The other night, Magic Johnson randomly showed up in Saginaw to help raise money for a local scholarship fund for high school students. Saginaw News reporter Lindsey Knake tweeted this about his impact:

Tonight, @MagicJohnson helped raised $70,000 in about five minutes for a scholarship fund Saginaw students to go to college.

Johnson also sat down for the above interview with the local CBS affiliate in Mid-Michigan. Draymond Green joined him at the fundraiser. Great night for a couple of great Spartans. More links after the jump.

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With as much as Draymond Green has meant to Michigan State's basketball program the last four years, it's easy to forget that before heading to East Lansing, Green had an even greater impact on the Saginaw High program. Last week, Saginaw honored Green at a ceremony. Hugh Bernreuter of the Saginaw News:

Green spoke less about beating the odds to become an All-American from Saginaw than he did about beating the odds to become a success story from Saginaw.

"I come back and I see you talking ‘East Side, East Side … H and R, H and R’ and talking about territory," Green said. "You’re fighting over territory, getting killed over territory that none of you own.

"My mom owns a house. My brother owns a house. They own that. I grew up on the North Side. I love the North Side to death. But putting your life in jeopardy for a piece of property you don’t own? Why? There is no explanation. It’s just stupidity."

Bernreuter also wrote about the tough love Green's mother Mary Babers showed him, which Green credits with helping him mature:

Draymond Green was all set to go to Las Vegas after his freshman year at Saginaw High School, a 15-year-old on his way to play basketball on AAU’s biggest stage in front of the top college coaches in the country.

His mom said, "No."

"The toughest thing I’ve ever done," Mary Babers said Wednesday during Draymond Green Day at Saginaw High. "But if I let him go to Vegas, what message would that send? That basketball is more important than school?

"It hurt to do it. My mom wouldn’t talk to me. My dad wouldn’t talk to me. My sister wouldn’t talk to me. It was so hard to do as a parent. It was the national tournament after his freshman year. That’s when you get your notoriety."

Both stories are well worth your time, as are the video reports from local TV networks ABC 12 and WNEM. More links after the jump.

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Well, there's a lot we still don't know about Andrew Maxwell, but one thing he seems to have quickly figured out: wide receivers like to be complimented. This quote comes from the Detroit Free Press:

"I've said it before and I'll keep saying it -- this group of receivers has all the tools to be just as explosive and be the playmakers that we were fortunate enough to have in the past," Maxwell said Tuesday on a Big Ten spring football conference call. "When you look at guys like Tony Lippett, Keith Mumphrey, A.J. Sims, DeAnthony Arnett, John Jakubik, Bennie Fowler, when he gets healthy, those are the guys who have the hands, who have the speed, who have all the moves, who have the knowledge of the game to be playmakers and great players for us. All they need right now is a little more experience."

Then, via Joe Rexrode at the Lansing State Journal, Maxwell focused on Mumphery:

On the first day of Michigan State’s spring practice, coach Mark Dantonio called the redshirt freshman receiver "a guy that’s ready to explode onto the scene." "Strong," MSU receivers coach Terry Samuel said of the chiseled Mumphery. "He’s got the build for it, he’s got the speed for it." Quarterback Andrew Maxwell may have delivered the biggest compliment yet on Tuesday when he said of Mumphery: "He’s a worker. His work ethic, along with his speed, might be his biggest asset."

As much as I'll miss Kirk Cousins throwing to B.J. Cunningham and Keshawn Martin, I'm pretty excited about the potential of the new group. More links after the jump.

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By now, we've all heard and been annoyed by Michigan State athletic director sending a harmless but ill-conceived tweet offering some non-asked for advice to Trey Burke. Predictably, it didn't go over so well in Ann Arbor, and rightfully so -- I think any fanbase would be annoyed by a similar move. Joe Rexrode, hilariously annoyed by having to report on the whole thing, notes that Hollis didn't violate any rules by doing it, which is good I guess:

"There was no intent to initiate any kind of discussion to get him to transfer," Lewandowski said of the tweet. "This would be like bumping into (Burke) in the hallway and saying 'Nice game.'" Unless ... might Hollis be plotting a sinister player theft at the behest of Tom Izzo, so MSU can overtake college basketball in 2013-14 with a four-point-guard lineup of Burke, Appling, Trice and Valentine? Let's keep this story going!

