November 22, 2024: Michigan State is heading to beautiful Maui for Feast Week this year and a loaded Maui Invitational. The tournament features Auburn, Iowa State, North Carolina, Memphis, Dayton, UConn, Colorado, and Michigan State. Lots of potential final four teams in the field. The Spartans will open up against the weakest (on paper anyway) tea…

November 19, 2024: Samford visited the Breslin Center bringing their frenetic full court press and 3 point attack challenging the Spartans in new ways this season. Fortunately for the Green and White, they held off the pesky Bulldogs, 83-75. Once again, Jaden Akins had a fantastic game outside of his foolish technical foul. Finally a few 3s started…

November 18, 2024: Michigan State welcomes Samford to the Breslin on Tuesday night for their last warmup before the Maui Invitational next week. The Bulldogs represent a real challenge as they are again expected to win the Southland Conference and nearly beat Kansas in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament earlier this year. Samford will provide…

November 16, 2024: Bowling Green top assistant coach and former MSU point guard, Tum Tum Nairn almost spoiled his homecoming to East Lansing with an upset by the Falcons. Michigan State needed a 10-0 run to end the first half to tie the game at half time and then an 18-0 run to finish the game to secure a 14 point win, 86-72. Despite the double dig…

November 14, 2024: The Spartans welcome back a familiar face to the Breslin on Saturday night as Tum Tum Nairn makes his assistant coaching debut with the Bowling Green Falcons. It comes after Michigan State fell to top ranked Kansas at the Champions Classic where they shot 3-24 from 3 point range. Michigan State will look to correct those shooting…

November 12, 2024: Michigan State falls to Kansas 77-69 in the Champions Classic in Atlanta tonight. Although there were some very encouraging signs to the offense tonight, for the second straight year they are struggling to hit beyond the arc early again the season. The Spartans went 3-24 from behind the line despite many of them being wide open. …

November 10, 2024: Michigan State will take on Kansas in what might be the rubber match for their meetings in the Champions Classic. The teams currently have a 2-2 record against each other in the early season premiere showdown and this is very likely one of the last years of the Classic. Conference realignments and TV deals are rapidly changing th…

November 8, 2024: Michigan State played their second game of the year where Niagara falls to MSU 96-60 behind the outstanding play of Jaxon Kohler. Kohler finished the game with 20 points, 13 rebounds (6 offensive), and 2 steals in just 17 minutes on the floor. This was the first time that he finished the way we’ve been waiting for. The Spartans we…

November 6, 2024: Michigan State will take on Kansas in the Champions Classic next week but first, they host Niagara on Thursday at the Breslin Center. This expects to be the easiest competition of the season for the Spartans. So in this game we look to see if some early signs continue for the Green & White. Namely, will they continue to hit the of…

November 4, 2024: Unlike last year, Michigan State opened up the season with a win over Monmouth, 81-57. The Spartans looked different in this game in that they had their fast break humming and were dominant on the boards racking up almost 50% offensive rebounding rate. The one similarity to last season’s opener against James Madison was the dreadf…

November 2, 2024: It's finally here! The MSU opener at the Breslin Center and the start of a new point guard era in the Green and White. Redshirt Freshman Jeremy Fears, Jr. will lead the team against the Monmouth Hawks in what they hope will be a better start to the season than last year. There will be quite a few things we will be looking for in t…

October 30, 2024: At Michigan State under Tom Izzo, we refer to various eras based on who is playing the point. So with the departure of AJ Hoggard, MSU has officially left the Hoggard Era and entered the Fears Era. Jeremy Fears, Jr. might have had his season last year cut short after suffering a gun shot wound in his leg from a random intruder ove…

October 29, 2024: Michigan State finished its last preseason tuneup against the Ferris State Bulldogs at the Breslin Center with a 85-67 victory. There were a lot of things to like about what we saw and a few negative aspects to the team. On the positive side we saw Frankie Fidler display what looks to be his scoring acumen. The freshmen tandem gua…

October 27, 2024: Michigan State takes on Ferris State for its only exhibition game played at the Breslin Center this season. Ferris is a perennial power int he GLIAC where Head Coach Andy Bronkema has led the Bulldogs to 4 regular season titles, 7 NCAA tournament appearances, and one national title in only 11 years. Make no mistake, Ferris will pr…

October 23, 2024: Michigan State received its second high school commitment yesterday with the announcement of 6'8" 210 pound Cam Ward from Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Ward joins fellow 4* Jordan Scott who committed recently and is also from the East coast. Ward brings a lot to the table for MSU both physically and in terms of skills. He has plus win…

October 21, 2024: Once again, we have Purdue as the expected Big Ten champion this year. However, this season Painter's crew will have to do it without two time national player of the year Zach Edey. We expect that the season's success or 'failure' will largely come down to the play of point guard Braden Smith. Smith showed another gear last year w…

October 17, 2024: Earlier last season we thought Mike Woodson was a coach who wouldn't be returning. Despite the underwhelming results with what Indiana has brought to the court, the Hoosiers have doubled down on Woodson by spending big in the portal to bring some big names to Bloomington. Most notably, is Oumar Ballo from Arizona. The 7 footer is …

