I have been very nervous about this team keeping the tourney streak alive. I think this win over Minny was huge. So, I am assume we are in, what is our seed? 8? 9? If so, which 1 do you want? Do we want a 10 seed? I do. Give me a 10 or 7 vs the 8/9. We can beat a lot of teams. Sure we could lose to anyone. Let’s be the UConn 7 seed that beat us.

MSU will have its pro day this afternoon. It will start around 12:30.

@AmaniG08 and I will be in attendance. Stay tuned here for updates.

The players participating are:

RB Harold Joiner III
WR Tre Mosley
TE Jaylan Franklin
OL J.D. Duplain
OL Nick Samac
DE Aaron Brule
DE Brandon Wright
DL Jalen Sami
LB Jacoby Windmon
DB Chester Kimbrough

Login to view embedded media

It's Big Ten Tournament time!

Michigan State (18-13, 10-10) takes on Minnesota (18-13, 9-11) in Minneapolis in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.

These two teams split the regular season series. Both have also struggled down the stretch of the season, each losing the last four of five games.

Winner of this game takes on top-seeded Purdue in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

Tip off for today's game is set for noon ET on Big Ten Network.

@DavidHarns is in the Twin Cities for the game.

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State junior men's golfer Ashton McCulloch shared medalist honors, and the Spartans posted an 8-under par 280 in the final round to finish in third place among 14 teams at the Johnnie-O at Sea Island, played at the Sea Island, Plantation Course in St. Simons Island, Ga.

The Spartans finished the two-day, 54-hole tournament with a score of 21-under par 843 (287-276-280).

Notre Dame won the event at 32-under par 832, with Texas in second place at 22-under par 842 and the Spartans just one shot behind. UNCG placed fourth at 11-under par 853 and August rounded out the top-five teams at 10-under par 854.

Final Results

McCulloch, who fired a school record 10-under par 62 in Monday's second round, went into the final round with a one-shot lead. The junior shot a 2-over par 74 in the final round and had fallen one shot behind on the back nine, but birdied two of the final four holes to tie for the individual lead with Notre Dame's Jacob Modleski.

The Spartans had three players finish among the top-20, with graduate student Drew Hackett tying for sixth place at 7-under par 209 (74-70-65). Hackett fired a 7-under par 65 in the final round, his second-best 18-hole score as a Spartan.

Senior August Meekhof fired a 3-under par 69 in the final round and tied for 14th place overall at 4-under par 212 (70-73-69).

Senior Bradley Smithson finished with an even-par 72 on Tuesday and tied for 38th place at 2-over par 218 (75-71-72), while freshman Lorenzo Pinili tied for 67th place at 9-over par 225 (75-74-76).

Playing as individuals, graduate student Pierce Morrissey finished in 75th place at 10-over par 226 (74-78-75), and junior Satchel Pierce tied for 76th place at 11-over par 227 (74-78-75).

Michigan State plays next at the Bridgestone Collegiate Invitational on Monday, March 25.

Recap courtesy of MSU Athletics.

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee announced the at-large bids for the 2024 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday evening. Michigan State's senior 165-pounder Caleb Fish got his ticket punched into the 2024 Championships, which is set to begin on Thursday, March 21.

Making his third-straight NCAA appearance, Fish is MSU's highest ranked wrestler as the No. 14-ranked 165-pounder in the latest InterMat rankings. The Eaton Rapids, Michigan, native boasts a 25-9 overall record this season with five falls, six major victories and a pair of tech falls. In last year's tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Fish made it to the "Blood Round," where he was one win away from All-American status.

Along with Fish, four other Spartan national qualifiers will be making the trip to Kansas City: redshirt junior 125-pounder Tristan Lujan will be making his first career NCAA Championship appearance; redshirt senior 141-pounder Jordan Hamdan qualified for the second time in his career; senior 157-pounder Chase Saldate will be making his fourth-straight championship appearance; and graduate 184-pounder Layne Malczewski is also making his fourth-straight appearance.

It will be the third time under head coach Roger Chandler that at least five wrestlers qualified for a spot in the national tournament in a season.

Seeding and brackets for this year's event will be revealed on March 13, during the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships Selection Show on NCAA.com at 8 p.m. ET. Visit http://ncaa.com/wrestling for more information about this year's championship.

Release courtesy of MSU Athletics.

