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It is kind of hard to believe that Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament is only five weeks away. It is becoming time when college basketball teams are separating themselves as either tourney contenders or pretenders. Here is The Sports Bank‘s latest Bracketology? I have more than held my own the past couple of years against ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and with my extreme college hoops nerdom, plan to do so again this year. Check back every week for an update.
UPDATED: 2/6/12
The Big Ten’s leading rebounder, and best player on the nation’s 9th ranked team may be out for awhile. Michigan State forward Draymond Green seriously hurt his left leg in tonight’s mild upset loss to the Illini, and left the game with 3:50 left, unable to walk on his own power.
Green was down on the Assembly Hall floor in Champaign for quite awhile, and after examination was able to hop over on his one good leg to the MSU bench.
The Big Ten is having one of the most memorable basketball seasons we’ve seen in some time. The conference leads the country with five top-25 teams and ranks number one in the RPI/Sagarin ratings.
Along with being regarded as the best conference in the nation, the Big Ten is full of intriguing stories. Here are the top five on the year thus far: [Read more...]
It is kind of hard to believe that Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament is only six weeks away. It is becoming time when college basketball teams are separating themselves as either tourney contenders or pretenders. Here is The Sports Bank‘s latest Bracketology? I have more than held my own the past couple of years against ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and with my extreme college hoops nerdom, plan to do so again this year. Check back every week for an update.
UPDATED: 1/30/12
This what #9 Michigan State has given up in scoring in their four losses: 67 to North Carolina, 74 to Duke, 81 to Northwestern, 6o to Michigan.
In their 16 wins, they’ve held everyone under 70 with the exception of Lehigh; a game they won 90-81. The losses to the Wolverines and Tar Heels were much more on the offense than the D, but the pattern is still obvious: when the Spartans play defense like a traditional Tom Izzo team is known to do, they are elite.
They look like an Elite Eight, Final Four team. But when they have those occasional defensive lapses, which have been few and far between, they look like an ordinary team.
With conference play underway, we begin to get a better feel for how college basketball teams stack up in our Bracketology? I have more than held my own the past couple of years against ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and with my extreme college hoops nerdom, plan to do so again this year. Check back every week for an update.
UPDATED: 1/23/12
Michigan State may have absolutely slaughtered Purdue 83-58 yesterday, but the battle between the two traditional Big Ten powers still had some embarrassing, and down-right dark moments in the lop-sided win.
Spartans leader (in scoring, rebounding and emotion) Draymond Green accidentally stuffed the ball home for Purdue (watch video after the jump). But much worse, the Izzone, the MSU student cheering section went really low and class-less in heckling Boilermakers star Robbie Hummel.
Was this a huge upset? On one level, yes. Any time the most prominent college basketball program in the Big Ten falls to the program with the least amount of tradition in the conference, it’s huge!
Not to mention it ended the biggest win streak that prominent
On the other hand, Northwestern came in with a RPI of 28 while Michigan State’s number is 6, so it’s not that big of a spread.
Also, last year’s meetings were an OT defeat in East Lansing and a one possession final score in Evanston.
However, when Northwestern defeated Michigan State 81-74, this one seemed to look like a “season definer.”
The NBA Draft Stock Report checks in on which college basketball players have made a name for themselves in the past week; either helping or hurting their future draft position. With conference play underway, we get a better understanding of how NBA Draft prospects respond to playing better competition than some of the cupcake opponents they face in the non-conference.
When the #6 Michigan State Spartans head to Northwestern on Saturday, they’ll do so riding a 15 game winning streak=longest winning streak since the 1998-99 season, when they won 22 in a row before losing to Duke in the Final Four.
That was Tom Izzo’s fourth season at the helm in East Lansing, and the first of his six Final Fours. That team lost to the Wisconsin Badgers at the Kohl Center to open the Big Ten season, then started their phenomenal run at home versus the rival Michigan Wolverines.
This group dropped the season opening pair to the ACC traditional powers (North Carolina in the aircraft carrier game and Duke in the Coach K. milestone game) before starting the current streak that has seen them rocket from preseason after-thought to national top ten ranking.
The Spartans ink is getting really out of control. The Michigan State football program contains players trying to one-up one another in etching their green and white devotion into their skin. Here are the three biggest examples.
