the upset that wasn't
Well, the regular season is over. We're officially 8-8 in the Big Ten, which should be good enough to get us into the tournament, seeing as how we played the toughest schedule in the league (conference and non-conference) and beat Wisconsin at least once. All I can ask for now is at least one more win against a bottom-feeder in the first round of the Big Ten tourney, and then a respectable first game in the big dance. Anything beyond that is gravy in my book.
It's been a fun season so far – with more to come, I'm sure – but I'm still really excited to see what these guys will do next year, when the same lineup returns with a whole host of hot-shot freshman to lend a hand.
• Bleeding Green: Taking it to the badgers
• Freep: MSU almost upsets Wisconsin
• Freep: Spartans fall to Badgers on late 3-pointer, 52-50
UPDATE: Whaddya know? Michigan collapsed in the last four minutes against OSU. It looks like Tommy Turtleneck will get a chance to extend his glorious winning streak at the NIT this year.
UPDATE #2: The Big Ten Tournament bracket is set. MSU will play Northwestern on Day 1, which is probably the best team we could've drawn. If we win, we'll get a rematch with Wisconsin on Day 2.
UPDATE #3: Neitzel is a finalist for the Wooden player of the year award. It's highly unlikely that he'll win it, but he's clearly cementing his resume as one of the best players to ever wear the green and white. We're expecting big things out of him next year.
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my team is sick!
wash your hands and cover your mouths!
Drew Neitzel looked and felt much better on Thursday afternoon as he practiced with his Michigan State teammates for the first time since last week.
But the illness that felled Neitzel for much of the week moved on to a different target – freshman forward Raymar Morgan, who missed practice that day. Morgan had been battling a cold for most of the week, but hadn’t felt too weak to practice or play until Thursday.
Center Drew Naymick has also been sick over the past week.
“This is the most ridiculous I’ve ever seen it here,” said MSU coach Tom Izzo. “I’ve never seen guys going down for this length of time.”
If this is the same bug that got me a couple weeks ago (or something similar), I can't imagine how these guys will be able to function, let alone play basketball against the #2 team in the Big Ten tomorrow.
I guess we should blame the hockey team:
Apparently something is spreading around campus. Izzo said some members of the hockey team have missed games and practices because of illness and heard that some football players had also been too sick to participate in winter workouts.
Neitzel added that many of his friends on campus have also fallen ill recently and thinks the fluctuations in temperature have something to do with it.
Even Izzo has caught the bug. He was coughing during interviews on Thursday.
“It’s been a week and a half, and I never get sick,” Izzo said.
Hand sanitizer. Buy some. Use it.
pretty low-key week
This week has been going by really fast, even though it's been pretty uneventful so. Stef is heading home today, and flying to Florida tomorrow to visit her friend Nolan, so I'll be flying solo for the better part of a week.
I've taken on another website project for the mother of one of my fellow political bloggers, so I'll probably probably spend part of the weekend working on that. My apartment is also way overdue for a major cleaning, so I'm sure I'll spend at least a day or two in there hauling crap out to the dumpster.
My dad left for Cincinnati for a radio conference yesterday, but he's getting back tomorrow, so I might pop over to his house on Saturday to watch MSU's game against Wisconsin. It seems like forever since I went over to the house, since they were on vacation in Florida last week, and I was sick the week before.
Anyway, that's about it for now. I'll just be trying to stay dry today since it's so gross outside. Have a good one!
I've taken on another website project for the mother of one of my fellow political bloggers, so I'll probably probably spend part of the weekend working on that. My apartment is also way overdue for a major cleaning, so I'm sure I'll spend at least a day or two in there hauling crap out to the dumpster.
My dad left for Cincinnati for a radio conference yesterday, but he's getting back tomorrow, so I might pop over to his house on Saturday to watch MSU's game against Wisconsin. It seems like forever since I went over to the house, since they were on vacation in Florida last week, and I was sick the week before.
Anyway, that's about it for now. I'll just be trying to stay dry today since it's so gross outside. Have a good one!
flashback: one year ago
I finally got the archives back up and running on iBZP (more or less), so I think I'm going to do a flashback post like this every once in a while. Here's one from March 2, 2006:
The snow is gone, but the ice has arrived. Oh, ya gotta love Michigan. I guess if there's a good thing, it's that it's the crunchy kind of ice that isn't terribly slippery, but it's still a drag out there today. I'm giving myself a little treat this morning... I'm not going to my COM 200 lecture. Yeah, I haven't missed that class once yet, and considering this week's 4.0 on the paper, I feel like I owe it to myself. To celebrate I'm going to spend the extra two hours... wait for it... at work! Yep, I know it's not a lot, but I figure I can use the extra two hours to bum off an our early today and tomorrow at the end of the days.
