Michigan State and Northern Iowa both made headlines for their second-round NCAA Tournament victories last weekend. In the Spartans' case, it was because of Korie Lucious' dramatic game-winner and Kalin Lucas' season-ending injury. The Panthers, meanwhile, pulled off a monumental upset of top-seeded Kansas, a team many experts had considered the tournament favorite.

Friday, MSU and UNI will compete with an Elite Eight berth on the line. Andrew Logue, who covers Northern Iowa for the Des Moines Register, shares his insights with TOC on the Sweet Sixteen match-up between the Spartans and Panthers.

The Only Colors: On the radio this morning, Bob Knight suggested that Cinderella teams like Northern Iowa are vulnerable to second-weekend fall-offs, because after returning to campus during the week and finding that they've already achieved icon status, they can lose a little competitive fire. Considering that UNI is on the cover of Sports Illustrated and that the Panthers' coach just got a raise and contract extension, that seems like it could apply. What do you think?

Andrew Logue: It's an understandable concern, but this is also a very veteran team. [UNI] hasn't weathered anything quite like this, with the cover of SI and that sort of thing, but they still feel that chip on their shoulder. They are slight underdogs, so they still have a little bit of that 'We want to prove the world wrong’ attitude.

TOC: Let's talk about the matchups. Will MSU get a steady diet of Jordan Eglseder, the seven-footer, up front? 

AL: Jordan sometimes only plays 20 minutes a game, and a lot of that is dependent on matchups. I think we might see a little less of Jordan because Michigan State doesn’t have a Cole Aldrich. I think UNI may go with a smaller lineup, which probably means we'll see a little more of [forward] Lucas O'Rear, a very aggressive, blue-collar player, and also a little more of [guard] Kerwin Dunham off the bench.

TOC: Michigan State has struggled with turnovers all season, and now the Spartans are playing without Kalin Lucas against a disciplined UNI defense. On the other hand, the Panthers looked a little shaky against the Kansas press in the final minutes last weekend. What will you be watching for, defensively?

AL: I think Coach Izzo has watched the tape from the last 12 minutes of the Kansas-Northern Iowa game, where UNI turned ball over pretty often, so I’m very interested to see how UNI reacts the first time Michigan State tries to do a little full-court pressure or half-court trapping. You would think UNI has worked on that over the week, but they showed that they were vulnerable there. I’m very curious to see how UNI will react to pressure.

TOC: I know you're on the Northern Iowa beat, and probably glad not to be covering the Iowa Hawkeyes this season. But a couple of former Michigan State assistants, Brian Gregory and Jim Boylen, are on the Hawkeyes' radar. What can you tell us?

AL: I'm not covering the beat so I won’t pretend to know all the ins and outs of it, but what Iowa needs is someone who will come in and, frankly, bring in players to up the level of athleticism on that team. These guys who have worked under Coach Izzo, I know they’ll have that experience and will know how to do that.

TOC: As Iowa and Iowa State have slipped over the last few years, while Iowa's two other D-I schools, Drake and UNI, each have recent NCAA tournament appearances. Has the in-state recruiting balance changed? 

AL: The Big Ten and Big 12 schools are recruiting different athletes, and take more of a national approach to recruiting. What UNI and Drake have been able to do in recent years is that they've been able to get the Iowa kids to stay in Iowa. For years that wasn’t the case—you had Creighton, for example, sending teams to the NCAA Tournament every year with four or five Iowa kids in the starting lineup. That doesn’t happen anymore, because now those Iowa kids are staying in-state at Drake and UNI. But [Iowa and Iowa State] have more of a national approach, so there still is not a conflict between the big two and little two in recruiting.

TOC: Did Ali Farokhmanesh deal a death-blow to the fundamentals of Iowa youth basketball players? Will they all think it's okay to hoist a fast-break three with 30 seconds left on the shot clock while nursing a lead?

AL: Actually, I think that’s kind of their mindset already. Seriously, this team has always played with a 'What have we got to lose?' attitude. And the great equalizer in all this is that kids today play so much AAU basketball, so when you get Northern Iowa kids matched up against a Kansas or a Michigan State, they’re not in awe like they would have been 20-25 years ago. [Kwadzo] Ahelegbe and Eglseder both talked about going up against Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins in their AAU days, so they weren’t intimidated.