October 14, 2024: There's no question that last season was a disappointing year for fourth year head coach, Mick Cronin, as the Bruins had a losing record and missed the NCAA Tournament. The young team struggled especially on the offensive side ranking a dismal #152 in Division 1. But this year offers a lot of promise as Cronin has gone to the port…

October 13, 2024: Michigan State visited Marquette, MI today to take on Tom Izzo's alma mater, Northern Michigan, in a rare early preseason exhibition game. Another signature event scheduled by the Spartans as they played in the Superior Dome where Izzo's number was retired earlier. As for the game, despite being one of the better teams in the D2 G…

October 11, 2024: Thursday evening, Virginia 4* high school recruit, Jordan Scott, committed to Michigan State. Scott is a 6'7" wing who ranks inside the top 75 in most recruiting rankings. He is talented and versatile where he has played positions 1-5 on his AAU team in the UnderArmor circuit. Scott is a winner and comes from great college basketb…

October 9, 2024: Head coach, Brad Underwood, just had his most successful season at Illinois leading the Illini to a Big Ten Tournament championship, second place in the Big Ten regular season, and a trip to the Elite 8. Although it seems Underwood has struggled to maintain a core of recruits to stick around Champaign more than a few years, he has …

October 7, 2024: Ohio State finally parted ways with Chris Holtman last season after many years of underperformance. There's definitely patience at a football school like Ohio State but it isn't unlimited. A general lack of success and missing the tournament multiple years in a row led to his dismissal. Surprisingly, the Buckeyes ended up hiring in…

October 3, 2024: The expressions "dumpster fire, clown show, apocalypse" to describe last year's season for the Wolverines probably all work. Michigan had their worst finish in 60 years and a number of really weird circumstances. Head coach Juwan Howard started the season recovering from a heart surgery and while serving as an assistant coach got t…

September 30, 2024: The 2023-24 season was obviously a disappointment for the Scarlet Knights as they failed to make the tournament for the second straight year. It wasn't entirely unexpected with the loss of Paul Mulcahy and Cam Spencer to the transfer portal. However, Rutgers made a huge splash by early Spring where it became clear that they were…

September 26, 2024: Last year second year head coach, Kevin Willard, and the Terrapins had a season they'd like to forget. Despite bringing back some key veterans and picking up highly rate recruits, the team took a turn for the worse last year. Nearly elite defense was negated by an abysmal offensive presence especially outside the 3 point line. I…

September 23, 2024: The third PAC-12 team we have previewed is the Oregon Ducks as they shift to a deeper basketball league that they are used to. Oregon has had a tradition of boom and bust teams and with the close relationship with Phil Knight and Nike, there is every reason to believe Oregon will be competitive. This year's team features some in…

September 19, 2024: The Nebraska Cornhuskers finally made it back to the NCAA Tournament last year - the first for Head Coach Fred Hoiberg - but it resulted in yet another loss. Nebraska still hasn't won an NCAA Tournament game despite 8 tries over the years. It wasn't long ago that we talked about how maybe Fred Hoiberg would find himself on the h…

September 16, 2024: The USC Trojans are joining the Big Ten this year and although they are mostly thought of as a football power, they have some history of occasional success in basketball. Fans might recall MSU's matchup in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2023 with a talented and dangerous Trojan squad. Well, the Trojans have overhauled…

September 12, 2024: Last year was a strange one for the Wisconsin Badgers. They started out blistering hot in the Big Ten behind tremendous athletic scoring of transfer AJ Storr with a halfway record of 8-1 and first place in the conference. Then the wheels (sort of) came off as they limped across the line to finish 11-9. A bright note was despite …

September 9, 2024: After 5 straight years in the NCAA tournament, the Hawks missed the Tourney this year without the services of any of the Murray twins. It was a largely forgettable year for Iowa and head coach, Fran McCaffrey with a middle of the pack Big Ten finish and a team that statistically wasn't nearly as good as recent years. The Hawkeyes…

September 5, 2024: Head coach Mike Rhoades took over at Penn State after the premature departure of Micah Shrewsbury. He was left with pretty much a decimated roster and had to rebuild from transfers and a couple players from his previous coaching job. Surprisingly, the experiment sort of worked last year as the Nittany Lions became a competitive t…

September 2, 2024: Chris Collins has gone from us questioning if he would hold onto his job into now sending the Wildcats to back to back NCAA tournament bids and wins. Clearly the greatest coach Northwestern has ever had Collins will now try to establish something new - consistent winning. But he will have to do this without Big Ten killer, Boo Bu…

August 29, 2024: The Big Ten welcomes in four teams from the PAC-12 this year which includes the Washington Huskies. Not only are the Huskies facing change by coming into a new league but they also have a new coach. Danny Sprinkle takes over for Mike Hopkins who only managed to go 12 games over .500 overall in seven seasons in Seattle. Sprinkle wil…

