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 with Coach Izzo chasing the high school prospects hard and establishing deep relationships with players and families. Today, we cover the top recruits Iz...
Jun 28, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 202
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 approval in the court system which will affect the revenue sharing between the NCAA, universities, and athletes. But how long it lasts, whether it works in...
Jun 20, 2024•43 min•Ep. 201
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 will replace outgoing associate coach Mark Montgomery who took the head coaching position at UD Mercy this Spring. Doug Wojcik will then assume the posit...
Jun 13, 2024•41 min•Ep. 200
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 program like UCLA. We touched upon how the game has or has not changed with the addition of NIL and unlimited transfers as well as Tom Izzo's concerns....
Jun 06, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 199
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 decided to head into the vault and add a team from the Heathcote area in his top 10. Are you looking for collegiate apparel including Spartan gear? Th...
May 30, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 198
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 opportunities and welcomes in a coaching lightning rod - Eric Musselman. Whether Musselman keeps his shirt on is unlikely, how he navigates the portal a...
May 23, 2024•42 min•Ep. 197
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 behind a future NBA center and Euro league center. So last year he headed out East to Longwood University where he started 24 games and averaged 9.8 pp...
May 14, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 196
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 portal, and find a way to keep some of the high school talent at home. We discuss this and more with Husky podcast host, Trevor Mueller. Are you looking...
May 09, 2024•53 min•Ep. 195
May 2, 2024: Beginning this fall, UCLA leaves the PAC-12 and joins the Big Ten to create an 18 team mega-league. The move was obviously spurred forward by football and the Big Ten's lucrative TV rights but there are obvious implications for basketball. Although UCLA is a decent football program, their basketball heritage is one that will boost the profile of the Big Ten. We spoke to former Bruin basketball player, Travis Reed, who played for UCLA back around the 2000s. Travis is the host of the ...
May 02, 2024•43 min•Ep. 194
April 23, 2024: Portal season (roster season) is in full swing and Michigan State added a player today from the University of Omaha, Frankie Fidler. Now, ordinarily one wouldn’t look to the Summit League for talent but Fidler is an exception. Fidler is a 6’7” 200# wing who averaged 20.1 ppg, 6.3 rpg, and 8 free throws a game while shooting 45/36/84. With the plan on having Akins slide over to the 2 MSU went out and got someone with size who could shoot, rebound, and attack the rim. At least by t...
Apr 23, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 193
April 17, 2024: College basketball roster season is officially open now that the NCAA tournament is over. Every team is active trying to acquire the right players to complete their team. Players still have until the end of April to enter the transfer portal so we expect a lot of movement yet. As for MSU, the Spartans seem to be looking to add a large wing who can shoot and a power forward to play the 4. That leads us to believe that Booker will move over to the 5 which opens up a lot of other po...
Apr 18, 2024•54 min•Ep. 192
April 11, 2024: Now that we've done our season recap for the Spartans, we turned to the rest of the Big Ten including Michigan's historically bad (putrid?) season. Purdue and Illinois had very good seasons whereas Maryland and Ohio State underperformed. Nebraska and Northwestern built on last year and had some success that carried them into the NCAA tournament. Other very good seasons were had by Minnesota and Penn State which greatly exceeded what most expected. Are you looking for collegiate a...
Apr 11, 2024•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 191
April 6, 2024: Now that the season is over, it’s time for coaching moves and roster changes for college basketball. A few days ago, assistant coach Mark Montgomery was named the new head coach for the University of Detroit-Mercy. He was formerly a head coach at Northern Illinois. His vacancy will leave room for Izzo to add a new coach to the staff. We discussed the known potential candidates. Also, Mady Sissoko announced that he has entered the portal. Whether that means he will be on the team n...