In today’s piece I present a summary of the Big Ten regular season and preview the postseason based on my typical data-driven analysis. As I was thinking about the season, I kept coming back to the somewhat obscure Christopher Guest film Waiting for Guffman.

For those who have not seen it, it is a typical Guest “mocumentary.” The target this time is local community theatre. Basically, a group of small town wannabe actors writes and performs a musical. Somewhere along the way, they are led to believe that a famous Broadway producer (Guffman) is coming to the opening and that soon they will be their way to stardom.

In reality, the show is a disaster and Guffman never arrives. Hilarity ensues.

This metaphor is a bit dark as it relates to MSU, but it is where I am at now. I do think that this team can go on a run, but more and more it is starting to look like they are just a bunch of two-bit actors who are destined to underachieve.

Is this too pessimistic? Maybe. I hope MSU proves me wrong on Thursday.

Michigan State wide receiver Tre Mosley was scrolling through his contact list looking for somebody who’d be willing to throw him passes at Michigan State’s pro day, which took place in East Lansing on Wednesday.

After all, the three MSU quarterbacks on scholarship in the 2023 season had all transferred out. One person on Mosley’s contact list stood out and he had no doubts about him: Rocky Lombardi.

“We’ve had a great relationship since I got here in 2018 in the winter,” Mosley said about his former teammate. “We still stay in touch and it was a no-brainer.”

More on what led Lombardi back to East Lansing:

East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State's women's golf team plays its third event of the spring campaign over the weekend at the Briar's Creek Invitational, being hosted by the College of Charleston at the Briar's Creek Golf Club at St. Johns in South Carolina.

The 18-team field includes 11 teams ranked among the top-75 in the country in the latest NCAA women's golf rankings. Michigan State is paired with Charleston, Florida and UCF in the opening round.

Dates: Monday, March 10 – Tuesday, March 11
Course: The Golf Club at Briar's Creek
Live Scoring: Golfstat
Par/Yardage: 72 / 6,367 yards
Format: Stroke play, 54 holes, play five, count four
Schedule: Monday – Rounds 1 & 2; Tuesday – Round 3

LINEUP
1. Brooke Biermann
2. Katie Lu
3. Paula Balanzategui
4. Shannon Kennedy
5. Leila Raines
IND. Valentina Rossi

THE BRIAR'S CREEK INVITATIONAL FIELD
In addition to No. 35 Michigan State, the 18-team field includes Boston College Campbell, Charleston (No. 59), Florida (No. 10), Georgetown, Illinois (No. 67), Maryland (No. 37), Miami (No. 48), Nebraska (No. 68), NC State (No. 65), Old Dominion, Penn State, Purdue (No. 26), Rutgers, UCF (No. 17) and Wisconsin (No. 69).

LIVE SCORING
Golfstat

ABOUT THE SPARTANS
Michigan State has played in two events so far this spring, placing ninth of 18 teams at the UCF Challenge on Feb. 6, posting a 3-over par 867 team score. Junior Katie Lu led the way for the Spartans, tying for eighth place at 5-under par 211 (70-70-71).

Two weeks later, MSU hosted the Spartan Sun Coast Invitational at the Palm Aire Champions Course and tied for eighth place among 15 teams at 14-over par 590 in the rain-shortened event. Junior Brooke Biermann shot an even-par 144 (70-74) and tied for 11th place to lead the team.

Overall this year, Lu leads the team with a 71.05 scoring average over 20 rounds, with two top-5 finishes, three among the top-10 and five top-20 in seven events. Biermann, who has four top-20 finishes and one among the top-10, is second on the team with a 72.60 scoring average.

Senior Leila Raines is third on the team with a 73.39 scoring average and sophomore Paula Balanzategui is fourth at 74.15, but has a 72.80 scoring average through five rounds this spring.

Michigan State is coming off a strong Fall season, with three top-five finishes in five events. MSU was the runner-up at its own event, the Mary Fossum Invitational, shooting a 4-over par 868. Other top-five finishes included a third place showing among 10 teams at the Glass City Invitational and a fourth-place finish among 14 teams at the Tar Heel Invitational. MSU closed the season with its best 54-hole score (7-under par 857) while finishing in sixth place at The Landfall Tradition.

SPARTANS AT THE BRIAR'S CREEK INVITATIONAL
This year will mark the fifth appearance in the Briar's Creek Invitational for the Spartans, who last played in 2019. The Spartans won the invitational in 2019, finishing with a 54-hole score of 856, the seventh-lowest tournament total in its history. MSU was led by Allyson Geer-Park, who claimed medalist honors with a tournament-best 13-under par 203, a record that still stands.

