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Brady Hoke is the Big Ten Coach of the Year, as voted by media and coaches. Montee Ball is Graham-George Offensive Player of the year, Penn State's Devon Still is Nagurski-Woodson Defensive Player of the Year and Ohio State's Braxton Miller is Thompson-Randle El Freshman of the Year.
Continue reading "B1G awards, BTFCG QBs, ACC/BT Challenge" »
Mark Dantonio talked Big Ten middle class today at his news conference, saying of MSU, Wisconsin, Iowa and the like: "Some of us face the same battles."
First team media and coaches: Joel Foreman and Jerel Worthy. Johnny Adams was a first-team coaches selection, while Trenton Robinson made the media first team.
Two big items in the Big Ten, in different sports. Urban Meyer will be introduced today as Ohio State's next coach. And Trevor Mbakwe will miss the rest of Minnesota's season with a torn ACL -- crushing the hopes for a team that looked very intriguing with the addition of guard Julian Welch.
Mark Dantonio and Bret Bielema took part in teleconferences today, half an hour apiece, to kick off BTFCG week. Dantonio said Darqueze Dennard should be good to go against Wisconsin. "He should be back," Dantonio said. "He could have probably played this week but we held it."
This is Denny in for Joe down in Ypsilanti. MSU just finished off a 72-40 win over Eastern Michigan at the Convocation Center on the campus of EMU.
It was a slow start, as MSU led 25-13 at half. But the Spartans were off and running after that - literally. MSU cranked up their transition game and were able to get quite a few baskets on the fast break. This looked to be the most they have been able to run so far this season. Senior forward Draymond Green led MSU with 14 points while Adreian Payne and Keith Appling had 12 and 11, respectively.
One positive came right at the end of the game, when redshirt freshman Russell Byrd calmly stroked a 3-pointer. It was a pure shot and one that could do wonders for Byrd's confidence. That's all for now.
"You know what that stands for?" Dantonio said after uttering the season-long motto in the wake of MSU's 31-17 win at Northwestern. “Prepare for the Rose Bowl. That’s where we’re going. We’ll take the next step. It’ll be a great challenge next week … but we’re in the hunt.”
And it's about time we explored one of the overlooked elements of the best MSU defense in a long time -- a bigger and healthy Kevin Pickelman.
Denny Schwarze caught up with Birmingham Brother Rice junior LB Jon Reschke today at the state finals in Detroit.
Hope your Thanksgiving was full of family and food, with no kicks to the sternum. Tina Akouris of the Chicago Sun-Times provides insights today on the Wildcats:
