Michigan State football is preparing to host a number of prospects in East Lansing this weekend as the contact period forges on.

Breaking down each recruit who will be on campus and where the Spartans stand with each heading in:

Can someone tell me how to cancel? Thanks.

Dr. Green & White, I always appreciate your statistical breakdowns!

One thing I've noted watching MSU bball over the past 3 decades, is that in all but a handful of games, the first team to reach 70 points (whether it's MSU or their opponent, and even in very close contests) ended up winning the game. I realize that this may be one of those "Captain Obvious" observations that no doubt applies across all of college basketball.

So my question is -- do you have access/the capacity/time (lol) to confirm what the actual winning percentage is?

No worries if not. Was just curious.

Thank you regardless!

Name your favorite wrestler (the "fake" kind) from when you were a kid.

(Hopefully your favorite wrestler didn't occur after the age of 15, otherwise this is a different discussion).

Mine:

Davey Boy Smith

Check out the article below for the most up-to-date odds and stats for the Spartans and the broader Big Ten race

More on Brown here:

Spartans Illustrated has obtained contract details for Michigan State football's assistant coaches via a FOIA request.

Find out the details for MSU's new assistants here:

I heard over the weekend that Michigan State offensive graduate assistant/assistant wide receivers coach Tino Smith has left the Spartans. He has accepted a full-time head wide receivers coaching job at the FCS level. It should be announced soon (perhaps today), but our subscribers know first. I will keep the school to myself until it becomes public. Smith worked with Courtney Hawkins in 2023 and was expected to be kept on the new staff under Hawkins and Jonathan Smith in 2024, but now he has a full-time opportunity of his own. I think he is a rising star in the coaching ranks, so watch out for him to keep climbing.

Just blew a very winnable game at home to Maryland.

For today’s update (and moving forward) I am going to change things up a bit. In this periodic odds and stats updates, I try to provide the best and most comprehensive set of data related to the Michigan Sate and Big Ten basketball race. My goal is to show you all the data and to tell you what it means.

The data changes on almost a daily basis, but it doesn’t always change in ways that are terribly impactful. So, I am going to try a slightly new approach that I hope the group enjoys.

Starting today, I will have a dedicated odds and data tracker article. My plan is to update most of the data found here every day or two, depending on the Big Ten schedule. This article will contain the most up-to-date information about Michigan State place in the greater Big Ten race.

The article will contain some “FAQ” type information to refresh everyone’s memory about how to read the charts and figures and where the data comes from. But, the article is essentially just the raw data. The new tracker can be found here:


In addition to this tracker, I will continue to write one or two “analysis” pieces a week that are very similar to the odds and stats updates that I have been writing all season. I will not include all of the data that I previously would show.

My goal is to highlight some of the data with an exlaination of what it implies about the rest of the season. These will be shorter and more focused, typically on what has changed since the previous update or game.

For today’s analysis, the basic message is that MSU is holding steady. I told you not to panic when MSU was 1-4 in conference play. I said that wins were likely to start adding up as the schedule eased. It was not easy, but MSU has now won three games in a row, just as I expected.

But in the context of the Big Ten race, MSU is still treading water. The Spartans are still projected to finish in fourth place and the odds of a title are still between 1% and 2%, as they have been a several weeks. The full analysis can be found here:

The Michigan State football program is coveting an elite prospect in the 2025 class as the Spartans offered a scholarship to four-star defensive end Jayden Woods earlier this week.

Woods, who currently attends Mill Valley High School in Shawnee, Kansas, is a Rivals250 prospect. He ranks as the No. 199 prospect nationally, No. 9 weak-side defensive end and No. 4 player in the state of Kanas in the 2025 class.

Woods is being pursued by many schools, but he recently spoke to Spartans Illustrated to discuss the Michigan State offer and to detail his recruitment.

Michigan State defensive line coach Legi Suiaunoa visited Woods at Mill Valley and offered him in person on Jan. 23. Woods has also been in contact with co-special teams coordinator/rush ends coach Chad Wilt.

"He seems like a good coach," Woods said about Suiaunoa. "Coach Wilt seems like a great coach as well."

More here:

The Spartans and the Boilermakers play twice during the regular season.​

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EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State women's basketball returns home for its longest homestand since early December. The Spartans will host Purdue on Wednesday, Jan. 24 at 6:30 p.m., before taking on Michigan on Saturday, Jan. 27 at Noon. Jack Stager and Derrick Mitchell will be on the call for Big Ten Plus.

