Bleeding Green

Cheaters never prosper? I am not so sure.....

Things seem to be getting way out of hand here. I just witnessed a "beat down" last night like I have never seen before. The University of Kentucky just won it's 2000th game (UK2K) and it wasn't pretty. They beat the daylights out of Drexel 88 to 44 and most of that took place in the first half. I thought for sure their Center was going to sever the heads of at least 2 Drexel players and then feast on their livers and spleens-not necessarily in that order.

I find it very hard to believe that this level of talent was assembled without some major cheating going on. None of the Kentucky starters have personal connections to Kentucky. None of them are even from Kentucky. Many analysts have said this is the best recruited team in College hoops history. Based on what happened last night, that is hard to argue against. The coach, Callipari, has a reputation for "driving 95 miles an hour in the grey areas". It looks to me like he is on a jet plane at this point.

The last time we had these feelings, as you may recall two years ago, our beloved Spartans were ran out of Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas by a Calipari team lead by Derrick Rose of Memphis. Tom Izzo looked like he was two feet tall.  Rose was caught cheating on his SAT. They took away their wins, but that didn't get us to the Elite 8 or the final four.

Where at the police when you need them?

It appears the NCAA has no ability to police these situations. The coach of USC, Floyd, gives a pile of cash to a player last year and nothing happens. Other examples abound.

What can we do to stop this? I can see the Spartans getting eaten alive in March by these Kentucky Wildcats and it just doesn't seem fair.

Steve (hiding somewhere)

Hoops & December

This week SI online acknowledged what a few of us may have overlooked:  MSU has been the "best school" of the decade in college hoops.  Many of us might ask why us and not UNC, Florida, Connecticut, Duke, or Kansas, particularly if we focus on the December chapters of the past ten years.  So, while we wring our hands about November's new round of flex-and-posture, dysfunctional-football-jock-on-dysfunctional-frat (versus dysfunctional-football-jock-on-dysfunctional-hockey-jock) intramural warring in E.L., we still have one heck of a basketball story to consider.  And, SI only acknowledged the obvious:  No other team has matched MSU's extraordinary big-picture consistency on the hard court and impressive runs to the final four.

I personally feel mighty lucky and thankful for the successes.  But, I'm also a worrier when it comes to MSU's major sports programs.  A lot of us are.  And, in hoops there is this December-after-December "What went wrong?" cloud I have to work through.  Injuries plague us, and in November too we struggle even with GVSU exhibition games.  Then there are always a couple of teams on the rise, or just hot for the night, that catch the Spartans, often on a neutral court, and make us look like a beat-up mid-major for a day:  Florida and UNC this year, Maryland last year, Gonzaga in '05 in Hawaii (aka, muscle-cramp city), Texas several years ago in Puerto Rico I think, Wright State about ten years ago, etc.  With the exception of our visit to Chapel Hill, these are games we should have won, particularly looking at how we later finished and the talent on hand.

So, for sanity's sake I came into this year's November-December cycle trying to get real with Izzo's annual experimentations and our pattern of early injuries and illnesses.  Besides, given this year's road schedule I had no secure expectation that we reach the Big Ten season looking like defending national runner-ups with tons of talent.  I'd like to think we continue our recent run of wins against Texas, but nobody can bank on a W in Austin these days, so we'll see if UNC beats them up a little for us three days earlier and we steal one.  Either way, we came into the season banged up again and this time I'm casting no mental vote on MSU hoops till late February.  The angst reduction has been a good thing.

Charges filed, now you be the jury.....

Sometimes the wheels of justice move extremely slow. It seems like they move even slower when when MSU is involved.

Certainly you have heard the latest that a whole bunch of MSU football players have been charged with assault or conspiracy for assault. You might have learned about it like I did by the scroll on ESPN last night. Not a good feeling.  Making the assumption that the authorities involved are competent and ethical, this would seem to indicate that these players were doing some bad things.  According to Joe's blog, it appears that all those charged had "physical contact" with pot luck attendees at Rather Hall.

Therefore, it appears that there are some facts to be considered:

• Football players left an organized function and conspired to go to Rather Hall as a group and confront other students at Rather Hall.
• Physical contact and assault were premeditated and sought out by all players charged.
• Assaults did, in fact, take place.
• All players charged lied to Dantonio and were therefore suspended for "violation of rules".

These charges could take weeks or months to get resolved. This program does not have the luxury of time. A review and evaluation of the facts needs to be made and a decision rendered as to what to do with these players.