Right now my plan for this afternoon is to head out to Best Buy right after work so I can see if they can pop a new stereo in my car. I saw that you can get some pretty affordable iPod hookups there, so that's probably what I'll end up doing. I'm at the stage with this car that I don't want to sink any money into it, but at the same time, I also want it to last as long as possible. Plus I really just don't want to ride all the way to Stef's house by myself in silence tomorrow afternoon.
Hopefully I can get that taken care of tonight. Then once I get home, I need to spend some time doing a last-minute edit on my Uncle Tom's DVD, and send out another copy to him by tomorrow. The rest of my night will be spent packing for our trip to Florida. I need to be more frugal in my packing choices this time around, since I don't want to get socked with another $20 fee for having a bag that's overweight. Is it just me, or has air travel gotten to be even more of a royal pain in the ass since 9/11. I realize that's kind of a tautological statement (see, my COM 200 and PLS 201 classes are paying off with vocab like that), but dealing with any airline just seems to get more and more cumbersome every time I go on vacation nowadays. I mean, I have to pack my box cutters in my suitcase now... what a pain.
The snow is gone, but the ice has arrived. Oh, ya gotta love Michigan. I guess if there's a good thing, it's that it's the crunchy kind of ice that isn't terribly slippery, but it's still a drag out there today. I'm giving myself a little treat this morning... I'm not going to my COM 200 lecture. Yeah, I haven't missed that class once yet, and considering this week's 4.0 on the paper, I feel like I owe it to myself. To celebrate I'm going to spend the extra two hours... wait for it... at work! Yep, I know it's not a lot, but I figure I can use the extra two hours to bum off an our early today and tomorrow at the end of the days.
Right now my plan for this afternoon is to head out to Best Buy right after work so I can see if they can pop a new stereo in my car. I saw that you can get some pretty affordable iPod hookups there, so that's probably what I'll end up doing. I'm at the stage with this car that I don't want to sink any money into it, but at the same time, I also want it to last as long as possible. Plus I really just don't want to ride all the way to Stef's house by myself in silence tomorrow afternoon.
tommy amaker still has a job
Well, kudos to the Wolvereenies for winning last night's game. Sure, our best player was sick, but that's no excuse for the way we played. Suton definitely stepped up his game and kept us in it during the second half, but he wasn't getting much help offensively.
It would've been nice to have won that game, but even if we lose to Wisconsin on Saturday, I'm still pretty confident about our tournament prospects. Michigan, on the other hand, still has to win against #1 Ohio State on Saturday to have any chance of snagging a bid, and I just don't see that happening.
For now though, Tommy Amaker still has a job, and I suppose that's the best thing we can take away from yesterday's game. One can only hope that Michigan will be dumb enough to keep him onboard for another season.
• Freep: Wolverines' victory over Spartans a hollow one
• Freep: THE BUBBLE METER: Sparty's still Dancin'
• Bleeding Green: Go Blue!
• State News: Feeling blue
• State News: Harris leads desperate Wolverines
• LSJ: U-M gets jolt to NCAA bid, tops Spartans
• LSJ: MSU notebook: Don't Blame Drew's Illness
• LSJ: MSU vs. Michigan
morgan pohl, science superstar
This afternoon I got an email from Morgan:
I made a Science Fair project...a model of the solar system. Everybody at least got a ribbon for participating, and I got a medal with it. We got scored; the highest marks you could get were fours. There were three spaces for the principal and your teacher to fill out. I got perfect marks: all fours! I won first place, tied with my best friend in my class, Ellie! Here are some pictures of my medals.
Love,
Morgan
My little sister is a science superstar! Congratulations, Morgan!
crisler arena = breslin east?
Every Spartan basketball fan remembers the glory days of 1999-2001, when the Izzone consistently turned Crisler into "Breslin East" by gobbling up a huge block of seats at UM's decrepit basketball arena.
Well, the Wolverinies didn't like having MSU fans take over their home games too much, so they changed the ticket policy to keep it from happening year after year.
That worked for a while, but after reading this little tidbit, it looks like Spartan fans could be invading Crisler again for tomorrow's game:
Michigan is on spring break until March 5, however, and that might affect student turnout for Tuesday's game, and for Saturday's matchup against Ohio State.
"The timing is unfortunate," Amaker said Monday. "I know everyone is excited to get to some warm weather somewhere. But I think we'll have a great crowd, a great turnout with Michigan folks."
Earlier this year, MSU fans had a shot to buy tickets online for Tuesday's game. But many were turned away because Michigan's online system only allowed those with football season tickets to buy basketball tickets.
Those pesky Spartans, however, have found other ways to get into the building. There has been plenty of discussion on Internet message board about buying tickets from fellow fans, ticket brokers and online services such as stubhub.com.