• The Spartans stand 13-5 overall and 3-4 in Big Ten action. MSU is looking to get back on track after a 69-50 loss at Minnesota on Jan. 20. Purdue comes to the Breslin Center looking to snap a four game losing streak. The Boilermakers are 9-9 overall and 2-5 in league contests. Last time out, Purdue lost a hard-fought battle to Indiana, 74-68.

• Graduate guard Moira Joiner is inching near the 1,000 point mark. With seven points against Minnesota, she now has scored 995 points in her Spartan career. With one 3-pointer against the Gophers, she also stands sixth all-time in the MSU record books with 175 treys.

• Michigan State has had a history of bouncing back after losses this season. After the Spartans previous four losses, MSU has rebounded with a vengeance. Three of the four wins after losses have been by 18 points or more.

• MSU was limited to a season-low 50 points against Minnesota, after the previous season-low of 65 points in the 70-65 loss at No. 17/16 Ohio State (1/14/24).The Spartans were held under 80 points for just the sixth time this season.

SCOUTING PURDUE
Purdue comes to the Breslin Center with a 9-9 overall record and stand 2-5 in Big Ten contests. The Boilermakers are looking to snap a four-game losing streak. Purdue has league win against Rutgers and Wisconsin.

Last time out, the Boilermakers fell to No. 16 Indiana, 74-68. For the second time this season, the Boilermakers had five players in double figures. Caitlyn Harper led the way with 18 points and six rebounds. The sixth-year senior connected on her 100th career triples in the first quarter.

The Boilermakers are shooting 77.5 percent from the free throw to rank 25th in the country and third in the Big Ten. Abbey Ellis is fifth in the league, shooting 85 percent from the charity stripe. Overall Ellis is 18th in scoring, averaging 13.7 ppg.

Rashunda Jones has scored 19.5 points per game over her last two outings with a career-best 23 points against Penn State. She is third among Big Ten freshmen at 10 points per game. Jones is the first Purdue freshman

Head coach Katie Gearlds is in her third season at Purdue, leading the Boilermakers to back-to-back postseason bids, including the first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2017. She holds and overall record of 273-85. During her three seasons at Purdue she has a record of 45-35.

SERIES HISTORY VS. THE BOILERMAKERS
Purdue leads the overall series with Michigan State 44-37. The Spartans are on top of the series in the Breslin Center 24-16, while the Boilermakers are on top 23-11 in West Lafayette. On neutral ground, Purdue leads 5-2. The Boilermakers have won the last two meetings in East Lansing, including last season's overtime thriller, 76-71 on Dec. 22. MSU's last win came on March 3, 2022 in the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis, 73-69.

LAST TIME VS PURDUE
Despite fighting back from a 16-point second-half deficit, the Michigan State women's basketball team dropped a 76-71 overtime thriller against Purdue in its Big Ten opener at the Breslin Center on Dec. 20, 2022.

Graduate guard Kamaria McDaniel's layup after a steal with two second left in the second half sent the game into the Spartans' first overtime game of the season. The Boilermakers took care of business in overtime to hold on for the win.

The two teams were set to play on Feb. 15, 2013 was postponed after the shooting on MSU's campus on Feb. 13.

CRASHING THE BOARDS
The Spartans ability to crash the boards has played a key role in their success this season. Michigan State is 9-1 when out-rebounding its opponents. They are also 4-0 when a player has reached double-digits in rebounding.

MORE ON REBOUNDING
MSU was limited to a season-low 50 points, after the previous season-low of 65 points in the 70-65 loss at No. 17/16 Ohio State (1/14/24).The Spartans were held under 80 points for just the sixth time this season.

WELCOME HOME
On Jan. 27 against Michigan, the Spartans will also celebrate Alumni Day. Among the events scheduled is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the 2013-14 Big Ten Championship team. That team went 23-10, reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Spartans were led by Annalise Pickrel, Aerial Powers and Tori Jankoska that season.

BY THE NUMBERS VS. MINNESOTA
• MSU's starting five of junior guard DeeDee Hagemann, sophomore guard Abbey Kimball junior guard/forward Jocelyn Tate, graduate guard Moira Joiner and graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault for Wednesday's contest marked the eighth game in a row with that starting line-up and the 15th overall game this season that those five Spartans opened the game on the court. Michigan State is now 10-5 with that starting line-up.