Apr 06, 2024•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 190
March 28, 2024: Michigan State ended the 2023-24 season 20-15 and 10-10 in the Big Ten. It was a year in which expectations were sky high coming off a Sweet 16 exit and impressive performance from the MSU backcourt led by AJ Hoggard. The 2023-24 year had all the signs of what might be a deep tournament run and competing for the Big Ten with almost all the starters returning and then the addition of a top 5 recruiting class. But things quickly went sideways for the Spartans as they dropped their ...
Mar 28, 2024•2 hr 9 min•Ep. 189
March 23, 2024: Michigan State’s season comes to an end after losing to North Carolina 85-69 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The first half saw huge swings in the lead as MSU went from up 12 to down 9 at half time. The story of this game was much the same as it was in many games throughout the season - inconsistent point guard play. The Spartans managed to chip away and get the lead down to 2 early in the second half but turnovers, blown defensive assignments, and stagnant offense le...
Mar 24, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 188
March 22, 2024: Tom Izzo and the Spartans easily dispatched a Mississippi State team in the first round of the tournament to earn an opportunity to make its second straight sweet 16. Next up are the mighty Tar Heels from North Carolina who were regular season champs in the ACC and earned the number one seed in the West. MSU is 0-5 against the Heels in NCAA Tournament play so they will hope to break that streak much the way they broke the losing streak against Duke in 2019. North Carolina is fuel...
Mar 22, 2024•53 min•Ep. 187
March 21, 2024: Michigan State and Tom Izzo continued their first round dominance with a drubbing of number 8 seed Mississippi State, 69-51. It was a game that MSU led wire to wire and was never really pushed except for a few brief moments at the end of the first half where Mississippi State scored back to back 3s to cut the lead to 5 before Malik Hall hit a jumper at the buzzer for the Spartans. Michigan State then scored on their first possession of the second half and never looked back cruisi...
Mar 22, 2024•53 min•Ep. 186
March 19, 2024: We are joined once again by expert bracketologist, Dom Lese of Bracketometry.com, to go over what the heck happened with the NCAA selection committee this year. Dom tells us that one of the problems this year was that one of the long standing metrics for evaluating teams was removed and not replaced because Sagarin no longer worked college basketball games which created problems trying to find outliers to the metrics. Still, Dom finished in the middle of the pack and expects to p...
Mar 20, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 185
March 18, 2024: Michigan State returns to the NCAA Tournament for the 26th consecutive year and as a 9 seed will face 8th seeded Mississippi State from the SEC. Both teams come in with less than spectacular records but are teams who could be dangerous. Both MSU's arrive with similar offensive and defensive ratings although they get there different ways. Michigan State doesn't turn the ball over and is ok at rebounding. Mississippi State turns the ball over like crazy but offensive rebounds like ...
Mar 19, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 184
March 17, 2024: Well, Michigan State once again is dancing in March for their 26th consecutive appearance as the 9 seed in the West against Mississippi State out of the SEC. Their second round opponent would likely be North Carolina if they advance in the games in Charlotte, NC. It was a topsy turvy couple days as just about every potential bid thief ended up winning their conference tournaments leaving even us sweating a little before MSU’s name was called. Are you looking for collegiate appare...
Mar 18, 2024•22 min•Ep. 183
March 16, 2024: Michigan State lost in a quarterfinal matchup with Purdue 67-62 thanks to some poor shooting and even poorer officiating. We don’t often attribute losses to officials - and even this one we will place more of the blame on the team than the officiating - but it is hard to not see the calls in this game as contributing in a significant way. Unlike the game in West Lafayette a few weeks ago, this game was marked by weak shooting from both teams and MSU holding its own on the boards....
Mar 16, 2024•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 182
March 14, 2024: Michigan State defeated Minnesota in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament in Minneapolis 77-67 to all but lock up Tom Izzy’s 26th straight NCAA Tournament appearance. Despite trailing by 2 at halftime, MSU’s guards went to work and dominated the second half scoring over 30 points in the paint and pulling away from the Gophers to win by ten. That puts the Spartans squarely in the crosshairs of Zach Edey and the Boilermakers who sit as a potential overall number one seed in t...
