(Bump. Let's see who can win this.)

Let's be honest. Watching sporting events is always more interesting when it involves teams or players that you have picked in some sort of contest, whether it be gambling (legal, of course) or fantasy sports or office pools. And I'm not saying that the annual intrasquad Green & White Spring Game is NOT interesting, but one way to definitely make it MORE interesting? Create a TOC contest out of it! So, I propose the following:

• You get a budget of $100 in non-legal-tender "TOC Bucks" to spend on your team.
  
• You can select any 8 players, but must have 4 offense and 4 defense. The values have been assigned below based on a highly scientific, but highly classified, rating system.
  
• "Green" and "White" designations don't matter (if you want all players from the Green Team, no problem), except for QB, as explained below.
• You don't need to have any particular positions represented, but you have a max of 1 QB. So if you want All-Time QB Connor Cook, you have to specify WHICH Connor Cook you are selecting (Green Cook or White Cook). To make an informed decision, the rosters are here.
  
• You don't need a kicker, but if you take one, that counts as an offensive player.
• There are no return points because my recollection is that kick and punt returns are not live plays.
• Final scoring will be based on the official box score released by MSU. For example, here is last year's.
• The contest locks at 1 pm EST on Saturday.
• Prizes TBD, but could include such things as 1 year of free membership to TOC, a night on the town with Pete Rossman, eternal glory, or something else awarded by TOC management.

Scoring

• Offensive Players:

10 rushing/receiving yards: 1 point

25 passing yards: 1 point

TD (throwing, rushing, receiving): 6 points

2-point conversion (throwing, rushing, receiving): 2 points

Reception: 1 point

Lost fumble/interception: -2 points

PAT/FG under 30 yards: 1 point (-2 for miss)

FG 30-39 yards: 3 points (-1 for miss)

FG 40+ yards: 4 points

• Defensive Players:

Tackle: 1 point* (1/2 point for assisted tackle)

Tackle For Loss: 2 points* (1 point for assisted TFL)

Sack: 3 points* (1 1/2 points for assisted sack)

Interception: 4 points

Forced Fumble/Fumble Recovery: 2 points

Pass Break-Up: 1 point

Defensive TD: 8 points

Safety: 5 points

*Points for Sacks and TFLs are not double-counted - ie, 1 Sack does not also get points for being a Tackle and a TFL. For example, last year, Tyler Hoover had 2 tackles, one of which was a sack. He would get 4 points (3 for the sack and 1 for the other tackle). Trenton Robinson had 1 solo tackle and 2 assisted tackles, including 1 TFL. He would get 3 points (2 for the TFL and 1 for the 2 assisted tackles).

Player Values

So pick your team and post it in the Comments. At some point following the game (not making any promises how soon that will be), I'll tally up the points and post the winner. Hopefully I haven't overlooked anything obvious, but if so, feel free to post questions in the comments.

Disclaimer for any NCAA Officials, MSU Compliance Office staff, or other people without a sense of humor or understanding of how make-believe works: this contest is 100% for funsies, and in no way involves the payment of money to NCAA "student-athletes" or the wagering of money on collegiate athletics.

Disclaimer for anyone participating: you will most likely spend way too much time thinking about this.

Tis the season for the Draymond Green hype machine. From discussions about B1G Player of the Year to First-Team All-American to National Player of the Year, DayDay is getting all kinds of (seriously well-deserved) publicity. With that in mind, and in the interest of adding something to the discussion about his merits for all of those accolades, I offer this:

With 10 more rebounds, Green will have recorded over 1,000 points (currently at 1,349), 1,000 rebounds (currently 990), and 100 blocked shots (currently 107) in his career.

How rare is the 1,000/1,000/100 Club? By my calculation based on reviewing other schools' media guides, he would become only the 5th member in B1G history. The others:

• Joe Barry Carroll (Purdue): 2,175/1,148/349
• Herb Williams (OSU): 2,011/1,111/328
• Alan Henderson (IU): 1,979/1,091/213
• James Augustine (Ill): 1,383/1,023/139

That's it. 4 guys as of today (yes, I was as surprised as you are about Augustine). And while I haven't done the research (yet), I have a feeling the 1,000 point, 1,000 rebound, 400 assist, 100 block, 100 steal club is even smaller.

(A couple notes. I didn't count Nebraska, as this is their first year in the league and any career records before this happened in the Big 12. The conference agrees with me, and does not include Nebraska players' records in the official media guide. So, sorry Venson Hamilton and Aleks Maric. And finally, this is really a measure of the last 35ish years, as it looks like "Blocks" as a stat didn't come into being until the '70s. So, sorry guys who played a long time ago.)

In conclusion: more proof that DayDay is awesome. Like you didn't already know that.

(Bump. -- Ed.)

Before last season started, the premise of this question would have seemed preposterous. Even a few short months ago, it would have been fairly laughable. After all, MSU entered last season ranked #2 in the country and was coming off back-to-back conference titles and Final Four runs. Respected writers were comparing the team to the best Izzo has ever had and saying that anything short of a national championship would be "a disappointment". A major source of optimism was the depth at the guard position. Seniors/BFFs Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers were preparing for a year that would showcase their talents for the NBA. And junior Korie Lucious, he of The Greatest NCAA Tournament Shot in MSU History fame, was going to anchor the point guard spot as the third core member of the backcourt. The guards were experienced, battle-tested, and talented.

By the time the 2011-12 season started, Lucas, Summers, and Mike Kebler had graduated, Lucious had been kicked off the team, incoming freshman Dwaun Anderson decided not to enroll at MSU, and Brandon Wood transferred from Valpo for his senior season. All of this left MSU with a core backcourt of Appling, Wood, and Travis Trice. A true freshman, a guy who had never played at MSU and wasn't a point guard, and a sophomore shooting guard/scorer being converted into the starting point guard. In other words, one gigantic question mark.

Well, we now have a sample size of 17 games for this year's team, so I thought it would be interesting to compare the stats on the two trios using the first 17 games of last year (especially given some recent debate about last year's team and Izzo's comments about Lucious after the Iowa game last night). I think there's enough to go on for a fair comparison at this point.

Continue reading this post »

Disclaimer: I had been meaning to post this before Big 10 play started, but didn't finish compiling everything until yesterday, the day of the IU game. Given MSU's crazy long streak against IU at Breslin, I didn't want to take any chances of jinxing it, so I thought it would be better to hold off a day. I think we can all agree that was the sound, logical thing to do.

Since the Breslin Center opened for the 1989-90 season, MSU has been, how you say, really good. From winning a Big 10 title in the building's first year to the four-year run of dominance in the Flintstone era to the back-to-back titles in '09 and '10, "The Bres" has been home to a glorious age of MSU establishing itself as a conference powerhouse.

It is widely known that MSU enjoys great success at home, as evidenced by such things as the 53-game winning streak from 1998 to 2002 (incidentally, that winning streak started with the first game of my freshman year in the Izzone, meaning we didn't lose a home game until the second semester of my senior year). Now that we've got 22 full seasons under our belt in the arena, I thought it would be interesting to see just how successful MSU has been against conference opponents at Breslin since its opening. I've also broken it down to show Izzo's record separately. Some bullets before the team-by-team breakdowns:

• An amazing .825 winning% for all conference games at Breslin
• An even amazinger .852 winning% under Izzo
• Only 1 losing record in conference play (4-5 in 1992-93, an NIT year)
• Since 1996-97, MSU has not lost more than 2 conference games at home in a season
• Izzo has only lost 20 conference home games in 16 seasons

MSU's Record at Breslin Against Conference Opponents*

*updated to include 12/28/11 win vs. IU

Illinois
Overall: 15-5 (.750)
Under Izzo: 10-4 (.714)
Last Loss: 3/4/06
Biggest Win: 91-66 (1/30/00)
Biggest Loss: 68-81 (2/1/05) and 39-52 (1/9/93)
Longest Winning Streak: 5 (2007-present)
Longest Losing Streak: 2 (2005-2006)

Average Margin: +4.25

Indiana
Overall: 18-1 (.947)
Under Izzo: 14-0 (1.00)
Last Loss: 2/28/91
Biggest Win: 103-74 (3/2/08)
Biggest Loss: 56-62 (2/28/91)
Longest Winning Streak: 17 (1992-present)
Longest Losing Streak: n/a

