Bleeding Green

Seeking "Spartan of the Year" nominations....

Since we are nearing the end of the year, it is time for our first annual "Spartan of the Year" award. This award will go to the Spartan that has exhibited outstanding Spartan Spirit over an extended period of time. Current athletes, while not excluded, will be considered in April for our "Spartan Athlete of the Year" award.

Please nominate an individual that you think has exhibited a strong Spartan Spirit and has been supportive of the world's finest educational institution, Michigan State University.

I would like to start by nominating Vicki L. White, mother of Blair White. Ms. White, an outstanding Spartan athlete in her own right,  has exhibited great Spartan Spirit by encouraging her son to attend MSU. When Blair expressed an interest in going to a school in Ann Arbor some years ago, Ms. White responded by saying "good luck paying for that". Way to go Vicki showing great Spartan Spirit!

I'll try to send the nominator and or winner of this Award a shirt or something-  My wife has some left over inventory of our buy out of Steve and Barry's collegiate store.

Make sure you give the proper name and reason for the nomination. I know there is alot of Green Blood out there, so give it your best shot!

GO GREEN!

Steve in Flatwoods, Kentucky

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?