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In recent years, we’ve seen a major surge in tweets from media members and pundits that end with: “both things can be true.” Tweets such as these are required, given the binary mode of thinking that is so prevalent in America these days. Despite rapid advances in information technology and ways to disseminate that information, more people are regressing intellectually.
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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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Let me make this absolutely clear. I despise writing posts about athlete personal lives. It’s mindless drivel which is so far beneath me…there isn’t enough alcohol distilled on this Earth that could dumb me down enough to actually care about player/coach wives, girlfriends, babies, kids etc. I’m going to keep “articles” on that TMZ crapola to a minimum moving forward.
That said, a San Francisco 49ers tight end that you’ve never heard of has a Hooters girlfriend in Sarah Hinton, a Michigan State graduate who was a finalist for Miss Hooters 2012. She’s attractive enough that I must break my rule about writing about cliche jersey-chasers.
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Mateen Cleaves is not only one of the most legendary names in Michigan State history, he’s also one of the most iconic players in college basketball lore. This Spartan warrior is known for winning a national title while on crutches, being a stellar point guard and the ugly Bill Cosby style sweaters he wore on the bench when injured.
Mateen Cleaves played in the NBA for 6 years, including a couple years with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons. He later played in the NBDL, Russia and Greece. Now the Big Ten icon of icon is joining CBS Sports as a studio analyst.
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The top recruit in the nation, Jabari Parker from Chicago (Simeon career academy) picked the Duke Blue Devils over Michigan State, BYU, DePaul Florida and a whole host of other big name college basketball programs. He answered questions at the 2013 McDonald’s All-American media day about why he chose Duke, detailed the powerhouse of Simeon, and why he looks up to Chicago Bulls superstar Derrick Rose
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Aimee Teegarden was quite the rebel against her parents coach Erik Taylor and Tami Taylor in Friday Night Lights. During his MSU career, it looked like Delvon Roe was sometimes going against what coach Tom Izzo had to say on the Spartans bench. If you followed Michigan State Spartans basketball in recent years, you might have noticed a certain Shakespearean acting clip playing over and over during MSU telecasts. Whenever Delvon Roe was mentioned, ESPN/BTN/whoever cut away to a shot of him acting in the bard’s play “As You Like it” at MSU. In that production, Roe played Charles the Wrestler. In a movie with Aimee Teegarden, he played a former football player named Issac. Maybe Roe and Aimee Teegarden worked well in the IF.
Roe got paid $20,000 for the gig, as he beat out the big Mike actor (Quinton Aaron) from the academy award winning “The Blind Side,” the only other person to audition for the role.
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John L. Smith is one of the most colorful characters in college football. Unfortunately, he’s now at a much lower rung in the sport. The man who took over at Arkansas on very short notice in the wake of the Bobby Petrino Jessica Dorrell scandal, that led the Razorbacks to a disastrous 4-8 season has landed a new job at D2 Fort Lewis College in Colorado. He’ll take a severe paycut. A really drastic paycut.
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Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo, an eight-time national Coach of the Year and the longest-tenured Big Ten men’s basketball coach ever, will be honored at the 2013 College Basketball Awards April 15 in Oklahoma City as the recipient of the Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award.
During the Michigan State Spartans utter destruction of the Purdue Boilermakers today, you might have noticed a little punch thrown by State forward Branden Dawson on Purdue’s Travis Carroll. Tom Izzo coached players do not act like this; McDonald’s All-Americans do not like act like this. Watch the video to see the act for yourself. Of course, the Spartans deny it. Deny deny deny:
video h/t Hammer and Rails
Michigan State sports information director Matt Larson sent the following in an email to the BTN:
“The angle of Branden Dawson that BTN had during the broadcast certainly makes it look like there might have been a punch. However, I’ve viewed an angle from underneath the basket and that does not appear to be the case.”
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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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These aren’t the most exciting match-ups in the first round of the NCAA Tournament usually. And yes, IT’S A FIRST ROUND, STOP CALLING IT THE SECOND ROUND! YOU’RE TELLING ME, IT’S A “ROUND” MEANING 60/68 TEAMS AUTOMATICALLY GET A BYE. Ok, now that I’m done pointing out NCAA idiocy, I’ll stop yelling.
The Spartans enter the tournament with the #4 RPI and the #1 strength of schedule this year, not to mention the momentum of winning the Big Ten Tournament, so they’ll be tourney tested and tourney ready.
“a lot of people always say Coach Izzo takes off the Big Ten Tournament to get ready for the NCAA Tournament. That’s such a myth,” Draymond Green said.
Agreed.
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