Average Margin: +10.3

Iowa
Overall: 18-2 (.900)
Under Izzo: 14-0 (1.00)
Last Loss: 1/28/93
Biggest Win: 81-49 (2/17/07)
Biggest Loss: 90-96 (1/28/93)
Longest Winning Streak: 16 (1994-present)
Longest Losing Streak: n/a

Average Margin: +11.75

Michigan
Overall: 14-6* (.700)
Under Izzo: 11-3 (.786)
Last Loss: 1/27/11
Biggest Win: 114-63 (3/4/00)
Biggest Loss: 54-76 (1/13/96)
Longest Winning Streak: 11 (1997-2010)
Longest Losing Streak: 3 (1992-1994)

Average Margin: +8.8

* In the 1996-97 season, MSU played 19 games against Big 10 opponents instead of 18. From what I can tell, MSU was only scheduled to play Michigan once (in Ann Arbor), so they scheduled a home game that did not count toward the conference record (Michigan won 74-61). I included it here for the sake of completeness, but technically, MSU's conference record at home against Michigan is 14-5. It should probably also be pointed out (because I enjoy doing so) that Michigan's wins in 1993, 1996, and 1997 were vacated by the NCAA (fun fact: the 26 regular season wins vacated from the 1993 season are the most to ever be vacated for any program in one season). My understanding is that we don't get to vacate our losses, but they don't get credit for the wins. So there. Cheaters.

Minnesota
Overall: 17-3 (.850)
Under Izzo: 12-2 (.857)
Last Loss: 1/4/97
Biggest Win: 79-43 (3/2/00)
Biggest Loss: 43-68 (1/4/97)
Longest Winning Streak: 12 (1998-present)
Longest Losing Streak: 2 (1996-1997)

Average Margin: +11.25

Northwestern
Overall: 18-1 (.947)
Under Izzo: 12-1 (.923)
Last Loss: 1/21/09
Biggest Win: 93-56 (1/18/95)
Biggest Loss: 63-70 (1/21/09)
Longest Winning Streak: 16 (1990-2008)
Longest Losing Streak: n/a

Average Margin: +16.4

Ohio State
Overall: 14-4 (.778)
Under Izzo: 10-3 (.769)
Last Loss: 2/21/10
Biggest Win: 15 points (3 times)
Biggest Loss: 65-78 (2/29/92)
Longest Winning Streak: 10 (1993-2005)
Longest Losing Streak: 2 (2006-2007)

Average Margin: +5.8

Penn State
Overall: 14-1 (.933)
Under Izzo: 12-1 (.923)
Last Loss: 2/1/09
Biggest Win: 86-49 (2/20/08)
Biggest Loss: 68-72 (2/1/09)
Longest Winning Streak: 12 (1993-2008)
Longest Losing Streak: n/a

Average Margin: +16.3

Purdue
Overall: 12-7 (.632)
Under Izzo: 9-4 (.692)
Last Loss: 2/27/11
Biggest Win: 77-52 (2/8/06)
Biggest Loss: 47-67 (2/27/11)
Longest Winning Streak: 9 (1999-2009)
Longest Losing Streak: 5 (1993-1998)

Average Margin: +2.9

Wisconsin
Overall: 16-4 (.800)
Under Izzo: 11-3 (.786)
Last Loss: 3/2/04
Biggest Win: 97-72 (3/11/95)
Biggest Loss: 52-73 (2/24/96)
Longest Winning Streak: 6 (2005-present)
Longest Losing Streak: 2 (2002-2004)

Average Margin: +7.75

All Big 10 Games
Overall: 156-33 (.825)
Under Izzo: 115-20 (.852)
Last Loss: 2/27/11 (vs. Purdue)
Biggest Win: 114-63 (vs. Michigan, 3/4/00)
Biggest Loss: 43-68 (vs. Minnesota, 1/4/97)
Longest Winning Streak: 24 (1999-2002)
Longest Losing Streak: 4 (1993)