Mar 15, 2024•59 min•Ep. 181
March 13, 2024: Bracket Dom, America’s number one bracketologist according to Bracket Matrix, joins us again to go over all the NCAA tournament seeding scenarios for MSU and the rest of the Big Ten. For Spartan fans worried about MSU’s tournament streak….well, let’s just say a win over Minnesota in the first round would help. As for the rest of the Big Ten, there’s not a whole lot of movement outside of someone miraculously upsetting Purdue to win an automatic bid. There is a very outside chance...
Mar 13, 2024•39 min•Ep. 180
March 12, 2024: Michigan State begins its postseason Thursday at noon (11 CT) in Minneapolis as the 8 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. MSU doesn't usually play on Thursday but we all know how this year unfolded and they find themselves probably not with a do or die game against the Gophers. However, to avoid working up a sweat Sunday during the selection show it sure would be nice to not worry about making the NCAA field. This will be the third meeting between MSU and Minnesota (after not playing...
Mar 12, 2024•57 min•Ep. 179
March 11, 2024: Get ready for the 2024 Big Ten Tournament hosted in Minneapolis for the first time ever. First place Purdue looks to repeat as tournament champ and continue its dominance of the league this year. As for the rest of the Big Ten, who knows how it will proceed? We handicap the games and feel that there is often not a whole lot of difference from 3-11 in the seeding. It's truly anyone's tournament to advance (until they run into Purdue) and for a few teams, they need to do a lot of d...
Mar 12, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 178
March 10, 2024: Once again, Michigan State showed its inconsistency in closing the regular season at Bloomington with a loss 65-64. The start to the game was terrible, the middle of the game was one in which the Spartans were humming at both ends allowing a 17 point deficit to become a 7 point lead midway through the second half only to be squandered away at the end. Tyson Walker led MSU with 30 points on 4-8 from three and perfect from the line but was unable to close out the game missing shots...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 177
March 8, 2024: Michigan State looks to close out the regular season Sunday in Bloomington against Indiana for the teams’ only matchup of the year. Indiana is riding a 3 game winning streak and MSU has only won one of their last four. Like most of the Spartans’ season, it is anyone’s guess which MSU team shows up. Hopefully the Spartans will bring their jump shots to this game since they shot a dreadful 12% from behind the arc. However, MSU showed a lot of rebounding prowess against Northwestern ...
Mar 08, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 176
March 6, 2024: Despite 2-17 shooting behind the arc, Michigan State managed to pull off a win over Northwestern on Senior night in East Lansing, 53-49. The Spartans made up for their dreadful shooting with sound defense and dominating the ‘Cats on the boards with 19 offensive rebounds and an overall rebounding edge of 12. Malik Hall chipped in 15 points and an impressive 17 rebounds (7 offensive) while Tyson Walker scored his 1000th point as a Spartan by putting in 19 without hitting a 3. Perhap...
Mar 07, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 175
March 4, 2024: Michigan State will host its final home game of the year as it welcomes a depleted Northwestern team on senior night. The Wildcats will be without guard Ty Berry lost for the season with a torn knee meniscus and starting center Matthew Nicholson with a broken foot he sustained in their last game against the Hawkeyes. Questionable but expected to play is transfer guard Ryan Langborg who missed a few games with a sprained ankle. Although it is probably fair to say this is not a must...
Mar 05, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 174
March 3, 2024: Michigan State once again headed to Mackey arena and once again unable to finish the job. Despite shooting over 40%, not turning over the ball, and keeping pace on the boards, the Spartans were just not able to keep pace offensively with Purdue. MSU will now return home for Senior night against Northwestern before finishing the season at Indiana. They probably need to get two more win to feel comfortably in the NCAA field which is the only goal realistically left for this team thi...
Mar 03, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 173