Spring break, plus an arena full of apathetic old farts gives Spartan fans the perfect opportunity to take over Crisler Arena tomorrow.
Win or lose, we're probably a lock for the tournament at this point, but it would still be rewarding to burst UM's bubble on their home court, especially if we can manage to get a bunch of noisy Izzone kids in there to cheer for our guys. Should be fun to watch.
P.S. More on this one over on the Freep's site.
i think the oscars could've been longer
Holy Hell, those were some long-ass Oscars last night.
Overall I would say the show was a pretty mixed bag. The highlights for me were (1) Alan Arkin upsetting Eddie Murphy in the Best Supporting Actor category (2) Al Gore's bit with Leo (3) An Inconvenient Truth winning in both of its categories (4) Martin Scorsese ending his winless streak (5) The Departed taking home the top prize.
Ellen had several funny moments, but some of those transitions will always be rough no matter what the host does – I mean, it's impossible for a four-hour broadcast to not be boring during some stretches.
I like that they tried to break the monotony with the dance interpretations and the Will Ferrell/Jack Black song, but to me, segments like these are meant to give you breaks so that the show doesn't seem like it's dragging on forever. In reality, all they really do is... make the show seem like it's dragging on forever.
Seriously, the Academy Awards do not need to be that freakin' long. Year-in and year-out, the Golden Globes manage to put on a really entertaining program – handing out prizes for both movies and TV – and they are almost always done within three hours. Why can't the Oscar people figure out how to do this?
Anyway, if you were living under a rock last night, here's the list of winners.
Overall I would say the show was a pretty mixed bag. The highlights for me were (1) Alan Arkin upsetting Eddie Murphy in the Best Supporting Actor category (2) Al Gore's bit with Leo (3) An Inconvenient Truth winning in both of its categories (4) Martin Scorsese ending his winless streak (5) The Departed taking home the top prize.
Ellen had several funny moments, but some of those transitions will always be rough no matter what the host does – I mean, it's impossible for a four-hour broadcast to not be boring during some stretches.
I like that they tried to break the monotony with the dance interpretations and the Will Ferrell/Jack Black song, but to me, segments like these are meant to give you breaks so that the show doesn't seem like it's dragging on forever. In reality, all they really do is... make the show seem like it's dragging on forever.
Seriously, the Academy Awards do not need to be that freakin' long. Year-in and year-out, the Golden Globes manage to put on a really entertaining program – handing out prizes for both movies and TV – and they are almost always done within three hours. Why can't the Oscar people figure out how to do this?
Anyway, if you were living under a rock last night, here's the list of winners.
great comeback vs. indiana
Man, what a comeback!
You could tell Drew Neitzel wasn't up to snuff in the first half, and not just because of his lack of scoring. The poor kid just looked exhausted coming up the floor (he has an upper-respiratory infection like I had, so I can empathize), and his ball-handlling was atrocious. Still, you gotta give Neitzel credit for scoring when we needed it most. Those three threes in the second half kept us in it, and gave the rest of the team the jolt they needed to eventually take the lead.
Unlike, say, the game against Purdue, when no one else was able to step up and fill the void when Drew wasn't scoring, Raymar Morgan has clearly become the second go-to guy on the team. I know everyone's been saying it all year, but Morgan is clearly going to be a star. In a lot of ways, I think his game is improving faster than Shannon Brown's did during his first year at State. Man, I can't wait to see what kind of a player he'll be in a year or two.
Something else that's worth pointing out: for the second time this season (we also did it against Illinois at home), we were able to establish offensive momentum after digging a double-digit deficit by clamping down defensively. Once again, Walton and Naymick deserve a lot of credit for making this happen. Walton was able to shut down Indiana's hot-shot guards, and Naymick was aggressive under the rim. For my money, Drew Naymick is the most improved player on the team. I realize he was plagued by injuries during his first two seasons, but maybe taking a year off to get healthy was exactly what he needed, since he's clearly been the unsung hero of the last two games, IMHO.
Now, it's on to Ann Arbor. I realize Michigan isn't the pushover they've been in year's past, but I feel a lot more comfortable heading into this game now after pocketing these wins against Wisconsin and Indiana. At this point, we're basically a lock for the tourney, and a win against UM would basically close the door on their hopes for snagging an NCAA invitation, which would be pretty satisfying. Who knows... this could be the last time we get to beat a UM team coached by Tommy Turtleneck!
• DNews: Under Morgan's influence, Spartans pull out big win
• DNews: Spartans continue roll, top Indiana
• Freep: See you at the Dance
• Indiana Daily Student: IU falls to Michigan State, 66-58
• State News: Spartans rally from 10-point halftime deficit to defeat IU
• LSJ: Morgan, Walton lead MSU charge back from 13 points down
• LSJ: 'GameDay' staff praises fans
You could tell Drew Neitzel wasn't up to snuff in the first half, and not just because of his lack of scoring. The poor kid just looked exhausted coming up the floor (he has an upper-respiratory infection like I had, so I can empathize), and his ball-handlling was atrocious. Still, you gotta give Neitzel credit for scoring when we needed it most. Those three threes in the second half kept us in it, and gave the rest of the team the jolt they needed to eventually take the lead.