This weekend, two football games will kickoff at Noon eastern time that will have an impact on whether or not Michigan State plays in the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis.  The first, obviously, is MSU’s game against Indiana.  A win gives the Spartans a 6-1 conference record and an assurance of no worse than a tie for first place in the Legends Division with only a trip to Evanston remaining.  Down the road, the other game features the teams currently tied for second in the Legends Division, Nebraska and Michigan.  Those teams both sit at 4-2 in the conference.  If Michigan loses, they will be eliminated from contention for the championship game.  If Nebraska loses, MSU would need to lose twice and Michigan would have to lose to OSU (SpartanDan puts this possibility at less than 1/10th of a percent).

All of this means that if MSU and Michigan both win on Saturday, MSU will be representing the Legends Division in the Championship Game regardless of what happens the last week of the season (the Spartans’ 4th straight win over the Wolverines would serve as the tiebreaker should both teams finish 6-2).

Of course, this has inevitably led to an age-old Spartan fan conundrum that rears its head every so often: do the current circumstances make it acceptable or appropriate to root for a Michigan victory?  Last year, for example, a Michigan win over OSU would have given MSU a berth in the Rose Bowl (or if Tressel had admitted to cheating, or if the tiebreakers weren’t stupid…but I digress).  MSU beat writer Joe Rexrode weighs in with an emphatic "Yes!"  Countered by the terse-but-not-at-all-unexpected "Nope, sorry, I can’t" from Coach Dantonio.

Technically, MSU does not NEED help from anyone to make it to the Championship Game.  MSU need only win its last two games.  On the other hand, clinching the division with a week to play, with one game remaining in a place that required a dramatic comeback a year ago, is inarguably a great result for MSU.  Predictably, this leads to an existential crisis that causes MSU fans to question the very meaning of being a fan.  And of the universe.  From what I can tell, there are 5 basic schools of thought among the fanbase:

 1.     The Hardliner: “F**k those guys, I’d rather eat a jagged metal Krusty-O than root for them under any circumstances ever, even when it would directly benefit MSU.”

2.     The Last Resorter: “F**k those guys, we can win it ourselves without their help and I will not root for them unless them winning is absolutely necessary to achieve what I want for MSU.”

3.     The Pragmatist: “You know what, I can set aside the searing hatred for a day and actually root for them because the end result will directly benefit my Spartans.”

4.     The Avoider: “I am so torn between my hatred for them and my desire for clinching the division that I will pretend the Michigan-Nebraska game isn’t happening, and thus avoid the inner conflict and guilt that will accompany watching it.”

5.     The Bargainer: “I’m not rooting FOR Michigan, I’m rooting AGAINST Nebraska, and I don’t care if that logic makes no sense, that’s my rationale and I’m sticking with it, because I’d love it if we clinched the division on Saturday.”

My original intent in writing this was to figure out a concrete answer to tell you which of these mindsets is the right one.  The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that each position is defensible in its own right (and by the way, this analysis applies to any sports team faced with a similar situation). I also thought about coming to the conclusion that the whole concept is a logical fallacy, since Michigan will win or lose whether we "root" for them or not, so why even bother making a choice?  But we're in the world of sports fandom, and to admit that our rooting interests have no effect on a game would mean that we're all living a lie, and life is meaningless, and we might as well stop watching sports and go hike mountains or something.  This is not acceptable.  For instance, I know for a fact that wearing a certain shirt during MSU games and drinking a specific kind of beer at tailgate helps them win.

So instead of making any conclusions, I will put the question to my fellow Spartans.  Where do you fall in the categories listed above?  Or are there other categories that I missed?  Personally, I am conditioned as a Hardliner, but on Saturday, I will probably fall into the Avoider* camp.  Since I'm going to be at the MSU game, I will not be able see what's happening in Ann Arbor, therefore I can distance myself from having any emotional investment in that game.  I will get updates as the game goes on, but my only focus will be on MSU and keeping that beautiful endearingly ugly Old Brass Spittoon.  And I know that if we win, it would be pretty awesome to hear an announcement at the Stadium that we will be playing in Indy.

*I reserve the right to change this position numerous times between now and 3:00 Saturday.

(Bump. -- Pete)

Now that the basketball season is officially in the books, I thought it would be appropriate to take a look at how exactly this team added its mark to the Spartan record book.  Despite the disappointment in how the year played out, there were actually some notable achievements on both a team and individual level.  From what I have gathered, here they are:

 Team:

• The team set a new record for most blocked shots in a season with 167, surpassing the 162 blocks of the 2006-07 team. (even though the '07 team played 1 more game)
• The team recorded the 2nd-most 3-pointers made in a season with 220, behind the 253 of the 1999-2000 team.  The 620 attempts were also the 2nd-most.  (not surprisingly, the .355 3-point % was not in the top 5)

Individual Players:

Kalin Lucas

• Scored 578 points, bringing his career total to 1,996, good for 5th all-time. (and oh so agonizingly close to 2,000)
• Appeared in all 34 games, bringing his career total to 141, good for 3rd all-time.
• Started all 34 games, giving him 119 career starts, good for 5th all-time.
• Made 137 free throws, making him MSU's career leader with 507.  He passed Paul Davis, who made 477.
• Became MSU's career leader in free throw attempts with 637.
• Recorded 114 assists, bringing his career total to 558, good for 5th all-time.
• Made 194 FGs, bringing his career total to 670, good for 9th all-time.
• Attempted 453 FGs, bringing his career total to 1,575, good for 5th all-time.
• Made 53 3-pointers, bringing his career total to 149, good for 8th all-time.
• Attempted 136 3-pointers, bringing his career total to 395, good for 10th all-time.

Durrell Summers

• Appeared in all 34 games, making him MSU's career leader in games played with 145.  Travis Walton was the previous leader with 143.  The difference between Lucas and Summers is the 4 games Lucas had to sit out in 2010 – the game at Illinois and the 3 games in the Tournament.(this might be the most ironic record ever, given how often he was criticized for "not showing up" - he actually appeared in every game of the last 4 seasons)
• Scored 395 points, bringing his career total to 1,314, good for 22nd all-time.
• Made 62 3-pointers, bringing his career total to 161, good for 6th all-time.
• Attempted 174 3-pointers (10th-most in a season), bringing his career total to 433 attempts, good for 7th all-time.

Draymond Green

• Recorded 38 blocked shots, good for 7th-most in a season.  (Green now has 81 career blocks, placing him 8th all-time.  With at least 18 blocks next year, he would likely finish 3rd all-time behind Roe and Naymick)
• Recorded 60 steals, tying him for 5th-most in a season with Darryl Johnson.  Notably, he surpassed the best marks of great defenders such as Eric Snow (57), Travis Walton (56), Antonio Smith (56), and Skiles (54).  (Magic's record of 75 seems fairly safe.)  Green would need 70 steals next year to surpass Mateen as the career leader, but 50 more would surpass Skiles and place him at #2.
• Green had 294 rebounds to bring his career total to 702, which is only 70 away from being in the Top 10.  If he gets 298 next year, he would be only the 4th player to get 1,000 career rebounds.
• Green currently has 916 career points.  Assuming he can essentially match his output from this season, he could be the third player in MSU history to record 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.  He could also be the first with 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, and 100 blocked shots.

Delvon Roe

• Recorded 42 blocked shots, good for 6th-most in a season.  (Roe now has 106 career blocks, placing him 2nd all-time behind Drew Naymick (134).  This gives him a very real chance of leaving MSU as the all-time career leader)

 Keith Appling

• Made 39 3-pointers, good for 3rd all-time among MSU freshmen (behind Hill and Respert).  His 95 3-point attempts rank 4th among freshmen.  His .411 3-point% ranks 5th among freshmen.

Adreian Payne

• Recorded 28 blocked shots, good for 2nd all-time among MSU freshmen (1 behind Delvon).   
   

[Bumped for pregame reading. -KJ]

It is pretty well known that most of the league's best players this year are seniors and that there will be a lot of turnover next year, so I thought it would be interesting to find out just how much each team in the conference relies on seniors.  The following table shows a breakdown (by percentage) of the points and minutes each team gets from seniors (numbers current as of 2/18/11):

Here are the league averages:

Continue reading this post »

When we learned that Korie Lucious would not be playing basketball for MSU again this season, there was a lot of speculation about how his 24.4 minutes per game would be redistributed to the remaining players. Although it's not a large sample size, the results after just 2 games are still interesting. Below is a list of the players who saw action in the 2 games following the dismissal. The first number is minutes per game before the dismissal, the second number is minutes per game after the dismissal, and the third number is the difference.  

(One note: because the IU game went to overtime, the post-dismissal averages for some players were a bit skewed.  For example, Kalin's average got bumped to 40 minutes per game.  While that's technically accurate, I deducted the minutes played in OT from the affected players so that the averages over the last 2 games would be out of 40 minutes.)

Starters:

Lucas: 30.5 --> 37.5 (+7.0)

Summers: 30.1 --> 28.5 (-1.6)

Green: 29.2 --> 31.0 (+1.8)

Roe: 25.0 --> 28.0 (+3)

Appling: 19.6 --> 33.5 (+13.9)

Bench:

Sherman: 13.7 --> 4.5 (-9.2)

Nix: 8.2 --> 12 (+3.8)

Payne: 8.7 --> 2.5 (-6.2)

Thornton: 11.3 --> 9.5 (-1.8)

Kebler: 3.9 --> 13 (+9.1)

• Biggest beneficiaries are, not surprisingly, the remaining guards (Appling, Lucas, and Kebler).
• Kalin's jump is all the more impressive considering that he was already playing over 30 minutes a game and still saw an increase of 7 minutes per game.
• I wouldn't read too much into the drop in Summers' minutes - he had foul trouble against Michigan and only played 27 minutes.  He'll probably be back over 30 per game from here on out.
• All of MSU's starters are now averaging at least 28 minutes per game.
• The disparity between the starters and the bench is now pretty dramatic.  In the last 2 games, Kebler leads all bench players with 13 minutes per game.  I expect Nix will have a chance to stay up around 15-20 minutes if he can maintain the level of play from the IU game, but he only played 6 against Michigan.  His minutes might still be matchup-based, but I could see him getting the primary assignment to guard Sullinger in a couple weeks.
• Sherman and Payne's minutes reflect the general trend of being reduced significantly over the last few weeks.  Payne only played 3 minutes against Michigan and 2 against IU.
• Despite having fewer guards, Thornton's minutes have actually gone down.  I imagine this is a function of his own play and Kebler making the most of his increased court time.

I'll try to update these numbers later in the year.

[I'm quite sure this will not make any of us feel any better about anything today.  But the research involved makes it bumpworthy. -KJ]

Now that MSU's football/basketball streak against UM has been snapped, we can officially enter it into the record books as the longest such streak either school has had against the other since MSU joined the Big 10 in 1953. Here are the 5 streaks that spanned 1,000 days (the school holding the streak is in parentheses):

(1) 1,181 Days: 11/3/07 to 1/27/11 (MSU)

(2) 1,127 Days: 1/11/75 to 2/11/78 (UM)

(3) 1,092 Days: 10/13/62 to 10/9/65 (UM)

(4) 1,090 Days: 3/4/57 to 2/27/60 (MSU)

(5) 1,043 Days: 3/4/72 to 1/11/75 (UM)

It may be hard to appreciate the historical significance right now, but it's still a very impressive accomplishment.

In honor of the basketball season tipping off, I present another "Office" parody-transcript-rewrite to show one possible scenario for how the Izzo-to-Cavaliers situation may have played out in the MSU Athletic Department over the summer.  This is based on the "Branch Wars" episode where Karen tries to hire Stanley away from the Scranton branch.  Hollis = Michael Scott, Izzo = Stanley, Dan Gilbert = Karen, Greg Ianni (Ass. AD) = Dwight, and Dantonio = Jim.

Continue reading this post »

[Bump.  Also, it's a busy week for me, and KJ is on vacation, so interesting posts with good information are likely to be bumped! --LVS.]

As the title says, here are some things you might find interesting following MSU's victory in Evanston:

• Dell and Cunningham both had over 100 yards receiving, which is the first time since the PSU game in 2007 that MSU has had 2 players go over 100 (Devin Thomas and Kellen Davis).
• MSU has now outscored its last 3 opponents (Michigan, Illinois, and Northwestern) 68-17 in the second half.
• MSU has not given up a passing TD since the 2nd quarter of the Michigan game, a span of 10+ quarters.
• In the last 13+ quarters of football, the only rushing TDs MSU has allowed have been by opposing quarterbacks (Shoelace and Persa).
• After giving up 32 passings TDs last season (2.46 per game), MSU has only given up 10 through 8 games (1.25 per game).
• Cunningham is now 10th all-time for career receptions with 122.  If he averages just over 5 catches per game for the next 5 games, he will break Matt Trannon's record of 148.  But seeing as how he's only a junior, if he doesn't break it this year, he should easily break it and far exceed it next year.

On an unrelated note, I'm a little disappointed that we didn't draw even more inspiration from "300" and dub the game against Northwestern "Spartans vs. Persans" or something like that - ah well, I think Persa's got another year.

By this point, it is common knowledge that MSU has not lost to UM in football or basketball since November 3, 2007.  On July 30, 2010, that streak reached 1,000 days, which marked only the 5th time either school has had a streak of that length against the other since MSU joined the Big 10 in 1953.  The other 4 streaks are as follows (in order of length - the school holding the streak is in parentheses):

1,127 Days: 1/11/75 to 2/11/78 (UM)

1,092 Days: 10/13/62 to 10/9/65 (UM)

1,090 Days: 3/4/57 to 2/27/60 (MSU)

1,043 Days: 3/4/72 to 1/11/75 (UM)

At the time of this year's football game, MSU's streak had reached 1,071 days.  After MSU's win to keep the streak alive, the next matchup is a basketball game on January 27, 2011.  By that point, the streak will be at 1,182 days, well past the previous record.  In fact, MSU fans can circle December 4 on their calendars, as that will be the day that the new record is established at 1,128 days. 

And hopefully we'll be streaking for much longer...

This is a little something for those of you who are fans of "The Office."  After the announcement about the NCAA allegations at UM, some friends and I were joking that the situation in Ann Arbor was like the "Product Recall" episode of "The Office" (where the obscene watermark ends up on a bunch of paper that gets shipped out, then Michael goes into full panic mode trying to manage the situation).  Taking it a step further, we got the transcript for that episode from officequotes.net (great time-wasting site, by the way) and modified it to fit the cast of characters at UM and the storyline of the allegations.

The full modified transcript is after the jump - enjoy.

Continue reading this post »

Unless you live in Miami or grew up as a diehard Heat fan (there's some, right?), you're probably going to be rooting against the Miami Heat next year.  If, however, you're still on the fence about Bron, D-Wade, and Bosh, consider the following: since Chris Webber entered the NBA in 1993, no member of the "Fab" 5 has won an NBA title.  In other words, you and I have exactly the same number of NBA titles as the five of them.  As a Spartan, I find this to be a form of sweet justice from the basketball gods.  

Of those five, only Juwan Howard is still in the NBA, having played for 7 teams in 16 seasons.  Last week, Howard was acquired by his 8th team...the Miami Heat.  And the basketball gods will be tested.

I haven't seen this discussed much, and perhaps it's been overlooked with all the other amazing accomplishments by Coach Izzo and the boys, but MSU is currently in the midst of yet another impressive feat: most consecutive weeks appearing in the AP Top 25 poll.  According to the poll data at the AP Poll Archive site (a great way to kill a couple hours, by the way), MSU has been ranked in every poll since the beginning of the 2007-2008 season, for a total of 58 straight. 

The last poll in which MSU did not appear was the final poll of the 2006-07 season (following MSU's second round loss to UNC as the 9-seed).  The streak of 58 straight, ironically, is tied with Duke for the longest active streak in college basketball (Duke was also unranked in the final 2006-07 poll following their first round loss to 11th-seeded VCU).

Here are the longest active streaks:

MSU - 58

Duke - 58

Purdue - 45

Villanova - 38

Kansas - 26

 (should be very interesting to whether MSU or Duke has their streak broken first, since both teams should be right up there throughout next season)