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The best thing that happened to Adreian Payne, NBA career wise, was getting traded away from the Atlanta Hawks and to the Minnesota Timberwolves. He wasn’t going to get much playing time with the Eastern Conference’s first place team; who have now pretty much solidified the #1 seed in the East.
Payne was drafted 15th overall by Atlanta, but never broke into their rotation; hence he was traded to the T’Wolves for a lottery-protected first round pick.
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There’s no question that the teams of Tom Izzo are much better in March -when it counts- then November/December. But nothing has come easy for this Spartans team. It seems like every time they play inferior competition they struggle with them. They still win, but play way down to their level.
They did it again versus Texas, trailing in the second half. Yes, the Longhorns just knocked off a #23 ranked North Carolina team, but the Tar Heels are overrated. And UT has lost to Chaminade, USC, Georgetown and USC. State won of course, but the ‘Horns were down by just two down the stretch.
MSU’s struggles started with the upset to an inferior UConn team in Germany. They only beat Boise St. by four, not pulling away from Oakland until the closing minutes, beating Lousiana-Lafayette by just three, losing to unranked Miami team, they also trailed late in the second half to Loyola and Bowling Green. They’re just not dominating teams nor closing them out. By far, the highlight of the non-conference slate was the win over now #9 Kansas.
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As the first #1 seed to bow out of the NCAA tournament, the Michigan State Spartans can only look at all the improvements they made this season and see success.
The team finished with the number one SOS, 12 top-50 RPI wins, 16 top-100 RPI wins and 12 road/neutral wins in the nation’s top conference. They went from being unranked at the beginning of the season to earning a top seed in the post-season—if that’s not the true mark of improvement, then what is? [Read more…]
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This one truly was a barn-burner.
Coming off a five-game hot streak in the Big Ten, Michigan State was looking to keep its position at the top of the conference, but the Golden Gophers had a different idea in mind. The first half alone had 16 lead changes and 4 ties. Minnesota’s Ralph Sampson III showed off his creativity with a variety of baby hooks and shots in the paint. The battle between Sampson III and MSU’s Adreian Payne became so hot at one point in the game that a double foul was issued.
These big men don’t play around in the Big Ten when it comes to being physical.
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Let Saturday’s 58-48 victory over third ranked Ohio State be a wake up call to anyone who was sleeping on this year’s Michigan State team. It was understandable why this was one of Sparty’s least hyped-up teams in recent memory. After all, there was little for them to build on. They came into the season unranked after being eliminated in the first round of the NCAA tournament last year and lost three of their top four scorers, including star guard Kalin Lucas. [Read more…]
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‘Tis the season, my friends, and as 2012 approaches, a few new items may be on Tom Izzo and the Spartans’ “Wish List.” With conference play starting soon, here are a few things that Michigan State will be looking to fine-tune in time for big, bad Big Ten play.
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Welcome to The Sports Bank’s second annual college basketball season preview series. Last year we looked at 99 teams in 99 days. This year, we are being slightly more aggressive and expanding to 111 teams in 111 days. We will rank the 74 power conference teams and top 37 mid-majors in reverse power ranking order. We’ll break down rosters, non-conference schedules, and pick a player to watch for each team.
Ranked second in the pre-season polls a year ago, the Michigan State Spartans finished with an incredibly disappointing season. Expectations are much lower in 2011-2012 as Sparty loses three starters, but never count out Tom Izzo’s ability to make magic happen.
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Michigan State Spartans sophomore point guard Keith Appling has accepted an invitation from the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee to attend the 2011 USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Championship Team training camp.
The training camp, which will be held June 17-24 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., will be used to select the 12-member team that will represent the USA in international competition at the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship.
The USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee, chaired by NCAA representative Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), is expected to announce on June 19 finalists for the 12-member USA U19 World Championship Team roster.
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A big reason Michigan State won back to back Big Ten titles in ’09-’10 is their superior road record. The last two years MSU is 16-5 away from home. They had a school record 8 road wins in 2009, and followed it up with a 7-2 mark the following season.
However, this year outside of the Breslin Center has been a totally different story. The Spartans fell to the Illini in Champaign Tuesday night, in a game both teams needed in order to stay in the conference race.
The loss dropped State’s road record to 1-3 in 2010-11. Their only road win was at Northwestern on January 3rd. State is currently 12-6, 4-2 in conference, with all but one of their losses coming to a ranked opponent.
MSU’s second leading scorer, Durrell Summers, was benched tonight and at first glance you night read that sentence and quote the classic film Dodgeball: “Interesting strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for ’em.”
But Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo made switch in order to make a statement.
By Paul M. Banks
[Read more…]
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