And don't worry, Pat Caputo has already hammered out some sentence fragments suggesting this is another example of MSU's basketball program being worried about the ascension of the team that lost to a mid-major in the first round of the NCAA Tournament this year and could see its starting backcourt declare for the draft. No Pat. It's not that. It's just an example of why old people shouldn't be on Twitter.

Sorry for the infrequent links posts this week, won't happen again. Please accept this abundance of links after the jump as my apology.

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Lupe Izzo has become as much a fixture at Michigan State games as Tom has, with TV cameras frequently finding her in the crowd during important games. The Izzo family also is famously hospitable to former players, who often crash on the Izzos' coach when they are in town, so she undoubtedly has countless great stories about MSU basketball over the years. Grantland's Davy Rothbard recently caught up with her for an interview on a variety of topics, including the 2000 national championship:

Mateen had a really strong personality and was awesome with his teammates. Basically, he became a player-coach. Tom just sat back and let him talk to the other players, since Mateen had known Morris and some of the others since they were little kids. He knew how to speak to them in deeply personal ways to inspire them and give them the will to win. A.J. Granger was also a special part of that team, along with Antonio Smith, who had graduated the year before but had been with those guys since grade school. This was still early in Tom's career, and winning it all was incredible — the school's first championship since Magic Johnson was there in 1979. It's because of those special players and their families that Tom has been able to have the success that he's had.

Part two of the interview is here. More links after the jump.

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What can I say about Draymond Green that people haven't written hundreds of times on this site already this season? He is probably the most versatile player in this tournament and means more to Michigan State than any other player does to his respective team, so it has been a fun weekend listening to a national audience finally start to say ... "Whoa ... this guy is better than we thought."

On top of getting MSU back to the Sweet 16, Green was named as a finalist for the Naismith Award (along with Anthony Davis, Thomas Robinson and Doug McDermott. He joined Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson as the only three players in NCAA history with more than one triple double in the NCAA Tournament and he reduced Sunday's opposing coach, Rick Majerus, to saying things like this:

"I think he's the best player in the country. Is he the best potential player in the country? No, I take the kid probably from Kentucky (Anthony Davis). But if I had to take a kid right now to win a national championship, I'd take Draymond Green."

Only a handful of elite college basketball players attain that kind of respect during their playing career. Oh, and ESPN's NBA Draft expert Chad Ford thinks Green is definitely a first round pick now. Not a bad weekend at all. More links after the jump.

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OK, as someone biased towards all things Flint, this is normally the type of thing I'd just include in a Linking Laconically post. But because it's Mateen Cleaves, he gets a full post.

Cleaves watched the Flint Mott Community College basketball team clinch a regional championship last week and Mott's coach, Steve Schmidt, brought Cleaves into the locker room to deliver a pep talk, which was caught by the Flint Journal's Eric Woodyard. Cleaves starts talking around the 1:20ish mark in the video.

My favorite part was Cleaves mentioning how he wasn't expecting to talk and acting like he was caught off guard, then delivering a passionate speech about what it takes to win a championship filled with comments like this:

"It's about sacrifice, and everybody can't do it. The only thing people remember is who won. I got asked a year later, 'who'd y'all play for the national championship?' That's crazy!"

I know Cleaves is doing analyst work right now, but if he ever goes into coaching as many predict, he's already got the locker room speech part down.

Judging by the comments the last few days on this site, I'm sure everyone who follows MSU basketball is getting pretty fed up with the notion that Michigan State isn't equipped to run with the fast-paced teams in the West Region.

Keith Appling chimed in on that topic to Graham Couch of MLive:

"I don't think they realize (how much we like to run)," said Appling, who guides an offense that averages a statistically modest 72.1 points per game. "Guys tend to see us as a half-court team that's going to come down and run a set every play. Little do they know, we like to get up and down."

Honestly, I'm OK with teams/media thinking that MSU is best served playing slow. It doesn't make it less annoying, but hopefully it catches an opponent or two off guard. More links after the jump.

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We'll certainly talk more throughout the week about just who Long Island University-Brooklyn is, but for now, here are a few notes about the team Michigan State will open the tourney against at 9:20 p.m. Friday.

Via ESPN, expect them to try and play fast. They are among the leaders in the country in possessions per game at 75.2. Here's more on their offense (Insider required):

They like to run, and they get a lot of their scoring in the transition game. With a lot of good ballhandlers and two capable finishers down low, the Blackbirds are mighty good at running this offense.