Preview courtesy of MSU Athletics.

Login to view embedded media
East Lansing, Mich. – Michigan State junior women's golfers Katie Lu and Brooke Biermann shared Big Ten Golfer of the Week honors, announced by the conference office on Wednesday afternoon.

Lu and Biermann shared the Golfer of the Week honor with Isabel Sy of Illinois.

Michigan State is coming off a team win at the Briar's Creek Invitational on Tuesday afternoon, led by the junior duo. The Spartans had three players sit among the top-10 overall and finished the two-day, 54-hole tournament at 4-under par 860 (284-282-294).

Biermann and Lu, along with Sy and Lauren Olivares Leon from NC State, shared medalist honors after shooting 5-under par 211.

Lu entered the final round in first place with a one-shot lead and went into the back nine atop the leaderboard but finished her round with a 3-over par 75 and tied first place at 5-under par 211 (69-67-75).
This is the second time this season Lu took home medalist honors, winning the season-opening Mary Fossum Invitational in September.

Biermann shot a 1-over par 73 in Tuesday's final round to finish at 5-under par 211 (68-70-73). She opened with a 4-under par 68 in the first round and entered the final day of play in third place at 6-under par 138 and just two shots off the lead.

The junior teammates have led the Spartans in scoring average throughout the 2023-24 year. Lu tops the team with a 70.96 scoring average over 23 rounds, with two wins, with four top-10 finishes and six among the top-20 in eight events. Biermann is second on the team with a 72.30 average, finishing among the top-10 twice and among the top-20 five times.

Michigan State plays next at the Clemson Invitational, which will be held from Friday, March 22 to Sunday, March 23 at the Reserve on Lake Koewee in Sunset, S.C.

Release courtesy of MSU Athletics.

We have lost 4 out of the last 5 and if we lose the first Big Ten tourney we could be 5 out of 6. Why would the selection committee pick an 18-14 team?

Malik Hall & Jaden Akins spoke with the media yesterday.

HALL
Login to view embedded media
AKINS
Login to view embedded media

Although Michigan State basketball's regular season didn't go exactly to plan, head coach Tom Izzo is still optimistic about his team's potential heading into postseason play.

"It's not unfixable and it's not like we're that far off."

Story as Izzo previews the Spartans' matchup against Minnesota and looks ahead to the Big Ten Tournament:

Tom Izzo is set to take the podium in a few minutes ahead of Michigan State's Big Ten Tournament game against Minnesota on Thursday.

Stay tuned here for some news and notes from Izzo.

According to multiple reports, including ESPN's Adam Schefter, former Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins has agreed to terms to sign a four-year deal with the Atlanta Falcons. Cousins has spent the past six seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, and spent the first six seasons of his career in Washington.

The 35-year-old Cousins is a four-time NFL Pro Bowler and has thrown for 39,471 yards, 270 touchdowns and 110 interceptions.

Cousins played in just eight games in 2023 before suffering a season-ending torn Achilles injury.

Login to view embedded media

Michigan State will host class of 2025 in-state three-star tight end Jayden Savoury for an official visit from May 31 through June 2.

Additionally, Savoury will visit campus during spring practice on March 21.

Savoury has been building a good bond with MSU tight ends end coach/recruiting coordinator Brian Wozniak for a couple of months now.

"On the official visit, I’m really just excited to get a feel of the campus/area and be around the coaches and players a little more," Savoury said.

More here:

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Head coach Jake Boss just announced that pitching coach Mark Van Ameyde is set to have a kidney transplant.

His donor is his wife.

He will be out for about a month. He will do scouting reports from his bed as he recovers. Other coaches will help out with the pitching (Boss, Sikes, Stone, etc.) at practice, during games, etc.

MSU Baseball is set to have its first home series this weekend against Evansville.

Giving back is important to MSU. I just donated to Student Emergency Fund at the College of Arts & Letters.

Go Green!

Pretty much everything. Preseason this was supposed to be a national title contender but the first game against James Madison was an omen of bad things to come. The major flaws were the lack of a stud center because hands of stone Sissoko, slippery fingers Cooper and early season injured Jaxon are not the answer. The other issue is that we did not have a real take charge vocal leader like Winston, Mateen, Kalin and the like. Tyson is a great player but i do not see him as the take charge guy. Izzo could have probably brought in a stud center in the portal but as he said he did not want to upset the chemistry.
Thoughts?