• MSU was limited to a season-low 50 points, after the previous season-low of 65 points in the 70-65 loss at No. 17/16 Ohio State (1/14/24). The Spartans were held under 80 points for just the sixth time this season.

• Redshirt-junior guard/forward Jocelyn Tate pulled down a season-high tying eight rebounds, matching her output at Iowa (1/2/24), as part of the 10th game with five or more boards, including the last two contests.

GETTING IN THE LINEUP
MSU's starting five of junior guard DeeDee Hagemann, sophomore guard Abbey Kimball junior guard/forward Jocelyn Tate, graduate guard Moira Joiner and graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault for Saturday's contest marked the eighth game in a row with that starting line-up and the 15th overall game this season that those five Spartans opened the game on the court. Michigan State is now 10-5 with that starting line-up. The only other two Spartans to start this season are sophomore guard Theryn Hallock and junior forward Isaline Alexander.

CLOSING IN ON 1,000
Graduate guard Moira Joiner is inching near the 1,000 point mark. With seven points against Minnesota on Jan. 20, she now has scored 955 points in her Spartan career. With one 3-pointer against Ohio State, she also stands sixth all-time in the MSU record books with 175 treys. The last Spartan to reach 1,000 points was All-American Nia Clouden, who ended her career in 2022 with 1,882 points. She is looking to become the 30th member of the 1,000 point club.

MOVIN' ON UP
Several Spartans are moving up the MSU record books. With three blocks against Northwestern on Jan. 17, graduate guard Julia Ayrault now has 112 blocks and stands tied for fifth all-time at MSU, passing Spartan Hall of Famer Liz Shimek (2002-06), who had 108. Graduate guard Moira Joiner now has 174 made 3-pointers and still stands sixth all-time. Even though she is just a junior, guard DeeDee Hagemann already has 367 career assists. Hagemann's two assists against Minnesota give her 367 for her career, where she is just four away from tying Spartan great Linday Bowen (2002-06), who had 371 during her All-American career.

AROUND THE BIG TEN
This season, Michigan State is second in the Big Ten in scoring margin (+19.6) and second in assists (19.5 apg). The Spartans are also second in the league in 3-point field goals made, averaging 9.67 per game. MSU is first in turnover margin (+7.33) and first in assist/turnover ratio (1.76).

Graduate guard Moira Joiner leads the Spartans in scoring, averaging 15.9 points per game, which is tied for ninth in the Big Ten with Indiana's Sara Scalia. Graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault is sixth in rebounding with 7.4 rpg. Junior guard DeeDee Hagemann is eighth in the league in assists, averaging 4.5 apg and second in assist/turnover ratio (2.8). Joiner is tied for third in the league in 3-point field goal percentage (.400) with Iowa's Caitlin Clark. Ayrault is also second in the conference in blocks, averaging 2.3 bpg, behind Wisconsin's Serah Williams.

LAST TIME OUT
Michigan State women's basketball fell to Minnesota on the road, 69-50, Saturday afternoon at Williams Arena.

The Spartans slid to 13-5 overall and 3-4 in Big Ten action, while Minnesota improved to 14-4 overall and 4-3 in league play.

Michigan State had its worst shooting performance of the season going 20-for-61 from the field for 32.8 percent in scoring a season-low points. Junior guard DeeDee Hagemann led the Spartans with 18 points and seven rebounds, as the only Spartan to reach double figures. Graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault added nine points and eight rebounds for MSU.

Full recap available here:

Preview courtesy of MSU Athletics.

Michigan State 2024 offensive lineman signee Rustin Young is now a four-star prospect on Rivals. Young saw a huge bump in the final 2024 rankings, going from a 5.5 three-star to a 5.8 four-star prospect.

Young impressed at the Under Armour All-American game and Polynesian Bowl.

He also now ranks as the No. 31 offensive tackle in the 2024 class and the No. 3 player out of Hawaii.

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Tom Izzo on playing Wisconsin on Friday and he gives an update on the health of Jeremy Fears Jr. and Jaden Akins

Spartans Illustrated obtained the Michigan State vs Louisiana football game contract via FOIA. Attached are a couple sections that I found interesting, including this sentence:

"The officials for the game shall be a solid crew from the Big Ten Conference."

Ha.

As a reminder, MSU was scheduled to play Louisiana during week three of the 2024 football season, but sources have indicated that Louisiana backed out of the game.