But that defense ... not so good (Insider, again):

Long Island's best defense is its offense.The Blackbirds often switch back and forth between man and zone defense, but in reality they have little focus on defense at all, and the numbers show it. Long Island's emphasis on tempo leaves it exposed on the defensive end, ranking 275th in the nation in adjusted efficiency.

Also, watch out for LIU's Jason Brickman (Insider):

There's some correlation between assists and Giant Killing, and if that's the case, Brickman has an edge, with 7.3 dimes per game. That's a 35.6 assist rate, 24th in the country. As an added bonus, he hits just over 40 percent of his 3s. And a really cool stat? He leads the country in fewest fouls per 40 minutes (0.8).

Some more links after the jump.

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Tom Izzo, along with Shaquille O'Neal and Steve Nash, will be featured in this year's Dove 'Comfortable in my own skin' commercials during the NCAA Tournament. Izzo's commercial is above, talking about the crazy costumes he wears during Midnight Madness every year.

He also talked about filming the commercials with SLAM!'s Kyle Stack:

You know, I’ll be honest with you. I’m not opposed to doing some [endorsements], but I don’t really do a lot of them. I was watching some of the commercials and sitting there with my wife, I saw John Thompson III and [Kirk] Herbstreit, and I know both guys pretty well. I’m sitting there…Dove Men+Care is about being comfortable in your own skin. I’m thinking about that, ‘It’s not me.’

I watched the commercial, and then I saw Magic’s. Of course, being a Michigan State guy and it all seemed so natural that when they approached me—I’ll be honest with you—I said ‘yes’ right away. I just thought it would be a cool thing to do.

Some links after the jump.

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MLive's Graham Couch has a nice profile on Michigan State's new starting quarterback, Andrew Maxwell.

Maxwell is dealing with much more attention on campus, including photo and autograph seekers:

That includes escalating fame. A few autograph- and photo-seekers aside, Maxwell remains closer to his days repacking beer (and occasionally "tooling around" in a forklift) at his summer job at Dan Henry Distributing in Lansing.

"It's pretty crazy," Maxwell said of what he saw take place around Cousins. "He came here as a shy kid from Holland, Michigan, and the next thing you know, they've got Kirk Cousins sweatshirts at the student bookstore. It comes with the position. That's something you have to realize you're getting yourself into. And if you're successful, that's what's going to come with it and if you're not successful, you're going to have a lot of negative stuff come your way, too."

More links after the jump.

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In Sunday's loss to Ohio State, Derrick Nix out-played a probable NBA lottery pick. Count that pretty high up on the list of sentences I never thought I would write.

There have been so many aspects of this year's Michigan State basketball team that have been amazing to watch. Nothing has been more rewarding for me than seeing Nix turn into a reliably good rotation player.

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Like I'm sure most others feel, sharing the Big Ten title rather than winning it outright doesn't matter all that much right now after the news that Branden Dawson tore his ACL. There's not really much to say. It's devastating, and I'm sure everyone is hoping desperately for him to make a full recovery next year.

A heavy does of links wrapping up the regular season are below.

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I'm not all that interested in leading off with basketball after last night's game, so instead I point you to a great roundup post of former MSU players' performances at the NFL Combine by Josh Slagter of MLive.

The two most interesting comments came on Michigan State's fantastic receiver tandem. Here was Chris Martin of the Big Ten Network on B.J. Cunningham:

"Best hands here. That's how you sell him. I'm not just talking plucking the ball out of the air, he has great catching radius. The challenge with him is what is his linear speed."

And Tony Pauline of Sports Illustrated on Keshawn Martin:

"He put on a clinic running routes and was one of the best receivers on the field. He was scissors sharp into breaks and showed the ability to turn on the afterburners in a single step."

It's a nice, comprehensive post by Slagter. I recommend going and checking out the entire thing. Some hoops stuff is after the jump.

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(I made it to my first game Saturday when this happened. My favorite part might have been Payne jumping on Nix's back as he came to the bench during the timeout)

There's not much to say about Michigan State wrapping up at least a share of the Big Ten regular season title with two games left. It's pretty safe to say that even the most optimistic wouldn't have predicted the season this team has had so far.

There are just fantastic story lines everywhere on this team. Take your pick — Draymond Green's emergence as the Big Ten Player of the Year frontrunner, All-America First Team and, if we're honest about it, a National Player of the Year candidate; Tom Izzo rebounding from probably the most difficult season of his coaching career to lead a squad that embodies virtually every characteristic that he loves in a basketball team; Derrick Nix ... I mean, words can't really express the total transformation in his body, game and confidence since he arrived on campus, truly a testament to hard work; Austin Thornton becoming not only a valuable, but a vital contributor; I could seriously go on all day, so I'll stop. But I'm sure you all have favorite moments of your own, so go ahead and share those in the comments. Check out some links after the jump.