I vote "guilty", remove them permanently, and let's move on. Shouldn't we have a "zero tolerance" policy as it relates to violence off the field anyway?

What's your vote?

GO GREEN!

Steve in Flatwoods, Kentucky

Dahlman V Dahlman Revisited

Tonight is Minnesota Madness at the Breslin center. 

I really like that The Spartans have Wofford on their schedule.  As has been mentioned before Izzo focuses on family in all aspects of the program and bringing in the sibling of a player is a great way to emphasize that. 

Obviously Isaiah hasn't had the impact we expected him to have when he rolled in here with Raymar Morgan a few years ago.  I still think there is a chance that he can have an impact with his shooting at some point this season.  His brother Noah is averaging around 18 points and 7 rebounds this year, which leads his team in scoring.  I wonder what the family pick-up game looks like?

Here is my main/only thought on this matter.  Isaiah Dahlman should start tonight.  It would be a good time to reward a kid who could have transferred but wanted to be a part of something special at MSU.  It would be cool to have both of them on the floor at the beginning of the game, and I'm sure mom and dad would get a kick out of it.

After that it is time to go to work.  What are your thoughts on tonight's game, Dahlman starting, and what needs the most game speed attention in the next 4 tune-ups?

GO GREEN!

Rather Hall Brawl

I've always thought that violence had one core intention:  destruction.  24/7 TV and video-game violence pretty well confirm that many, many people will wallow in orgiastic violence half their waking hours.  And, for the truly committed it seems like an all-day-every-day addiction. 

But, I'm an outsider; just not that interested in it.  Ultimatetly, watching college football is about as violent a thing as I experience in life.  Besides, I've never seen anything in pro sports that approximates the quality of most people who show up in Spartan Stadium, so I leave pro football and pro sports in general to those who like things a little angrier, a little more violent, and too often a lot more egophrenic , i.e., "It's all about me all the time no matter what the cost to you." 

College football and college sports in general focus on lots of goals and aspirations that go beyond our most base and violent curiosities and obsessions.  For me it's a place where a person consciously climbing Maslow's hierarchy can make a little sense of the world, whether or not you're an athlete. 

But, here's the deal:  How is it that so many young men on the MSU football team are so ill-prepared to spend four years in an environment where violence has long been a rare blip on the radar?  Why MSU footbball players over and over? Do we simply not know who these recruits are at any level when they arrive?  Or, are we  failing to transition them into functional levels of adulthood despite massive resources in the football program? 

Maybe inner-city deprevation, violence and marginalization make the bridge to East Lansing just too big to cross.  Or, are college football programs just one-dimensional you're-a-stud-now-go-destroy stupid boxes these kids crawl into for four years, just as the old stereotype always suggested?  Help me out here.  I just don't get it.

EYE TEST, UNC vs. MSU

Sometimes you cannot get a complete picture of a team by looking at wins and losses, and other numbers.  A good team also needs to pass the eye test.

So, without diving into the numbers and without dissecting Tom Izzo's remarks about the game I'd like to share a few thoughts about how it looks to me.

Specifically about the game last night:

1.  The length of UNC really bothered the Spartan perimeter players when shooting from the outside.  The UNC defenders were able to get their hands and fingertips on a few shots early and it seemed obvious to me that it caused MSU shooters to think twice before every perimeter jump shot, and hesitation rarely produces great shooting percentages.

2. MSU was surprisingly close to winning that game late because of their full court pressure and a costly UNC turnover under the basket.  My heart sunk when Lucas and Morgan collided on the steal in the back court.  That four point swing almost put it out of reach, but another turnover and a few Lucas drives kept them within striking distance.  The real nail in the coffin was the two offensive rebounds off of missed free throws after Roe and Green fouled out.

  Side question for debate...  Knowing that UNC has young, turnover prone guards should Izzo have unleashed a little full court pressure earlier than desperation time?  It looked like the Tarheels really had a hard time with it.

3. Delvon Roe and Draymond Green have excellent ball skills and handled those very large post players quite well.  Even though UNC scored in the post both of those defenders forced some very difficult shots. It was Ed Davis' and Deon Thompson's night.  Garrick Sherman is not quite strong enough to  handle those two guys.  I was shouting at the tv "Help, help, help" every time they caught the ball in the post with him defending and they scored on him repeatedly.

As far as the season goes so far:

1. Delvon Roe is quite the athlete, a nice improvement from last year.

2. Raymar is playing desperate and I love it.  He is determined to leave a positive mark on this program.

3. This years version is not as tough defensively as last years.  They are more athletic.

4. This years version does not execute that well in the half court compared to typical Izzo teams.  The fast break is better.

