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Michigan State Spartans

Notebook: Missing UConn-Tennessee Series More Than Ever

By Michelle Smith 1/18/2010 6:20 PM ET

Geno Auriemma, Pat Summitt
Even Dick Vitale knows that Connecticut and Tennessee should be playing during the regular season.

After watching Saturday night's Connecticut blowout of No. 3 Notre Dame; after watching ESPN set up camp with its GameDay crew to feature a non-competitive game that didn't reflect on the women's game in the most flattering way; after listening to Vitale pepper Doris Burke with questions about the state of the women's game, made it abundantly clear.

We need Connecticut vs. Tennessee. We need the clash of the coaches, the hype. We need a great game.

Maybe the Lady Vols aren't ready quite yet to hold up their end. Not this year. But Tennessee has, what they like to say on draft day, "upside."
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Loaded Longhorns Find Yet Another Way to Win

By Terrance Harris 12/23/2009 12:09 AM ET

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas Longhorns have all but distanced themselves from any talk of statement games in December while pulling off impressive wins against Top 10 opponents North Carolina and Michigan State.

But make no mistake they've sent a message all the same: Pick a style, any style and not only will the second-ranked Longhorns play it but they will beat you out.

Texas ran with the Tar Heels on Saturday and ran them off the floor. Tuesday night, facing a physical Michigan State squad, the Longhorns showed they can throw elbows with the best of them, fighting though the most violent of ball screens and drives in traffic to rally past the ninth-ranked Spartans 78-68 and improve to 11-0.
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Spartans Looking for Win, Not Revenge

By David Steele 12/01/2009 4:00 PM ET

Roy Williams, Tom IzzoRoy Williams has walked this path before. Four seasons ago, his North Carolina team arrived at the ACC/Big Ten Challenge as defending national champions, but in name only. Graduations and NBA defections had stripped away the talent that had helped him cut down the nets on the final night of the previous season, and now he faced a rematch of the title game against the Big Ten team the Tar Heels had overcome in April -- an opponent that returned far more players than Williams had.

However, even a few days after Thanksgiving, Williams appreciates the fact that Tuesday night's ACCBig Ten/Challenge game in Chapel Hill against No. 9 Michigan State, the team North Carolina drilled in Detroit for the championship (and whom the Heels defeated in last season's Challenge), is in the second month of the season, not the last.

"They'll be fired up, but I think we will be also,'' Williams told reporters Monday. "If they beat us, we're not going to give them any trophy, and if we beat them, we're not going to get another one.''
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A New Chapter in Classic Magic-Bird Tale

By David Steele 11/23/2009 2:15 AM ET

Larry Bird / Magic JohnsonKANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inducted eight new members Sunday night, and nearly half of the two-hour ceremony was devoted to two of them. Not that it wasn't deserved: from the moment the list of enshrinees for the Hall's fourth class was announced, it was universally known that it would be a Magic-Bird celebration.

Earvin "Magic'' Johnson and Larry Bird did not disappoint, as they served up memories of the moment they shared 30 years ago in the NCAA championship game, spoke of the legacies they carved out in basketball at every level -- and remained in their easily-recognizable characters almost as if they were scripted for the event.
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Nation's Best Coaching in Big Ten

By Matt Snyder 5/04/2009 6:58 PM ET

In 2008, the Big Ten sent only four teams to the NCAA tournament. None reached the Elite Eight The Big Ten toiled down with mid-majors in conference RPI and were nationally maligned as the "Average 11." This past season, however, the league enjoyed a resurgence. It ranked only behind the ACC in conference RPI. Seven schools earned a berth into the NCAA tournament, and Penn State won the NIT. Michigan State toppled the defending national champions and two number one seeds en route to a national runner-up finish.
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Year of the Spartan Still to Come

By Matt Snyder 4/14/2009 8:30 PM ET

The Michigan State Spartans concluded a very successful season just over a week ago. They rode a two-seed past the defending champions, the top overall seed, and a supremely talented Connecticut squad before falling to the obvious best team in the nation, the NCAA champion Tar Heels.

After a brief rest, the Spartans will eventually get back to work in East Lansing, and it won't be a rebuilding project. It will be a reloading one. They did lose Goran Suton, Travis Walton and Marquise Gray to graduation, but there's plenty left for Tom Izzo to make another Final Four run -- one that would be his sixth in the past 12 years.
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Saban Can't Help 'Bama Land Izzo

By Matt Snyder 3/09/2009 2:30 PM ET

For some godforesaken reason, some Alabama fans and media think they have a shot at landing Michigan State's Tom Izzo as the replacement for Mark Gottfried. Apparently, just because their football coach, Nick Saban, is a former Michigan State coach, he can just extend a phone call and land Izzo at the drop of a hat.

There are two problems here. First of all, Izzo has already built a situation superior to one he could build at Alabama. He's worshipped on campus, and his family is settled in the area. You aren't going to uproot your entire life unless bowled over by money. How much more money does Alabama have to spend on a basketball coach than Michigan State? Not near enough, if any at all.
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Michigan State in Class of Its Own

By Matt Snyder 3/08/2009 2:30 PM ET

When it comes to the Big Ten, there are a few tiers of similar teams. Illinois and Purdue are similar. Iowa and Indiana are similarly bad. There's a big amoeba in the middle where every team is on the bubble. Then, you are left with Michigan State. They are in a class all by themselves.

Sunday we received another reminder, as they turned Purdue away despite a sub-par shooting performance.The pressure defense and the quick-paced offense were just too much for the Boilers.
No. 8 Michigan State 62, No. 19 Purdue 51: Box Score | RPI | Scores
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Tom Izzo to Shave Head for Big Ten Title

By Chas Rich 3/03/2009 12:06 PM ET

Michigan State has one of the most active student sections in its "Izzone." The students have to camp out to get tickets for the section, and regularly receive visits from coach Tom Izzo while they camp. That interaction with the students led Izzo to make an interesting promise to the students.

Specifically, he promised that if the Spartans won the Big Ten, Izzo would shave his head.
"I think I did say that," Izzo said. "I'll have to check with my people."
There were apparently enough witnesses including the media to confirm.
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Seth Davis' 'When March Went Mad'

By Will Brinson 3/02/2009 5:45 PM ET


Even the casual basketball fan knows about the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird rivalry, and its beginnings in the 1979 NCAA National Championship Game. Seth Davis' book, "When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed College Basketball," chronicles the beginning of that rivalry in '79, and the long-lasting effect that the game has had on the way we all watch college basketball. The book drops Tuesday, just in time for the 30-year anniversary of the game (you can purchase it here). Read FanHouse's review of the book after the jump.
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