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There was a time that now feels like ages ago when I was never particularly excited to see Austin Thornton come into a game for MSU.

Sure, he played hard, he dove after loose balls, he seemed like a good teammate. He just never looked particularly comfortable on the court. His 3-point shots always looked like it should go in, but they rarely did (he'd made just 21 percent prior to this season).

But this year? He's a totally different player. He's a defensive stopper and when the ball swings to him for those open threes he often found himself with in his career, now they're going in (41 percent of them to be exact). Joe Rexrode of the Lansing State Journal and Shawn Windsor of the Detroit Free Press both wrote about Thornton this week.

Rexrode:

Austin Thornton encountered a pair of Michigan State basketball career firsts in Sunday’s 76-62 win at Purdue.

One, Tom Izzo ran a play for him.

"It was pretty cool — it’s been since high school," the fifth-year senior co-captain, former walk-on and pride of Cedar Springs High said.

Two, Thornton conducted a "heat check" — a popular basketball term for a shooter feeling good and putting something up that maybe isn’t the best shot … but what the heck.

Windsor:

The fifth-year senior and former walk-on has heard much worse in his time at MSU -- earlier this season, many in Spartan Nation couldn't fathom why he was playing instead of the team's younger, more athletic wings. As recently as December, Thornton played tensely, as if afraid to make a mistake. He passed up open shots and got rid of the ball as quickly as he could.

Now here he was, fresh off a 17-point performance at Purdue on Sunday, eager media waiting, his coach playfully lobbing insults across the empty Breslin Center.

Rise. Release. Swish.

"Look at him," Fife said, "he's really feeling it right now. It's a great story. He came from a tough place, a place filled with self-doubt and anxiety."

Thornton is simply another great story in a season full of them. More links after the jump.

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I have to start my first ever Linking Laconically post with a brief bit of reminiscing. A few years ago, when I was writing a blog that eight people read for MLive, I got super giddy about then-sophomore Draymond Green's improvement and wrote a, 'Could Draymond Green make the NBA someday?' post.

Now, I fully admit to taking a best possible case scenario in that premature post, but I also had my credibility questioned quite a bit. One friend, a longtime prep basketball scout and writer in the state, wrote a dissenting view on his blog. Another friend, who covers Mid-Michigan high school and college basketball for the local ABC affiliate in the Flint area where I live, mentioned the article to Green's high school coach, Lou Dawkins. Dawkins is as big a Green fan as anyone, and even he thought the post I wrote was crazy.

Since then, obviously, Green continued to get better, continued to evolve his game and continued to shed weight. I wrote a TOC post when Kyle Singler was drafted by the Pistons restating my belief that Green's uniqueness had a spot in the NBA.

After yesterday's win over Purdue, if any random person doubted Green's credentials as the Big Ten Player of the Year frontrunner and, realistically, a National Player of the Year candidate, I doubt they still exist. It's even more rewarding that next-level scouts are finally noticing the type of special player Green has become — NBADraft.net has him slotted as the first pick in the second round currently and had him as a late first rounder in a mock draft last week. It has, simply, been amazing to watch Green's season and career at MSU. To go from where he was as a freshman to what he is on the verge of accomplishing as a senior is remarkable.

So that's basically a long-winded way of introducing today's links post, which is heavy on Green coverage after yesterday's performance against Purdue. Links after the jump.

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Nike unveiled a photo gallery of the Michigan State Pro Combat uniforms on its Facebook page this morning. Here's the statement from Nike, via MLive:

"The redesigned base layer facilitates the uniform's overall innovation, delivering the ultimate in lightweight protection for maximum speed," Nike reports. "Strategically placed seams, pads and cooling zones also help minimize distraction and optimize protective coverage."

MSU will wear the uniforms Oct. 15 against Michigan. So, what say you? The look is certainly nothing close to the traditional MSU look or colors, but regardless, I think they look pretty good.

There are a lot of intriguing positional questions heading into the season for Michigan State basketball, but it's pretty safe to say that MSU absolutely has to get more out of Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix next season. Hopefully, the way they played down the stretch in their head-to-head meeting Sunday in the Lansing Moneyball Pro-Am is a good indicator that they're growing into more confident and reliable players.