5. They are incredibly fun to watch.

This is what my eyes see, what do yours?

Hoops and "Sports Therapy"

I'm glad hoops season is about to take over MSU sports headlines after a tough senior day in Spartan Stadium.  That "Ouch!" feeling -- with a light case of "What next?" paranoia -- from the second-half debacle with PSU is starting to recede with help from a rock-solid Izzo team set to overtake Jud Heathcoat's MSU total-wins record this weekend.  Great therapy for an improved attitude and confidence regained in the Spartans.

Moving on to one fantastically promising hoops season, Florida this Friday will probably be nearly as challenging as Gonzaga last week.  Then on Saturday MSU will play either UMASS or Rutgers.  The four teams' records are (with opposing teams' current records in parentheses for some clue about the quality of competition):

MSU (4-0) - MSU v. Florida Gulf Coast (0-3) W 97-58, v. Gonzaga (3-1) W 75-71, v. Toledo (0-3) W 75-62, v. Valpo (1-3) W 90-60

Florida (3-0) - UF v. Stetson (1-3) W 74-46, v. Georgia Southern (1-3) W 69-49, v. Troy (2-1) W 80-58

UMASS(2-2) - UMASS v. UCF (4-1) L 84-67, v. Cornell (2-1) L  74-61, v. Arkansas-Fort Smith (no ESPN.com web page, campus web site shows 1-1 record) W 94-68

Rutgers (2-1) - RU v. Marist (0-2) W 74-67, v. Drexel (0-3) W 58-56, Vermont (2-1) L 77-71

It looks like all four team were scheduled to beat up on light early-season competition and only MSU-Gonzaga jumps out as a worthy challenge given the in-conference competition they'll all  face in January.  My guess is that MSU-Florida will parallel the Gonzaga game where Spartan depth outlasted a solid competitor.  UMASS looks wobbly on the surface with sizable losses to UCF and Cornell.  And, Rutgers seems to compare with IU or Iowa -- in rebuilding mode as they struggle against modest competition. 

How do you see the weekend unfolding?

Football, hoops & hockey

Grid iron: A 7-5 record was my minimum goal for the regular season. IF we have an A-game night against Penn State as with Michigan (till the last four minutes), then we win. The crowd is often awesome for MSU-PSU at night. But, if the sieve reemerges in the Spartan secondary, I may have to go find a big redwood to bang my head against, while I ponder if I’m ready to fly to Phoenix or San Antonio to play an Oklahoma or such in the Insight or Alamo Bowl. (That’s making the very reasonable assumption that UM doesn’t win against OSU and we’re not Detroit-bound.)

Hoops: Did you see that first half against Gonzaga? Coach Few must have modeled that start after UNC’s in the NCAA final: Punch the daylights out of MSU in the first half and hope they don’t wake up till deep in the second half. I thought I'd been teleported back to Ford Field. It came way too close to working for Gonzaga and I don’t doubt for a minute that Coach Izzo is pumping up our new centers with every resource he can find to stop the madness and make sure we're the ones hitting hard in the first half. It’s going to be interesting to watch this sort out prior to the Big Ten season.

Hockey: Hasn’t this been a timely and fun early season? My Spartan world was due for a big lift. And, I can hold a huge grin inside for a couple of months when we beat up on UM like last weekend…twice! Spartan fans, and now maybe even USC (football) and Duke (hoops), have learned to be cautious with their enthusiasm for the sake of their sanity. But, I am really happy as clams that this team has bounced back so astoundingly and quickly, after a 2008-2009 season we all want to forget.

Where among these possibilities are you putting your Spartanism these days? Got any high hopes you think are defendable?

Replacing Seniors

A while back we saw an article about how defense will keep this version of the Spartans from cutting down the nets.  Most of that talk as come along with how much we are actually losing from last year's seniors defensively.

Spartan basketball talk; Coble out

I remember listening to Kevin Coble give an interview after Northwestern beat MSU last year about how he practices "those shots."  Come on, you remember how every leaning circus bank shot fell on a night that Northwestern was obviously destined to win.

Coming out of a dark and deflating Halloween night…

This week I’ve watched some of the football recaps and commentaries on BTN regarding a dark night in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. I get the feeling that the BTN crew is as mystified by MSU’s strange, volatile, and often flat-footed night in Minneapolis as our fans and the coaching staff were. Then there was that rather full moon overhead, with a thousand ghouls in the bleachers, and suddenly Spartans everywhere are wondering if next year we can possibly get stabilized at the top of the Big Ten.