Unlike, say, the game against Purdue, when no one else was able to step up and fill the void when Drew wasn't scoring, Raymar Morgan has clearly become the second go-to guy on the team. I know everyone's been saying it all year, but Morgan is clearly going to be a star. In a lot of ways, I think his game is improving faster than Shannon Brown's did during his first year at State. Man, I can't wait to see what kind of a player he'll be in a year or two.
Now, it's on to Ann Arbor. I realize Michigan isn't the pushover they've been in year's past, but I feel a lot more comfortable heading into this game now after pocketing these wins against Wisconsin and Indiana. At this point, we're basically a lock for the tourney, and a win against UM would basically close the door on their hopes for snagging an NCAA invitation, which would be pretty satisfying. Who knows... this could be the last time we get to beat a UM team coached by Tommy Turtleneck!
• DNews: Under Morgan's influence, Spartans pull out big win
• DNews: Spartans continue roll, top Indiana
• Freep: See you at the Dance
• Indiana Daily Student: IU falls to Michigan State, 66-58
• State News: Spartans rally from 10-point halftime deficit to defeat IU
• LSJ: Morgan, Walton lead MSU charge back from 13 points down
• LSJ: 'GameDay' staff praises fans
weekend update
Here's the weekend rundown...
- Stefy and I had planned to go out for a nice dinner on Friday night, and while we did end up having a nice dinner, things didn't play out quite like we expected.
- First, we went up to Eastwood to do a little shopping. Stefy tried on a few things at Banana Republic, and wound up getting this really cute dress that's she'll probably end up wearing at either her graduation ceremony or at her party.
- I picked out a spiffy new shoulder bag for my laptop at J.Crew while we were at the mall. After my other laptop bag basically disintegrated over the summer, I figured it was time to quit using the backpack I bought in tenth grade to carry my stuff to work.
- It was 6PM by the time we made it to Bravo, and of course the wait was something ridiculous like an hour. The play we were seeing at Wharton started at 8PM, and we didn't think that would give us enough time to eat and make it out there in time for the show.
- We drove into East Lansing so we could grab something quick on Grand River, and wound up going to Noodles and Company. When we walked in, the first person we noticed was Stef's friend, Danielle and her boyfriend. We felt bad about interrupting their date, but they were really nice, and invited us to join them. We had a great time chatting with them over dinner, so even though Bravo didn't work out the way we thought it would, we still had a great meal.
- The play we were going to see was something Stef had to write a review about for her acting class. It was called Tartuffe, and wound up being really funny.
- The gist of the play is that a wealthy Frenchmen (circa the 1600s) has become acquainted with this man, Tartuffe, who's basically trying to con him out of his money. Everyone else in the family recognizes that Tartuffe is a sleaze, but the father doesn't realize it until after he's agreed to let Tartuffe marry his daughter, and has signed over his fortune to him.
- I know that ridiculously short description doesn't tell you a lot, but the play was hysterically funny, and all the student actors did a wonderful job of bringing the characters to life. Stefy and I had a great time, and I was really glad I got a chance to tag along for the show.
- Saturday was the MDP Convention in Detroit, so I hit the road at about 7:30AM so I could make it to Cobo by about 9.
- The Bloggers Caucus went really well. We had something like 80 people filtering in and out during the meeting. Sen. Stabenow, Lt. Gov. Cherry, three state reps, as well as a few Congressional candidates all poked in to say a few words, which was really cool. There were a few things I wished we could've talked about in more detail, but all-in-all, I thought it went really well.
- I stuck around for the 8th District Caucus meeting in the afternoon. They basically just elected members of the campaign committee, but one interesting little tidbit was that they created a new position for the committee, Executive Vice Chair, and elected Jim Marcinkowski to fill that role.
- He spoke briefly after the election, but was still mum about whether or not he'll run again in 2008. To be honest, I would be surprised if he decided not to go for it a second time, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.
- Anyway, I took off after the meeting adjourned, and made it back to Lansing by about 4PM.
- Stefy and I just hung out and watched TV for a couple hours before she had to take off for a birthday party at around 8.
- I stayed home and watched the MSU-Indiana game on TV, and since it was a late start, that's basically all I did for the rest of the night.
- Let's see... today I slept in until about 11, and then did some grocery shopping at Kroger. That's been about it so far. The only thing left on the agenda is watching the Oscars tonight. Here's hoping they get over by midnight!