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Basketball Prospectus has been releasing its rankings of the top 100 returning players in Division I college basketball over the last few weeks and Draymond Green comes in at No. 14:

14. Draymond Green, Michigan State (Sr., PF)
Green was a solid scoring option for Michigan State against the best schedule in the country. Despite being 6-6, he was an excellent rebounder, especially on the defensive end, and a he created his share of chaos on defense. He's in the top 10 among returning Big Ten players in both block percentage and steal percentage. And -- and this shocked me -- his assist rate was 31 percent. That's higher than Tu Holloway's. And Jordan Taylor's. And Nolan Smith's, Mickey McConnell's, Aaron Craft's, and Kalin Lucas's. It was almost double the assist rate of any other Big Ten player his height or above in 2011. Green may have brought more to the table last year, scoring notwithstanding, than any returning player.

Now, that analysis isn't particularly shocking to any MSU fans — we're quite fond of Green and well aware of his attributes. But it is nice to see him get that recognition on a nationally respected site like BP. It's also nice to see Green out-rank some pretty big names — Tyler Zeller, Perry Jones and Jeremy Lamb are among the stars who are a bit lower in the top 20 than Green.

Unfortunately, though, no other MSU players made the BP top 100 (although Brandon Wood is predicted to make the All-Big Ten Third Team). The list is compiled solely based on stats, and other than Green, we all know that some MSU underclassmen struggled with inconsistency last year.

On the bright side? Part of those struggles can be attributed to the fact that because of injuries and attrition, Tom Izzo wasn't able to use everyone in roles he had originally slotted them. This season, with experience and (so far ... knock on wood) a much more stable offseason, it's a good bet that one or two talented sophomores and maybe even freshman Branden Dawson could make that top 100 list after this season.

Kalin Lucas is officially a professional basketball player, and that's something he should be very proud of.

Too often, the NBA is considered the end-all/be-all of basketball success (Terry Foster, I'm looking at you). The fact is, it's absolutely not. Many American players have long, successful careers and make great livings by playing in overseas leagues. Lucas signed with Olympiakos in Greece, one of the more famous teams in Europe (that is the club Josh Childress signed with when he briefly left the NBA and former NBA players Rasho Nesterovic, Vassilis Spanoulis and former Pistons draft pick Andreas Glyniadakis are on the current roster). Many recent former Spartans like Chris Hill, Kelvin Torbert, Drew Neitzel, Goran Suton and Marquise Gray, to name a few, have had great professional success despite never playing a minute of NBA ball.

Undoubtedly, though, Lucas' ultimate dream is to play in the NBA. And if he's paid attention to Spartan history, he has a perfect model for how to get there: Charlie Bell.

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Intrpdtrvlr and I posted our scouting report from the Moneyball Pro-Am Monday, but I also had a chance to talk to some MSU players in attendance for a story for SLAM. Most of what I discussed in the story had to do with moving past last season:

The key in the group of newcomers is Dawson. A McDonald’s All-American, Dawson is 6-6 with a stronger frame than most college freshmen. He’s put up big numbers in the Lansing Pro-Am, playing against a mix of other Division I college players as well as professional players.

"I think I can come in and make a good impact, but so can the other freshmen and so can Brandon Wood," Dawson said. "We’re just gonna come in here, play hard and the sky’s the limit."

But, since I noticed in the comments of the scouting reports post, some readers asking for more hoops talk, after the jump, I'm posting the full transcripts of my interviews with Derrick Nix, Dwaun Anderson and Branden Dawson from Moneyball after the jump.

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For basketball fans in the Lansing area who can't wait for the season to start, you're in luck. There are still a couple of weekends left in the annual Lansing Moneyball Pro-Am League.

This year's league, organized by former Lansing Everett star and NBA player Desmond Ferguson, features current Michigan State players Draymond Green, Derrick Nix, Keith Appling (although he's been away with Team USA), Adriean Payne, Dwaun Anderson, Branden Dawson, Brandan Kearney, Travis Trice, Alex Gauna and Brandon Wood. There are also a few former Spartans on rosters — Charlie Bell, Marquise Gray and Kelvin Torbert — and a collection of college players from Central Michigan, Oakland University, Toledo and University of Detroit, among others, and several guys currently playing professionally overseas.

