Michigan State Men’s basketball fell to 1-3 in conference play following the loss at Northwestern. Can the Spartans dig themselves out of this hole in the Big Ten race? Let’s check the #math. Click below to learn more.


(I will add some additional comments later, but for now, here is my latest story.)

Michigan State graduate senior guard Tyson Walker has been named to the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 Watchlist.

Login to view embedded media

Check out the Spartans Ticket Exchange for Sunday's game vs Rutgers

Uncertainty, confusion, and challenges loom as Michigan State men's basketball is set to play Illinois. Can the Spartans finally get over the hump in a true road game?

Click below to find out what Coach Izzo and his players said about this week's contest.

Who shows up tomorrow, the engaged, effective version, or the star of “Ghosted” edition. Since he has been here, he is either a beast or the least, and there doesn’t appear to be any in between.

If the beast doesn’t show up tomorrow, whoa nelly, the boys will get run out of the gym and Izzo’s face will be tomato red.

Release the beast!

Michigan State picks up a commitment from Old Dominion transfer linebacker Wayne Matthews III. He took a visit to MSU on Jan. 6.

Matthews had 135 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks for ODU in 2023.

More here:

New Rules Article

I thought this part was particularly poignant:

Among other items, the council also voted Wednesday to adopt stiffer penalties for individuals who violate NCAA rules. Moving forward, coaches who are suspended will be required to stay away from their teams on days between games in addition to missing games themselves. Schools who hire coaches with show-cause penalties from past violations could receive penalties, and the NCAA plans to create a public database of individuals with a history of Level 1 or Level 2 violations.

This week we had a chance to chat with the Orange and Blue News (@IllinoisRivals) about this week's matchup between the Spartans and the Fighting Illini and the state of each team's season so far. They had a few questions for us, which I took the lead in answering, and then the Illinois publisher provided some of his comments on the Fighting Illini.

While I would love to pick MSU to win this game, I cannot in good conscience do so at this point. I absolutely think that they can win the game, but I am in "believe it when I see it" mode in regards to this team winning a tough true road game. I do that they will get there, but I don't think it will be this week. Champaign is just too tough of a place to win.

Check out the full story here.

Also, apparently they do not appreciate it when you accidently call them "Blue and Orange News" in the original version of the story. Whoops.

Love that guy especially at USC, Hollywood baby

There is a small window here this week where portal players can make official visits ... confirmed with an MSU source the following guys will be on campus.

January 4:
DE Rodas Johnson- Wisconsin
LB Xe’Ree Alexander- Idaho
DB Rod Heard- Northwestern

January 5

DL Jeff Clark Jr- Louisville

January 6:
LB Wayne Matthews III - Old Dominion
DB Tony Grimes - Texas A&M

Date to be confirmed:

DL D'Quan Douse - Georgia Tech

Cancelled visits
DL Jason Moore- Georgia Tech
LB Jared Bartlett- West Virginia
LB Jayden McDonald- Troy
DE Ryan Smith- Duke

The #1 qb for the 2025 class, out of Belleville, MI, just committed to LSU. He was considering um as well so at least he's heading south.

Sources tell me that Maliq Carr will be committing to the University of Houston.

The MSU women's basketball team got back in the win column tonight with an impressive come-from-behind win over the Maryland Terrapins. Full details here via Kyle Luce:

Kevin Sweeney from Sports Illustrated wrote an article about Izzo ranting about analytics being phony. It makes him look bad. Can someone add context to this story? Stories like this without context seem worse than they really are.

Michigan State is adding some experience to its defensive line, as Georgia Tech transfer defensive tackle D'Quan Douse announced his commitment to the Spartans on Tuesday.

Douse took a visit to Michigan State this past week, and afterward, he has decided to play for head coach Jonathan Smith, defensive line coach Legi Suiaunoa and the rest of the MSU staff.

He played five seasons with the Yellow Jackets from 2019 through 2023. He amassed 69 total tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks and three forced fumbles in 44 career games.

More here:

This is something I did some digging into earlier today. Izzo pointed this out in his press conference about some uneven rest days. For example, Illinois has five days of rest heading into Thursday's game. Michigan State has three days of rest.

Here are some other things to nosh on:

The Big Ten is one of the only conferences to have games be played on all seven days of the week (in most weeks). ACC only plays Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday most weeks. Same with SEC. Pac-12 does Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday.

Michigan State has had the rest disadvantage numerous times already this Big Ten season.

MSU had two days of rest, Northwestern had four.
Already touched on the Illinois game.
Rutgers will have an extra two days heading into Sunday's game against MSU.
Maryland will also have an extra day of rest when they prep for MSU.

Not exactly a kind start to the Big Ten slate for Michigan State in that aspect. This is a negative consequence of all these tv games. The Big Ten will typically put two games on the same weeknight to try and get maximum viewership each game. Sounds like a decent strategy from a fan perspective and a money making perspective, but these multi-day rest advantages teams have are a negative consequence of it.

Here is Akins & Cooper speaking to the media earlier today.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Beat Maryland 74-69 tonight

Kendell Brooks signed to the Indianapolis Colts on a reserve/future contract.


Login to view embedded media

Not sure if this link works for you as I am pretty inept at this type of thing, if not just go to their web site and read it. Babylon Bee is a satirical, conservative (most of the time) website. Some of their stuff is pretty good. Thought this was especially good. BTW...this is NOT a political post.

Cheaters.

Tom Izzo set to take the podium in a few moments.

Michigan State will take on Illinois on Thursday night in Champaign.

Carson Voss' family lives 5 minutes from me. So that made this story fun to write.

Voss grew up attending MSU football and basketball games. It was always his dream to play for the Spartans some day. That day has arrived. Read all about the newest Spartan here:

Does anyone know how many years of playing time he has?