournament, atop the college basketball ranks.

2. Louisville surprise loss to North Carolina drops the Cardinals down to ninth.

3. Send us one of your best 3-Way Friday holiday photo shots and we’ll post it on FB.

4. Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

Associated Press Top 25:

1. Michigan St. 6-0
2. Kansas 4-0
3. Kentucky 5-1
4. Arizona 5-0
5. Oklahoma St. 5-0
6. Duke 5-1
7. Ohio St. 5-0
8. Syracuse 5-0
9. Cardinals 5-1
10. Wisconsin 6-0
11. Gonzaga 4-1
12. Wichita St. 6-0
13. Connecticut 6-0
14. Oregon 4-0
15. Florida 5-1
16. Tar Heels 4-1
17. Iowa St. 5-0
18. Baylor 5-0
19. UCLA 5-0
20. Creighton 4-0
21. Memphis 2-1
22. Michigan 4-2
23. Iowa 5-0
24. Massachusetts 6-0
25. Marquette 3-2

[MARCHVEGAS] – noun 1. “March to Vegas” which symbolizes the humanistic tendency to march, migrate, or advance as a deliberate or organized body in a habitual manner back to Las Vegas. 2. Marriage of March Madness and Las Vegas, especially during tournament time. 3. The “MARCHVEGAS 4-day™ Holiday” (March 20 – 23, 2014) – Sign the Petition.

Star freshmen take the spotlight, but the elder Michigan State shines

November 13, 2013 By admin

By Luke Winn

CHICAGO — It was a night about freshmen if you wanted it to be. A good hour before tipoff of the Kentucky-Michigan State opener of the Champions Classic, I came upon an NBA general manager — one whose team is built, more or less, to contend for the 2014 Draft Lottery — occupying a prime courtside seat at the United Center. He was watching the Wildcats’ mundane warmup drills with what really seemed like a twinkle in his eye, no doubt imagining what Julius Randle might look like in his lineup, and comparing that to what Duke’s Jabari Parker might look like, or Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins. I openly wondered if Wiggins, who had played casually in preseason workouts and in his first real college game, would live up to his AAU-ball rep as a big-stage performer when the Jayhawks met the Blue Devils in the nightcap. “Not many bigger stages than this one,” the GM said.

Sixty-seven other NBA evaluators had joined him for what was essentially a pre-Predraft Camp on a Tuesday night in November. Whether any of them left closer to a final opinion on who should be the No. 1 pick is unlikely. Randle went for 27 and 13 in a loss and looked like a beast. Parker went for 27 and 9 in a loss and looked breathtakingly skilled. Wiggins went for 22 and 8 in a win while looking like far from a finished product. The NBA crowd will be debating over those three kids until late June, and can you blame them? It’s a good debate.

Still, for those of us who cover college hoops not as a Predraft Camp but as an actual sport, freshmen turned out not to be the most important part of the Champions Classic. This event was like a four-months-early Final Four, and the most impressive team was full of players who’ve evolved in two, three or four seasons. By knocking off top-ranked Kentucky, 78-74, No. 2 Michigan State established itself as the early national title favorite — and it did so by giving just seven minutes of playing time to a freshman.

The last time we saw the Spartans’ Gary Harris on a big stage, it was March, in the Sweet 16 in Indianapolis. He had been assigned to guard Duke senior Seth Curry, who came off a maze of screens and went off for six threes in a Blue Devils’ win. “He kind of took me to school today,” Harris said then of Curry, who now plays for the Warriors — the Santa Cruz Warriors of the NBDL. Last season, Harris was a 6-foot-4 freshman getting lit up by a diminutive future D-Leaguer. He was the No. 25 player in the Class of 2012 and a five-star prospect, but his role in Michigan State’s rotation was as a kid who mostly just took threes, and did not drive the ball or get mixed up in scrums for rebounds or scrap like mad on defense. The reason: A nagging shoulder injury had turned him into the shell of the attacking star he was in high school and AAU. “You have not seen the Gary Harris I recruited yet,” Spartans coach Tom Izzo warned after that loss to Duke.

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Michigan State Spartans – beat the Fighting Illini 80 – 75

February 1, 2013 By R.George

The Michigan State Spartans held off the Fighting Illini 80 to 75 to take the win and a record of 18-4, which leaves them third in the Big Ten. The Illinois lead by 10 at the half, 37 to 27 with just one turnover but in the second half, the fell back down to earth as they came out cold going nearly six minutes with a field goal. By 16:37 in the second half, the Spartans took the lead at 37 to 39 and never looked back, though it remained a close game.

Keith Appling showed up big in the closing minutes with penetration in the key then feeding Brandon Lawson up top in the post for a huge slam. With 44 seconds left, once again Appling’s cross-over and spin move in the middle of the paint lead to a layup and put the Spartans up by four points. Leading scorers for the Spartans included Appling with 24, Valentine and Harris with 14 apiece and Dawson with 12. For the Fighting Illini, Abrahms scored 16, followed by Richardson with 14 and Paul with 12. Michigan States next challege with be against the Minnesota Gophers on February 6th.

Tom Izzo is one of the best X and O’s guy in the game and his teams usually play better the longer they’re in the March Madness tournament. Look for them to get better from now until March. If by chance you see the Spartans as an early underdog in the third or fourth round, remember to choose Michigan State and keep that bracket in tact.

PLAYER ROSTER/STATS AREA

#	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt	Class	PPG	RPG	APG	TO	BLK
11	Keith Appling	G	6’1′	190	Jr.	24	8	7	2	1
22	Branden Dawson	G	6’6′	220	So.	12	9	3	4	0
25	Derrick Nix	C	6’9′	260	Jr.	8	1	0	1	0
5	Adreian Payne	F	6’10’	240	Jr.	8	6	3	2	2
14	Gary Harris	G	6’4′	205	Fr.	14	1	0	4	0
45	Denzel Valentine	G	6’6′	210	Fr.	14	3	2	1	0
2	Alex Guana	F	6’9′	240	So.	14	3	2	1	0

TEAM SCHEDULE AREA

Date	Opponent
Feb. 6	Minnesota
Feb. 9	at Purdue
Feb. 12	Michigan
Feb. 16	at Nebraska
Feb. 19	Indiana
Feb. 24	at Ohio State
Mar. 2	at Michigan
Mar. 3	at Michigan
Mar. 7	Wisconsin
Mar. 10	Northwestern

MARCHVEGAS 2013
To catch the Michigan State Spartans for March Madness, why not take a break, “March to Vegas” and see all the excitement at once for the first round of the tournament? Watch hoops and gamble by day, play and party by night for 4 blissful days; it’ll feel just like a 4-day™ holiday.

MARCHVEGAS 2013 is from Thursday March 21st till Sunday March 24th. Though visiting Las Vegas is the greatest during this time, it is only optional. You must think real hard young Jedi and decide if you want to “work” or take the MARCHVEGAS 4-day Holiday. If you choose the later, then Sign the Petition, “Make MARCHVEGAS a 4-day holiday and check out our travel options to Las Vegas.

By Roy George

[MARCHVEGAS] – noun 1. “March to Vegas” symbolizes the humanistic tendency to march, migrate, or advance as a deliberate or organized body in a habitual manner back to Las Vegas. 2. Marriage of March Madness and Las Vegas, especially during tournament time. 3. The “MARCHVEGAS 4-day™ Holiday” (March 21 – 24, 2013) – Sign the Petition.