In short, it's a high level of competition with games Saturdays and Sundays at Lansing Sexton High School through Aug. 7. Check the website for rosters and game times. Admission is free.

Intrpdtrvlr and I were there Saturday and Sunday (respectively) checking out the action. Not all of the MSU guys played this weekend, but below are our scouting reports on who saw action.

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There are few high school basketball players I've enjoyed watching more than Draymond Green. I didn't catch many of his games until late in his career at Saginaw High. Early in the state H.S. playoffs that year, Saginaw played its regional opener in Flint, so I went to check out Green since he was a Michigan State recruit.

He was generously listed at 6-foot-6, pudgy and admittedly, I wondered why he was considered possibly the best high school player in the state. He didn't look like he could play. Then the game started. Saginaw's lineup was essentially Green and four guards. He was their inside presence, owned the boards and guarded opposing bigs. But just as easily as he could play a back-to-the-basket game, he was equally likely to dribble the ball up-court, initiate the offense or even pull up for a surprise 3-pointer.

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If you haven't seen it yet, fellow SB Nation blog Big Ten Powerhouse, which covers Big Ten basketball, has been focusing on Michigan State this week. There are several great posts, including an interview with Pete about the state of MSU basketball, as well as analysis from BTP's stable of contributors and links to great MSU coverage all over the internets.

Josh Moon (aka intrpdtrvlr) and I were also interviewed by David Funk for a story about MSU's upcoming recruiting classes. Here are a couple snippets:

"Last season, in particular, Michigan State was often a step too slow or too small and that hampered their ability to play with the aggressiveness that has been a Michigan State trademark under (coach Tom) Izzo," Patrick Hayes of The Only Colors said. "If (the recruits) develop, Michigan State will have a lot of depth and many ways to attack opponents over the next two seasons."

...

"It’s a great fit for Dawson at MSU," Moon said. "He’s going to a school that will help develop him into an athletic NBA wing in the model of Jason Richardson and Shannon Brown, yet his rebounding skills and post-friendly game will be utilized 100 percent. The wing roster is very young at Michigan State this year and there should be lots of playing time up for grabs among the freshman."

Thanks to David and the crew from BTP for including us and check out all of their posts from this week if you have some time. It's a nice chance to talk some hoops even if the season seems like it's far away right now.

The State News tweets:

In a release, MSU announces Garrick Sherman will transfer from MSU.

Sherman's obligatory comment:

Sherman in release: "I met with Coach Izzo and after talking things over with my family, I believe it's time for a fresh start..."

Izzo's obligatory comment:

Izzo in release: After... talking with his family, Garrick Sherman has informed me that it's important to get a fresh start elsewhere.

This will free up a scholarship to make 2012 target Gary Harris more of a target. I don't think anyone is surprised that a player is transferring after the season MSU just went through. Chris Vannini of the State News wasn't surprised Sherman decided to leave:

Can't say I'm surprised Sherman is leaving. Frustrations were obvious this season. My question is how does this affect his best friend Nix?

I'm not sure how it affects Nix. Both he and Sherman pretty clearly fell below expectations the last two years. If Nix stays, he'll certainly be in line for more playing time now, you'd think. And if he goes too? MSU will come back with a much different looking frontcourt next season, which might not be a bad thing.

Three of four lower seeded teams won in last night's Sweet 16 games, will the trend continue tonight? Here are the details, with picks in bold:

7:00, CBS: (11) Marquette vs. (2) UNC -- UNC isn't playing much defense this tournament, and that has to catch up to them at some point.

7:15, TBS: (12) Richmond vs. (1) Kansas -- I'm the only one in my office pool who had Richmond in the Sweet 16, so I have to keep rolling with them.

9:30, CBS: (4) Kentucky vs. (1) Ohio State -- I just don't believe in John Calipari at tournament time. I don't really believe in Thad Matta either, but I give he has too much talent to not get at least an Elite 8 appearance, right?

9:55, TBS: (11) VCU vs. (10) Florida State -- Do it for Jay Bilas, VCU!

Enjoy the games everyone.

For Michigan State purposes, the focus on Friday's Class A high school basketball semifinal between Detroit Southeastern and Bay City Western was all about watching two future Spartans: Southeastern senior and Mr. Basketball finalist Brandan Kearney and Western junior Matt Costello, who might be the best player in the state right now regardless of age.

The game didn't disappoint. Both players showed an array of skills that should have MSU fans really excited when they are eventually teammates in East Lansing. After the jump, a look at what each showed in the game.

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