The contract -- which was signed on 4/8/21 by University of Louisiana at Lafayette President Dr. E. Joseph Savoie and on 4/11/21 by MSU Director of Athletics Bill Beekman -- says that MSU would pay Louisiana $1.1 million for the game (by 2/15/25). The contract also stated that if one party canceled the game, that school would pay the other $500,000 as liquidated damages.

So now it appears that Michigan State has $1.6 million with which to use to schedule their replacement opponent in a budget-neutral way.

Michigan State has successfully flipped 2024 kicker Martin Connington from Oregon State. Connington announced his pledge to the Spartans on Monday.

Connington, out of Mountain View High School in Meridian, Idaho, took an official visit to Michigan State this past weekend, arriving to East Lansing on Jan. 19.

"I decided to commit to Michigan State because of the coaching staff and what I believe they will do when I am there," Connington told Spartans Illustrated. "I believe they will make me into a great young man who helps his community and leaves an impact on where he is. I also believe that the Big Ten and Michigan State specifically produce NFL-caliber specialists and it’s an opportunity I could never pass up."

More on his commitment and official visit here:

Michigan State has a new scholarship offer out to 2025 tight end Tyler Kielmeyer.

MSU head coach Jonathan Smith and tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator Brian Wozniak took a trip to Westerville, Ohio on Wednesday morning and stopped at Westerville South High School to offer Kielmeyer in person.

Following the offer, Kielmeyer spoke with Spartans Illustrated to discuss what it meant to him and his thoughts on Michigan State.

More here:

Here's an OT for everyone.

Name the dish and the restaurant where you always (as in, always, each and every time) get the exact same thing. Extra points for repeat dishes of 50, 100 + visits.

Granted for most of us such repeat visits mean everyday restaurants. I mean, I've been to Nobu three times and ordered the black cod each time but I won't include that on this list. Same for Hals in Atlanta, always the ribeye (at least a couple dozen visits), but that's not what I'm going for here.

On the flip-side I've probably been to Taco Bell over 1000 times but I would get different stuff...

Mine are:

Jimmy Johns, Club Tuna with hot peppers, 200+ visits

Jersey Mike's, #6 Mike's Way with pepper relish and jalapeños, 100+ visits

A lot of names on the list and it will be cut down eventually, but good to see Jackson make it.

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It’s time for him to retire after this season. He’ll have over 700 wins and more wins than any coach in the Big Ten.
Can still have a office either in the Breslin or the
Izzo Football building. Live life with his family and
enjoy watching the MSU programs. If Nate Oats needs
help Izzo will be there.
Izzo had a great run, players, coaches and fans will
always be appreciative of what he has done for MSU.

While Michigan State cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin is just getting started in his new role with the Spartans, he is already busy on the recruiting trail. On Monday, Martin and MSU offered a scholarship to highly-touted class of 2027 cornerback Havon Finney Jr.

Like Martin, Finney is a California native. The young cornerback is originally from Carson, California and currently attends Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworh. Martin is originally from Pasadena.

Also like Martin — who was a four-year letterwinner for the Spartans from 1992 through 1995 — Finney has connections to Michigan State and the East Lansing area.

Following the offer, Finney spoke with Spartans Illustrated to discuss his thoughts on Michigan State and to provide an update on his early recruiting process.

More here:

Update from Kenny Jacoby of USA TODAY: Mel Tucker's appeal in the sexual harassment case brought against him by Brenda Tracy has been denied, which also ends Michigan State's investigation.

Here is an excerpt:

An outside attorney hired by the school to review Tucker’s challenge to the findings of fault against him denied his appeal in a 24-page report issued Thursday, ending the process nearly 13 months after the complaint was filed by a rape survivor and anti-sexual violence activist.

“Based on the facts outlined in the record, the (Resolution Officer) had a reasonable basis for each of the challenged findings,” wrote Courtney Bullard, a Tennessee-based attorney and founder of consulting firm Institutional Compliance Solutions. “The RO’s Decision is upheld. This decision is final.”

Tucker, who had been one of the highest-paid coaches in any sport before being fired in September, was formally disciplined for sexually harassing and exploiting Brenda Tracy, who he had hired to educate his team about sexual violence – an outcome that lessens his odds of ever coaching football again.

University leaders will now determine any sanctions to issue Tucker. Although he is no longer an employee, they can still ban him from campus, future employment at MSU or participating in school activities, such as attending football games.

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Full story:


Brenda Tracy's response:

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