August 26, 2024: The season isn't far away so it's time to start our previews and sneak peak into teams in the Big Ten's 18 teams. We always begin our trek following Rod's expectations from 18 to 1. This year, Rod will again project Minnesota as the cellar dweller. Head coach, Ben Johnson, seems to be snake bit in Minneapolis. After an impressive i…

August 20, 2024: Michigan State left for Spain for an exhibition basketball tour. College teams are only allowed to do this every 4 years or so but it had been 9 years for MSU since their last overseas trip. Coach Izzo felt it was time with a new point guard and five new players on the roster. The Spartans opened up play with a close victory over t…

August 15, 2024: 6'5" freshman wing Kur Teng hails from New Hampshire which is not traditional recruiting territory for Michigan State. However, Kur committed to MSU back in April of 2023 so he was convinced early and has been following the Spartans ever since. Are you looking for collegiate apparel including Spartan gear? There’s only one place we…

August 8, 2024: We met with incoming Freshman Jase Richardson and talked to him about his experience so far at MSU. He discussed his recruitment with Tom Izzo and described how it was different than other coaches. Finally, Jase is probably most famous with fans because he is the son of former MSU & NBA great, Jason Richardson. Richardson is probabl…

August 1, 2024: The second commitment to this year's freshman class was Jesse McCulloch from Cleveland, OH. The 6' 9" 215 pound power forward visited with us today to discuss his initial thoughts on MSU and coach Izzo. Jesse talked about a host of things including his recruitment, what it's like in practice, his bond with the other freshmen, and ex…

July 25, 2024: In a bit of a surprise move, Tom Izzo and the Spartans brought in 6' 11" grad transfer Szymon Zapala in after the departure of Mady Sissoko. In a transfer portal move that few knew was happening until the deal was pretty much done, Zapala brings his skills from Longwood University to East Lansing. The Polish native offers an intrigui…

July 18, 2024: Moneyball, the free pro-am tournament featuring Michigan State's roster and various current and former D1, D2 players is once again under way in the Lansing area. Hosted at Holt High School, the tournament highlights 12 of MSU's 13 scholarship players with only Jeremy Fears left out while recovering from his surgery over Christmas fr…

July 11, 2024: We are lucky to have the best expert in the legal field, Professor Michael McCann, join us for a deep discussion on what is happening to the NCAA from a legal perspective. Professor McCann was on the legal team for Maurice Clarett's when he sued the NFL and helped write the book on Ed O'Bannon's legal challenge for NIL. Today's discu…

July 5, 2024: Robbie Hummel returned to the show again to talk Big Ten Hoops, Purdue making the Final Four, the prospects of Zach Edey in the NBA, and what went wrong with Michigan State last year. Robbie brings his usual honest and folksy analysis to college basketball with a small dose of Indiana Hoosier shade. Are you looking for collegiate appa…

June 27, 2024: It might be the off season but that doesn't mean Michigan State's coaching staff isn't busy working on its future roster. With the era of the transfer portal, roster construction has changed and the importance a staff puts on new recruits has altered. The Spartans, however, have been operating similar to how they have in the past wit…

June 20, 2024: College basketball analyst and ESPN commentator, Jay Bilas, returns the show to discuss the college basketball landscape again. After our discussion with Jay last summer, we wanted to get his expanded thoughts on the direction the NCAA athletics has moved over the past year and where it is headed. The House decision is awaiting appro…

June 13, 2024: One of the worst kept secrets came to fruition as Tom Izzo and the Spartans officially named former UM assistant coach, Saddi Washington, as a new assistant coach. Despite his 8 year stint in Ann Arbor, Saddi actually has very deep ties to Michigan State as his father, Stan, was a former star at MSU from 1964-66. Saddi Washington wil…

June 6, 2024: We were joined again this week with prolific sports columnist Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News to talk college hoops. DeCourcy is also a regular on the BTN so he follows the Big Ten very closely as well as the college basketball landscape in general. We talked about what the Big Ten expansion means for basketball by adding a famed p…

May 30, 2024: Summer brings us time to reflect on the Spartan teams of the past and current events in the college basketball world. Today, we decided to riff off a column by Graham Couch from the LSJ and look back at past MSU teams to rank which teams were the best that never won it all. Although the LSJ column focused just on past Izzo teams, Rod …

May 23, 2024: One of the new additions to the Big Ten this year will be the USC Trojans. Best known for their football, the Trojans have had some success on the hard court as well. Especially located in Southern California, USC has access to some great talent and money. However, USC just had their long time coach, Andy Ensfield, depart for other op…

May 14, 2024: Today, the MSU Spartans landed what appears to be the last piece of the roster puzzle in 7 foot 240# Szymon Zapala. With this center, addition it appears that Tom Izzo has added depth inside without upsetting the dynamics in the locker room with Kohler and Cooper. Zapala played his first three seasons at Utah State in a limited role b…

May 9, 2024: The Washington Huskies are joining the Big Ten which has obvious implications from a football standpoint. But what about in hoops? The Huskies are not known for great basketball but Seattle produces a lot of solid talent. Washington is in transition as it moves to a new coach who will try and right the ship, score some talent in the po…