The light stretch comes to an end for No. 18 MSU when it faces Big Ten cellar-dweller Penn State tonight in State College. (7 p.m., Big Ten Network)
The Nittany Lions and Nebraska are the only remaining Big Ten men’s teams without a win in conference play. Penn State’s conference losses have all come by nine points or more.
Graham Couch has the matchups and also a piece on MSU’s free throw shooting this season. The Spartans have made their free throws in crunch time but have missed them at other points in the game.
After today’s game a tough stretch follows for the Spartans, starting Saturday. Here’s a quick look at what’s ahead.
Saturday – Ohio State
Jan. 22 – at Wisconsin
Jan. 27 – at Indiana
Jan. 31 – Illinois
Feb. 6 – Minnesota
What is your prediction for tonight, and how must the Spartans fare in the tough five-game stretch that follows in order to stay in the Big Ten race?
And in case you missed a couple of other news items, MSU freshman goaltender Jake Hildebrand earned a CCHA weekly honor after his performance against Notre Dame over the weekend. Hildebrand stopped 65 of 67 shots to help the Spartans earn a home split with the No. 2/3 Irish. And Solari has a piece on MSU’s hockey attendance this season, which has been among the best in the country. MSU ranks first in the CCHA and seventh nationally in average home attendance
Lastly, MSU 2014 football/basketball recruit Drake Harris was recently named the top wide receiver in the nation in his class by Tom Lemming. Interest is also starting to pick up for the Grand Rapids Christian wide receiver, who recently tweeted he received an offer from Urban Meyer and Ohio State.
Amid many fans tweeting to him requesting he attend their school, Harris tweeted the following:
@drizzygetbusy01 For everyone that is wondering what’s going on… I’m still committed to Msu but I’m planning on just playing football in college so
@drizzygetbusy01 I’m opening my recurring back up but I have not Decommited from Msu just starting to look at more schools
Firefox
Chrome
Safari
so MSU’s “light” stretch consisted of 2 road games, if MSU wins them both, which they should accomplish tonight, it would be huge. Every road victory counts, and you have to win just about every home game, which apparently Indiana forgot….
MSU 65
Penn State 58
Another night , another grinder
I think this is a year where the entire league could between 12-6 and 6-12 , there is very little separation from 1-9 instead of the usual 1-6 imho this year could be like baseball with plenty of games where 7 beats 1 like last nights Wisconsin-Indiana game
MSU needs to take three of those 5 and be 7-3 after that stretch.
Every one of those upcoming 5 games is winnable – just look at last night when Wiscy put the Hoosiers into grind mode.
Just respect the game and your oppnents and find a way to win. At this point, the league will provide a lot of fodder for the B1G haters out there as we like to play defense and most everyone else in enamored with making ESPeeN’s Top 10 Plays.
Sounds like sour grapes:
http://tinyurl.com/afzoc4x
I think he’s mad mostly because he won’t get wins against them anymore…..by the way, they’ll still be able to play each other…it’s called the B1G/ACC Challenge!!
MSU should win easily, but that has not been the case recently.
Hopefully 2014 football/basketball recruit Drake Harris will keep his commitment and not do an Urban flip.
Harris has tweeted that he only plans to play football in college now and not basketball.
Thats chilling news Brian but thanks, Rot in hell Urban Meyer.
I’d go all Brady Hoke on him and say see ya…
Somebody has to go after this Bastard Urban Meyer, we must have alumni in the FBI who can wiretap him and get the data over to the NCAA Enforcement people.
Look what he did to poor Bielema…drove him to Arkansas…
This is life in the SEC, folks. This backstabbing, over promising recruits and then throwing those whop haven’t worked out under the bus is day to day activity south of the mason/dixon line. Average number of scholarships rescinded at every SEC school each year is 4. Some years Spurrier has throw 8 under the bus, Miles the Michilan Man has a top score of 7, and the list goes on. Saban doesn’t run into this of late because his freshman all turn pro after a year.
How can he still be committed to MSU but he is “opening his recruiting back up”. I think the main draw for him was to play basketball for Izzo, now that he is just going to focus on football I expect him to sign elsewhere… I really hope I am wrong as it sounds like this kid is the real deal. It will be hard for MSU to keep him when the likes of Alabama, Florida, Notre Dame, OSU are going after him hard as well. I just don’t get why these kids “commit” so early.
This not good..http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/interactive/article/20130116/GW0201/301160043/Report-Police-investigate-altercation-involving-MSU-basketball-players
Boys will be boys, but this is alarming compared with team performance and recent history (last 3-4 years) of chemistry issues and transfers. Izzo needs to get some lessons in team building drills etc it seems.
More details have emerged on scuffle. It was between Adreian Payne and Branden Dawson and both will not start tonight according to Izzo statement, which is below:
“A scuffle that began as two players needling each other resulted in a dented wall. We’ll deal with this appropriately, and the players will willingly accept responsibility for paying for any property damage. I’ve spent my entire afternoon meeting with the players involved and they are both sincerely remorseful. What makes matters even more confusing is that they are off-campus roommates. As a result of their actions neither one will start tonight’s game.”
Smells like girl trouble to me!
Free Matt Costello…
Sounds like more boys will be boys…. than chemistry problems…
I’d say that I’m about 99 percent certain that Harris won’t come here. Now that the big boys are calling, it’s gonna be hard for him to turn them down. You can call Meyer a cheat or whatever you want, but he wins.
as long as he doesn’t go to scUM, that would really hurt.
Tommy got locker room trouble baby !!!
The Draker gone baby !!!
The Tanner see Colin Kaspernick go off baby !!!
Why is it that the worst team in the conference is shooting better than they have ever shot against us? Is it just me or does it always feel like we have people who have fantastic, break-out games against us?
I predicted a 7 point grinder we win by 9
The game has a differant flow due to rotation issues, if Payne starts the game MSU blows out Penn State by 20 points
We are now 4-1 and 15-3 folks, We need to win 5 of our last 13 games to keep the incredible streak of 16 NCAA tourneys going,
All of us know this team wins way more than 5 the rest of the way, Joe Rexrode sees 8 more wins.
And no one yet has congratulated Tom Izzo on 200 Big Ten wins
IIIT
Go Green.
Agreed! I think that if this team can get all the parts working at once, then 8 wins is very obtainable.
And yes, congrats to Coach Izzo on 200 Big Ten wins!
Paine and Dawsen start feud baby !!!
Nittiny lions can’t hang baby !!!
Nixer come thru baby !!!
The Tanner brings the goods baby !!!
Idiot Cheese-it is now telling Coach Izzo that Twitter is a good thing. That’s like the mouse who told the lion don’t eat me because I pulled the thorn out: only in the world of fantasy. With out the instant access Couch couldn’t write a story, he has no access to anyone at MSU, he has to plagiarize everything. As Joe wrote: 10+ years ago this would have been a story a day after the game as to why BJ and AP sat the 1st half. Life was certainly easier for Coach Izzo in those days and that wasn’t a bad thing. The 15 minute fame seeking degenerates are out there: just ask the South Niles CC linebacker.