If only to get the painful reminder of the Wisconsin game off the top of the page, let's turn back to football. Today is signing day, and here's an open thread where we'll post occasional updates. (And I mean occasional. This is not a live blog. Not even a zombie blog.)

Let the Will Gholston Confirmation Watch Begin!

And we can start here, with a list of verbals.

College football's signing day is a week from today, Wednesday, Feb. 3. After the Rather Hall drama, it will be good news for MSU if the Spartans can hang on to the commitments they have gained up to now—and the outlook on that front seems good so far. (Though you know you'll be a little better next week once you've seen Will Gholston's name in the same sentence as "signed" and "Michigan State.")

Meanwhile, though, there are some uncommitted recruits still floating around out there. The pool is dwindling, though, as one of Mark Dantonio's main remaining targets, Chicago defensive lineman Bruce Gaston, committed to Purdue last night. MSU apparently placed 3rd among Gaston's five finalists, based on the results of his elaborate hat-dropping ceremony. 

The Spartans did add a defensive lineman recently, DT Anthony White, who's from Battle Creek but played last season at Fort Scott (KS) CC, according to SpartanTailgate.com (here's the story—premium content). Juco guys aren't generally Mark Dantonio's style, but White will have three years of eligibility, and fills the spot on the defensive line that might otherwise have been occupied by Jamiihr Williams or Ishmyl Johnson, two young D-lineman players who left MSU in the wake of the Rather Hall incident. White also had an offer from Nebraska.

The Big Ten announced this week that it will explore adding a twelfth institution. Some thoughts . . .

Does it seem a little off-key that Joe Paterno is leading the charge for Big Ten expansion, so that the conference can have a championship game? If it weren’t for Penn State, there would still be ten teams, and re-aligning into divisions to set up a championship would be simple. I know times—and the competitive landscape—have changed, but I’m just saying.

I’ve also heard that, as a secondary motivation, Penn State wants an eastern rival located closer to State College, PA—thus the talk of Pitt and, to a lesser extent, Cincinnati and Syracuse. (And, really, this would have to be Pitt or Cincy because, let’s face it, Syracuse would be more of a punching bag than a football rival for Penn State. And yes, I also know that George Perles dreamed that Michigan State would become Penn State’s signature rivalry, and I’m also aware of the final scores in the MSU-PSU games over the last couple of years.) This one is harder to buy. It’s not like Penn State didn’t know the lay of the land when it signed on with the Big Ten 20 years ago—this includes Paterno, who has been coaching in Happy Valley since MSU was the Big Ten’s premier program in the ‘60s.

But the first point has merit—the Big Ten does disappear for several weeks during the climax of college football season, as all the other conferences have their championship games. Clearly there would be advantages to expansion for the Big Ten.

Two questions about potential expansion:

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You have to figure that Mark Dantonio loves game day. To succeed as a big-time college football coach means you love putting your team to the test, seeing how your players respond to adversity, making the high-stress decisions that can tilt the outcome.

But he seldom looks like he’s having fun. Instead, he’s usually got that look—flinty, focused, irritable, whatever you want to call it. Ironically, though, that same frown and the steadiness it projects is giddying news to MSU fans after years of turmoil in the program.

And clearly it’s not just a facade. Dantonio has rebuilt MSU’s program slowly, steadily, solidly—fostering more consistent and fundamental play, and building a strong foundation through exceptional in-state (and Midwest) recruiting. At the same time, there are a couple of odd characteristics of Dantonio’s program that don’t fit the image.  One, obviously, manifested itself at Rather Hall: a large, organized group of ski-mask-wearing football players storming a residence hall to take on some frat guys is so uncharacteristic of a highly disciplined program as to be almost implausible.

The other oddities are visible on Saturdays. You expect a team with Dantonio’s personality to control the trenches, to win ugly, to run the ball and stop the run. Instead, State’s lines haven’t been consistently dominating at the point of attack on either side of the ball. What’s happened this year—a great passing attack combined with a sketchy defense and running game—is pretty much the anti-Perles. (And we’ll see what the passing game looks like in a bowl game with Blair White, Keshawn Martin and our various TEs.)