If Ohio State wins two in a row and steals a bid, who is in the most danger of being left out?

Friend of Spartans Illustrated, and host of “The Drive with Jack,” Jack Ebling caught up with vice president and athletic director Alan Haller.

“I’m a fan. I love watching our student-athletes compete. So I’m at their events because I’m a fan.”

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Men's Tennis was edged by Cornell, 4-3 at the MSU Indoor Tennis Center Sunday, the 16th-ranked Spartans' first home loss in eight games to close out the non-conference schedule.

Michigan State has fallen in consecutive matches for the first time this year, moving the overall record for the season to 14-3.

The doubles point proved the difference in the competitive battle as MSU and Cornell split the singles matches three a piece, but the Big Red were triumphant 2-1 on the doubles courts. All three matches finished 6-4, with No. 53-ranked duo of graduate student Ronald Hohmann III and sophomore Ozan Baris coming out on top on court two.

In singles play, Cornell doubled it's lead, winning in straight sets at No. 5. The Spartans would respond with straight set wins of their own however as national No. 124 Max Sheldon and redshirt-freshman Aristotelis Thanos dominated their matches on courts six and three.

The 6-2, 6-2 win from the junior Sheldon got MSU on the board as he improved his season record to 9-1 on the season. Thanos' 6-2, 6-3 win is a team-best seventh consecutive as he is now 7-1 this year.

The tie didn't last long as No. 20 Hohmann was toppled on court two by Adit Sinha, 6-2, 7-5. Not long after, No. 12 Baris fell in a top-20 feature match to No. 19 Radu Papoe, 7-5, 6-1. The pair of upsets clinched the win for Cornell.

With the match already decided, graduate student Sebastien Collard played out his match at No. 4 singles and was victorious in a three-set comeback, 5-7, 6-2 [10-8]. The team-leading 10th win of the season for the experienced Collard moved the final score to 4-3.

Next, the Spartans will use 12 days of recovery and training to focus on the Big Ten conference slate, which begins with home duals against Nebraska and Wisconsin at home on Friday and Sunday, March 22 and 24 respectively.

Results
No. 16 MSU 3 (14-3), No. 46 Cornell 4 (9-4)
Doubles
1. Adit Sinha/Nathan Mao (COR) def. Taym Alazmeh/Aristotelis Thanos (MSU) 6-4
2. #53 Ozan Baris/Ronald Hohmann (MSU) def. Eric Verdes/Petar Teodorovic (COR) 6-4
3. Radu Papoe/Samuel Paquette (COR) def. Max Sheldon/Graydon Lair (MSU) 6-4

Singles
1. #19 Radu Papoe (COR) def. #12 Ozan Baris (MSU) 7-5, 6-1
2. Adit Sinha (COR) def. #20 Ronald Hohmann (MSU) 6-2, 7-5
3. Aristotelis Thanos (MSU) def. Petar Teodorovic (COR) 6-2, 6-3
4. Sebastien Collard (MSU) def. Bradley Paliska (COR) 5-7, 6-2, 1-0 (10-8)
5. Nathan Mao (COR) def. Taym Alazmeh (MSU) 6-3, 6-4
6. #124 Max Sheldon (MSU) def. Aman Sharma (COR) 6-2, 6-2
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (5,6,3,2,1,4)

Recap courtesy of MSU Athletics.

Michigan State is in Bloomington for its final regular season game, and so am I. The Spartans (18-12, 10-9) are looking to spoil Indiana's senior day (17-13, 9-10).

Indiana is on a three-game winning streak with victories over Wisconsin, Maryland and Minnesota.

Michigan State's is looking to avoid a fourth loss in five games.

Tip off is set for approximately 4:30 ET on CBS.

Login to view embedded media

Michigan State’s comeback effort fell narrowly short inside Assembly Hall on Sunday night.

It came down to the last shot as MSU guard Tyson Walker dribbled, drove and threw up a floater that missed. The rebound was tipped away from MSU’s basket and Indiana dribbled out the clock to win on its senior night, 65-64.

“I’m upset,” Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo said to open his postgame press conference. “I’m upset because we had a seven-point lead and we didn’t guard. But I’m also proud because of the environment, the way we came back, the way we executed, the way we shot. Finally, Tyson (Walker) started making some shots.”

More postgame quotes here, via @Brendanmoore101: