March 3, 2025: Dom Leese of bracketometry.com and the number 3 bracketologist in America joins us to talk about seeding and who’s in and who’s out in the NCAA Tourney. Can MSU attain a #1 seed? Can they fall to a 3? What does the bubble look like this year? Who are the bid stealers? All these questions and more answered in this episode. Are you looking for collegiate apparel including Spartan gear? There’s only one place we recommend you go to get your MSU T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts — Nudge ...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 292
March 2, 2025: MSU continued its winning ways and its second half surges by defeating Wisconsin 71-62 on Sunday afternoon in East Lansing. Despite being down 2 at halftime, Michigan State had to be feeling ok knowing that Jase Richardson had hardly played because of foul trouble and would be back in the second. Jaden Akins led the way on offense in the first half as he got hot from three draining 4 triples. The second half was the Richardson show as he scored 8 points and had 5 rebounds to go al...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 291
February 28, 2025: Michigan State returns home on Sunday for its only meeting against the Badgers of Wisconsin in what will be an elimination game for them in the Big Ten race. This is not your usual Wisconsin team as the Badgers have an average pace of play and shoot great posing a challenge to MSU’s 3 point defense. Meanwhile, on the other end of the floor Wisconsin plays decent defense but is not quite as stifling as they have been in the past. It is an interesting game because in many ways i...
Feb 28, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 290
February 26, 2025: Well, that was probably the most improbable heave for a win in Tom Izzo’s career. Michigan State led by two or three possessions down the stretch in the second half only to give up the lead with Maryland hitting multiple free throws. Then up 2 with under 1 minute to play, Tre Holloman made an almost unthinkable mistake with a bad pass in the back court leading to 2 free throws by Maryland. Then MSU with the game tied failed to score letting Maryland get off a three pointer by ...
Feb 27, 2025•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 289
February 24, 2025: Michigan State is back in first place after their decisive win against rival Michigan but the schedule doesn’t get any easier. On Wednesday night, MSU might have its most difficult game yet on the road as they travel to College Park, Maryland to take on the Terrapins. The Terrapins are on a 4 game winning streak and have won 10 of their last 12. A solid team both offensively and defensively Maryland is not a team to be taken lightly. And unlike previous years, this team can sh...
Feb 24, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 288
February 21, 2025: Michigan State pulled off the upset of Michigan in Ann Arbor 75-62 to take sole possession of first place in the Big Ten on Friday night. It was a game where MSU started out strong to take a 16-8 lead but then got hit with hesitant offense and shots and gave up a UM 15-0 run to find themselves down by 8. The Spartans battled back to pull within 4 at the half. The second half was much cleaner for MSU as they shot better and protected the ball better. In addition to punishing Mi...
Feb 22, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 287
February 20, 2025: After back to back victories over Illinois and Purdue, MSU now heads to Ann Arbor a half game behind the Wolverines for first place in the Big Ten. It’s fair to say that the race for the top has now come down to MSU, UM, and Wisconsin. Michigan State will play UM twice and Wisconsin once at home over the next 5 games. Although UM sits at 12-2 atop the league, their record may be a little deceptive as they have won an astounding number of Big Ten games by one or two possessions...
Feb 20, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 286
February 18, 2025: Michigan State followed up its upset road win in Champaign with a statement win over the Purdue Boilermakers, 75-66 in East Lansing. Purdue has had MSU’s number of late winning 8 of the last 9 meetings but had no answers for the Spartans at the rim as they gave up 10 dunks and 10 layups en route to an easy win for MSU. As usual, it was a collective team win for Michigan State with multiple players scoring in double digits. MSU’s guards were especially good accounting for 17 as...
Feb 19, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 285
February 16, 2025: Michigan State just beat the Illini in Champaign and now they return home with a challenging game against fellow Big Ten leader, Purdue. The Boilers are tied in the standings with the Spartans one game back from UM. This will be the only meeting between the two. After looking awful against the Hoosiers, the Spartans pulled a 180 and looked as good as they did bad against Illinois. So which MSU team will show up against Purdue and will they be able to exploit a bad 2 point defe...
Feb 17, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 284
February 15, 2025: Michigan State pulled off an improbable road win over Illinois where they started down 16 and won by 14. Perhaps more strangely, they closed the game on a 15-negative 2 run (a goal tending call got reversed). The win came in large part behind Illinois choosing to spend too much time behind the 3 point line where they shot only 21%. For the Spartans, Jaxon Kohler had a double double with 23 points, 10 rebounds including 4-5 from behind the arc. Michigan State now moves to 11-3 ...
Feb 16, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 283
February 13, 2025: Michigan State heads back on the road for a rematch against Illinois. The matchup earlier at the Breslin turned out well for the green and white as they got star player, Kasparas Jakucionas, in foul trouble and squeaked out a 2 point victory. Champaign has not been a kind road environment for the Spartans in the recent past and a win there will be a tall order. The big question is will there be a hangover after that Indiana game? In some ways, it’s hard to imagine MSU looking ...
Feb 13, 2025•54 min•Ep. 282
February 12, 2025: Michigan State lost a very disappointing game late on Tuesday night to Indiana and its sloppy zone 71-67. Despite a great start to the game with MSU up 20-8, the Hoosiers switched to a lazy 2-3 zone and gummed up the Spartans’ offense the remainder of the game. By playing slow they took MSU completely out of its game and played ahead midway through the first half to the final horn. Are you looking for collegiate apparel including Spartan gear? There’s only one place we recomme...
Feb 12, 2025•47 min•Ep. 281
February 9, 2025: Michigan State took care of business against Oregon with a second half performance for the ages. We’re sure Tom Izzo hopes his team won’t need any heroics to knock off the Hoosiers in East Lansing to record his 354th Big Ten win. The Hoosiers are a team in disarray as head coach Mike Woodson announced last week that he would be retiring at the end of the year which saves an embarrassing situation for the IU AD who would probably be forced to fire him. Things just haven’t worked...
Feb 09, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 280
February 8, 2025: Michigan State returned home to East Lansing and played two strange halves of basketball. In the first half, Oregon torched the Spartans for 50 points and led by 14 at the half. But roles reversed in the second where MSU scored 50 and held the Ducks to 24 allowing for a 12 point win, 84-72. On offense, the Spartans were led by Freshman Jase Richardson who scored a career high 29 points on 8-13 field goal attempts and 8-9 from the line. Even better was that he got that performan...
Feb 08, 2025•58 min•Ep. 279
February 5, 2025: Michigan State returns from Los Angeles with a two game losing streak after having won 13 straight. So MSU will look to right the ship with another former Pac-12 team, the Oregon Ducks. Oregon has had a strange year in that they started 11-0 with a lot of Quad 1 wins but have only gone 5-7 since beginning Big Ten play with 3 of those losses at home. They are riding a four game losing streak so one of these teams will have to win and get things rolling again. Are you looking for...
Feb 06, 2025•43 min•Ep. 278
February 4, 2025: Michigan State took on UCLA to finish their first Big Ten west coast trip. Unlike the game at USC, the Spartans came out of the gate with their hair on fire and competed hard charging to an early lead. Unfortunately, MSU started turning it over and UCLA built a 7 point lead at halftime, 35-28. Despite the Spartans trying to fight back in the second half they were largely unable to recover until the 2 minute mark. It was then that they took a one point lead and traded baskets wi...
Feb 05, 2025•46 min•Ep. 277
February 2, 2025: MSU heads to the storied Pauley Pavilion on Tuesday night to take on the red hot UCLA Bruins. The Bruins have won 5 straight after losing 4 in a row in the Big Ten. One thing to note about the current win streak for the Bruins is that it has all occurred in the pacific West. It should be a good challenge for the Spartans as they try to bounce back from their first Big Ten loss. Can they find a steadying force and give Mick Cronin and UCLA a difficult time in their home arena? U...
Feb 03, 2025•42 min•Ep. 276
February 1, 2025: Well, it was bound to happen even though we never like to see it, MSU falls to USC 70-64 on the road for their first loss in the Big Ten season. It was a game that USC led wire to wire by capitalizing on early Michigan State miscues and getting some timely offensive rebounds to drive the lead up to 15 early. Star Desmond Claude led the way for the Trojans and got a lot of his work done in the first half scoring and getting to the line. The line was a place that has usually been...
Feb 02, 2025•52 min•Ep. 275
January 30, 2025: Head West young man. Michigan State is leaving the Midwest for the not-so-friendly confines of Los Angeles for their doubleheader with USC and UCLA. Three time zones and over 2000 miles away they will find themselves first at the Galen Center taking on first year coach Eric Musselman and his entirely new roster of transfers. USC showcases Desmond Claude who is a downhill driving guard capable of dropping 30 points on any given night. Claude was devastating to the Illini when US...
Jan 30, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 274
January 28, 2025: The Spartan train just keeps on rolling as MSU blasts the Gophers 73-51 to sweep the season series between the teams and move to 18-2 overall and 9-0 in the Big Ten. This game MSU did it largely on the boards crushing Minnesota 40-22 and finishing with a 42% offensive rebounding rate and only giving up 16% to the Gophers. Offensively, there weren’t any real standouts for the Spartans as they used their now typical balanced attack with Tre Holloman finishing with 12 points to th...
Jan 29, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 273
January 26, 2025: Michigan State will look to continue its winning streak as it hosts Minnesota on Tuesday night. MSU took care of business in Minneapolis in December but this the Gophers are on a bit of a hot streak. They’ve won 3 straight including home wins over UM and Oregon and a road win in Iowa City. Minnesota’s success is primarily due to their all everything player - Dawson Garcia. Garcia leads the team in scoring and rebounding and has averaged 26.6 points a game during this winning st...
Jan 27, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 272
January 25, 2025: Michigan State came into Madison Square Garden which has been something of a house of horror for the Spartans - and defeated the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 81-74. The win keeps MSU alone atop the Big Ten at 8-0 and extends their winning streak to 12 games. It also makes the 37th straight year with a winning season - longest in the Big Ten. The Spartans managed to contain Rutgers’ two great freshman, Bailey and Harper, to 18 and 6 points respectively. Richardson chipped in with 20 ...
Jan 26, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 271
January 24, 2025: For now, there are only 2 new players scheduled to join the green and white next year, Cam Ward and Jordan Scott. Like Ward, Scott is also from the DMV - not typical recruiting territory for Tom Izzo and the two will be the first Spartans to hail from there since Carlton Valentine in the 80s. Scott brings a diverse game where he plays 1-5 in high school. With MSU it is expected that he will play 2-4 because of his ball skills and ability to stretch the floor with his outside sh...
Jan 24, 2025•26 min•Ep. 270
January 22, 2025: MSU now holds onto first place all by themselves at 7-0 after their exciting win over Illinois. They head to Madison Square Gardens for a semi-away game against Rutgers. MSG has not been kind to the Spartans in the past as they are 0-4 in Champions Classic games and lost two years ago to Rutgers in a similar matchup. The Green & White are hoping to avoid the MSG curse but will have to do it beating two projected top 5 NBA lottery picks in Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. The st...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 269
January 19, 2025: Michigan State hosted Illinois in their first real matchup of conference heavyweights and managed to hang on for an 80-78 win. As Rod predicted in the pregame, it came down to a one possession game with two teams taking away the others’ strengths. The teams were even on the boards, transition points, FG%, turnovers, free throw attempts, and field goal attempts. The difference came down to the Spartans hitting a few more free throws and only having Illinois convert a few more 3 ...
Jan 19, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 268
January 17, 2025: In what is probably the most anticipated matchups of the year to date, Michigan State will host Illinois on Sunday afternoon. The game pits two of the top 15 teams in the country and maybe the top in the Big Ten. To date, MSU is riding a 10 game winning streak and is 6-0 in the league but has yet to play any team with a winning record. The Spartans have been promising and shown signs that this might be a special season. However, the real question is whether Michigan State is a ...
Jan 17, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 267
January 15, 2025: Well, MSU returned home from Evanston and had only a few days to prep for a pesky Penn State team and was pushed but ultimately won 90-85. It was a less than stellar defensive performance from the Spartans as they largely had no answer for the Nittany Lions’ ball screens.Fortunately, the Spartans were good on the offensive boards and in protecting the ball leading to an advantage in second chance points 23-6 and in points off turnovers 27-13. Now, they await their first Big Ten...
Jan 16, 2025•57 min•Ep. 266
January 13, 2025: Michigan State returns home for a matchup against reeling Penn State on Wednesday evening. The Spartans are riding a nine game win streak and are unbeaten in league play at 5-0. One challenge for the green and white is that they have to maintain their focus in what could be a trap game with Illinois coming to town on Sunday. Penn State might be without their all everything point guard, Ace Baldwin, who suffered a back injury during their Illinois game. Without him, the Nittany ...
Jan 14, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 265
January 12, 2025: Michigan State took care of business in Evanston on Sunday afternoon with a relatively stress free 78-68 win over a tricky Northwestern team. MSU led by as much as 23 in the first half and took a 19 point lead into halftime. They built the lead largely on the backs of turning over the Wildcats and forcing bad shots on defense in conjunction with a great pace on offense. Jeremy Fears, Jr. continues to grow in his role as lead point guard for this team as he is providing both ene...
Jan 13, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 264
January 11, 2025: Michigan State is looking to continue its winning ways as it heads back onto the road to Evanston with a matchup against the Northwestern Wildcats. Of late, the ‘Cats have sort of had the Spartans’ number winning two of the last three at home and generally giving MSU fits every time they play. But this year’s Spartans feel different and Chris Collins has a much different team without Boo Buie running the show. However, the way the Wildcats operate is relatively unchanged with m...
Jan 11, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 263