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 . . . and there go the wide receivers.

According to the Detroit Free Press, starting WRs Mark Dell and B.J. Cunningham, starting DB Chris L. Rucker and five reserves including WR and former top recruit Fred Smith have been suspended in conjunction with the Rather Hall investigation. More names could be forthcoming: Campus police have thus far identified ten suspects, according to the report—presumably these eight plus Glenn Winston and Roderick Jenrette, who have already been dismissed from the team—and police are still looking to identify five others present during the altercation at the Rather Hall dorm.

When Keith Nichol steps under center for Michigan State on Saturday—whether that’s at the beginning of the game or some time later—the Spartan offense will be gaining another dimension because of Nichol’s skill as a ballcarrier and as a rush-evader.

Yep, Nichol can run. And if State wants to implement the option, he’s probably the man to do it.

But considering that Michigan State runs a pro-style offense, how important is that added dimension?

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It was a surprise when the Patriots cut QB Kevin McConnell last week; the former third round pick, whom the Lions claimed on waivers, had looked like a shoo-in to back up Tom Brady. The cut was also good news for the other quarterbacks trying to make New England's roster, including 2008 MSU starter Brian Hoyer.

And now, Hoyer looks poised to become Brady's top backup. Last night, Brian played QB for all of New England's preseason win over the Giants, and he went 18-25 with a touchdown and no interceptions. Bill Belichick even offered this effusive (by his standards) praise for Hoyer, according to the AP: "Not bad," coach Bill Belichick said. "He handled the ball fairly well, threw it accurately." That's code for: He's in!

Here's the full game recap.

Montana State Head Coach Rob Ash led the Bobcats to a 7-5 record in 2008, his second season in Bozeman. Two of those losses were against major conference opponents; a 69-10 drubbing at Kansas State and a much closer 35-23 defeat at Minnesota. We spoke this afternoon about Saturday’s MSU-MSU tilt.

The Only Colors: What’s the draw for you in taking a game against a much larger opponent? When you coached at Drake [a Division I non-scholarship program], a couple of times every year you would play against scholarship teams. Now at Montana State you take on a couple of these heavyweights each season. Why?

Rob Ash: We really enjoy these games. To be very blunt, we get a good paycheck from these games and so that’s where it starts. But from that point there are several other pluses: our guys get a chance to play in venues that they’ve seen on TV and that they’ve dreamed about, so it’s a lifetime dream come true for them. Second, it makes us raise our level—in the summer, in preseason preparation, in offseason preparation. I thought that was important in the old days at Drake: we started working a lot harder when we started playing these games. I also feel I need to challenge the very best players on my team. Several of our guys can play at this level. They’ve developed into those kinds of players, and it’s awesome to give them the chance to do that.

TOC: Is this a marquee game for your guys? Where does it rank compared to your conference rivalries, etc.?

RA: There’s one game on our schedule that nobody’s going to top, that’s our game against Montana. It’s a huge rivalry, something that’s on everybody’s mind all year long. Everyone in the state is either a Bobcat or a Grizzly, and that’s what the whole year is about. Then the conference championship obviously is very important. So to me, this game [against Michigan State] is not one of those headliners that you red-letter and say you’ve got to win. It’s more a question of knowing you’ve got be ready because these guys are Big Ten. If we’re going to play a good game and be representative, we’d better be prepared.

TOC: One of the dangers in a game like this is the chance that a lopsided loss could demoralize a team that might be ready to win most of its games against competition on the same level. How do you guard against that? 

RA: I don’t think there’s a downside [to games against BCS opponents], especially if you play them early. I like playing these games right out of the blocks so you get them over with. That way, if you win you have a fabulous start to season—you really make your season, and a lot of things can happen from there. If you play close, it’s a very good confidence builder and team builder. And if you don’t play well, everybody says, ‘Well they were supposed to lose anyway,’ and you just move on. By the time you get to the next week you’ve forgotten about it.

TOC: How about a scouting report for unfamiliar Spartan fans?