However, the dark side of things is always a slippery slope, so I’m going to try to look up a bit toward Izzo and hoops, as well as the future of the Dantonio era. And, there’s some very good early-season success on the hockey rink too with a 6-2-0 record and respectable ranking, so I actually do find myself breathing easier again.

Getting back to the grid-iron front, I’ve looked back at our recent trend in recruiting and saw that the Spartan class of 2010 is looking balanced and could still collect as much talent as the 2009 class. This means, building on the change of culture over the past three years, the future really could be very bright. Nonetheless, it’s apparent that we need to pick up some receivers and will continue to look for a four-star running back. I’m really happy with the class and its balance at this point and am confident we’ll have another top-25 class by early 2010. Still, I’m not so pie-in-the-sky that I’d suggest we’re where we need to be on pass defense. "Ouch!" for the season. That’s got to get fixed and fast, just like our first-and-goal "offense."  Double ouch!

On the hoops side of things, of course, we’ve had some injuries and flu, but nothing to take any of our richly talented guys out for long. Naturally, I’m getting ready to flip my Spartans switch over to the Brez’ by Thanksgiving. As with last year, even in an increasingly talented Big Ten, this looks like a very promising season filled with tough, but beatable, competition. It should be a gas to watch.

Finally, on the recruiting front Izzo and staff have taken it to Calipari and Kentucky twice in a week and we’re off to the start of a great 2011 with Bandan Kearney committed to MSU. And, Adreian Payne’s commitment last week should put us in the top five nationally for 2010. So, I’m pulling out my Sparty cap for the gym again and thinking we’ll survive 10/31/09. I’m expecting the Spartans will look like they've come out of the stupor too on Saturday versus WMU and then get ready for a very, very volatile Purdue.

OK, after the darkness, is anyone else starting to catch a silver lining in the big picture here?

Bring Back the Cow!

Yes, I'm serious, I would like to see a big fat Spartan cow at football games at Spartan Stadium. Hear me out on this.

HIstorically, in the early days of Spartan football, it was customary to bring a cow to such spirited events as a victory party or maybe even a good bar mitzvah. Putting one on the ice during a hockey game would have been cool too, I think.

I'm almost finished reading Rexrode's book, which is quite good if I may say so. I''m surprised he doesn't plug it more. I would have liked to have reprinted the portion here, but I don't have Rexrode's permission and he could get mad at me. Anyway, in his book he describes the chaos of East Lansing after a big win against the Evil Empire (AKA U of M). At one point things got so out of hand that the joyous Spartans started setting things on fire, including the barn of some big wig on campus. The big concern came the next day when they couldn't find the cow after the barn had burned to the ground. It turned out that the cow was out with a bunch of other Spartans at the train station greeting the football team coming back from the game in Ann Arbor. I think a keg or two of beer might have been involved.

What a great tradition.

I think they had to let the cow stay at the Brody complex after that. In fact, she can probably still be found there, somewhere in the basement.

Consider the cow as a symbol of our true agrarian roots as the nation's first school of agriculture. Now I'm not saying get rid or Sparty, i just think he would look real good either riding a cow into Spartan Stadium or just running around the field with her.

I think that could have been even better entertainment than some of our football games under previous Coaches.

Come one, who's with me? If not a cow what else? I know we have cows somewhere on campus. I saw them just last week on a Big Ten Tailgate episode. They're just laying around on water beds doing nothing.

I say, let's get the cows busy. The economy needs them to pull their fair share. And besides, it would be way too cool.

Steve in Kentucky

Green Chutes

I figured after a game like that, Spartans everywhere could use a little pick-me-up. First though, let’s dispense the usual negative drivel everyone else is spewing.

Coach Izzo to shave head at Spartan Stadium before game with Iowa!

This is my prediction based on absolutely no inside information and just a small hunch based on some comments that appeared somewhere said by someone.

If this is not the "surprise" that has been hyped, then just what in the heck could it be?

I want to hear Spartan Nation thoughts on my prediction or perhaps other predictions on just what the "big surprise" could be.

GO GREEN!

Steve in Kentucky

Coach Izzo to shave head at Spartan Stadium before game with Iowa!

This is my prediction based on absolutely no inside information and just a small hunch based on some comments that appeared somewhere said by someone.

If this is not the "surprise" that has been hyped, then just what in the heck could it be?

I want to hear Spartan Nation thoughts on my prediction or perhaps other predictions on just what the "big surprise" could be.

GO GREEN!

Steve in Kentucky