RA: Defensively, we’ve got a headline player named Dane Fletcher, a defensive end who’s a candidate on the watch list for the Buck Buchanan Award, which is awarded to the top defensive player in the country in the FCS [Football Championship Subdivision] division. He’s a great player with a very high motor; he’s a high-energy, active defensive lineman.
    Overall, our defensive front seven is pretty strong. But we’ve been riddled with injuries in the secondary, so to me the big question mark in this game is, ‘Can we hold up in the secondary.’ I don’t mean just against the pass, but can we come up and make tackles and get people stopped. We have very little experience there because of the injuries we’ve had.
    Offensively, we’ve run the ball well in the first two years I’ve been here. We’ve not passed as well. So we made a commitment to improving the passing game in the offseason. We have both of our quarterbacks [Oregon transfer Cody Kempt and Mark Iddins] back and we have some new receivers. We also have a more finely tuned passing scheme, so we’re hoping to make progress there. This will be a stern test for us, and we’re anxious to see what it looks like.

I want to weigh in on some not-so-breaking news: The Detroit Free Press ran a story Sunday outlining NCAA rules violations by Michigan’s football program under Rich Rodriguez. The allegations are related to overwork: that Michigan’s players are required to devote many more hours to football than the NCAA permits.

I know this is a Spartans blog, but I’m not really writing about Michigan here. This is about the Free Press’ reporting and college football generally.

In the hours after the story broke, predictably, commenters of all stripes went wild—opining, sometimes reasonably, sometimes venomously, with everyone from the reporters to the Wolverine coaches and players in their crosshairs. Our friends at MGoBlog get both high and low marks: high marks because they quickly posted the relevant NCAA rules so readers could learn that there are mile-wide loopholes between the specifics of the rulebook and its theoretical intent. The rules are aimed at limiting the number of hours players devote to football, but leave room for a lot of exceptions that may make Rich Rodriguez’ denials stand up.

But MGoBlog also loses big points for running a poll asking readers whether they planned to cancel their Freep subscriptions. That’s because I think that Rosenberg and Snyder did college football a great service with their reporting.

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By now you've learned the unexciting news: the Spartans aren't quite ranked in the preseason Associated Press poll. Steve Grinczel is mystified, citing the common wisdom that these rankings are based largely on the teams' performance in the prior season. He points out that MSU beat several teams last year that are ranked ahead of State now—Notre Dame and Iowa among them—and wonders why.

Well, that's easy. Javon Ringer.

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Springtime is for looking forward, and there’s a football game this weekend, so it’s natural that we’re all keyed on Keith and Kirk instead of Kalin and, um, Kebler. But I’d like to point out -- for the first time here at The Only Colors -- that State’s basketball team appeared the national championship game earlier this month. Surely we can revel in that for at least 30 days?

(This seemed more relevant before KJ's hoops post this morning, but I'm sticking with it. This team blogging stuff is tricky.)

I’m over the euphoria of the big wins over UConn, Louisville and Kansas, not to mention the un-euphoria of the dismantling by UNC. Now it’s time to reflect on what all this means for the program in a deep, existential way. 

Specifically, does this title game appearance mean MSU has arrived?

In the ‘No’ category, after MSU’s big tournament wins, way too many of the game recaps and columns somehow included the name of Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart. As though the big takeaway from Michigan State’s run was that Tom Izzo might finally have the resume to apply for a big-time gig.

But there’s plenty of fodder for the ‘Yes’ column, too. For one thing, some national writers are coming around. For another, well, I have to tell this story: A friend from Chapel Hill was staying with me in Chicago during the Final Four, and before the UConn game he said he wanted MSU to win. Not because he figured on another easy W (though he probably did), but because he thought Michigan State had more “elite program” cachet than Connecticut and would look better on the Tar Heels’ resume. Now that’s a pretty small sampling, but a good sign.

(Semi-related note: MSU will get another crack at Carolina in next season's Big Ten-ACC Challenge on Dec. 1. This game is in Chapel Hill, rather than Detroit, and maybe that's a good thing.)

So here are my two discussion questions: 1) Has MSU reached ‘consensus Top 10 program’ status both among casual fans outside of Big Ten country and among experts?  and 2) What should we do about it? Our options include the inferiority complex posture that comes from the never-ending ‘Will Izzo take this job or that job’ rumors; adopting the smug superiority of Duke fans; and something else in between.