mikebrinkman.com » Sports

How the Midwest was won

Mike — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 03:54:36 +0000

MSU is Sweet 16 bound again! Not much else to say, except I hope there’s some way that Kalin Lucas & Chris Allen can get healthy for the next round. Here’s the final seconds from the MSU/Maryland game:

MSU wins battle of the will against Michigan, 57-56

Mike — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:30:42 +0000

Wow! Just when you thought a game couldn’t get any more dramatic than the MSU/Minnesota game last week, along comes this game. There must have been about a dozen lead changes, with Michigan leading at the half 27-25. MSU played one of its worst games I’ve seen all season as far as turn-overs, free throws & 3 point shots go and Michigan played to the top of their ability, but in the end, I think MSU’s talent overcame U of M’s desire. Raymar Morgan came up HUGE with 20 points, and once again Kalin Lucas came up with the clutch go-ahead shot with 3.5 seconds left—despite being accidentally kicked in the head less than 30 seconds before. MSU now has an 8-0 record in the Big Ten, it’s best start in the league EVER. They needed this win to create a little separation with two games against Purdue and two more on the road against Illinois & Wisconsin coming up soon.

Michigan needed a win even more, since the season’s getting shorter. Their chances to make it to be big dance are dwindling, it looks like their only chance now is to win the Big Ten tournament, since winning out the regular season will be near impossible. Tsk, tsk, Michigan fans. At least you’ve got a good football team. Oh, I forgot… :-D Anyway, enough ragging on the Wolverines. They’ll get their shot at revenge at the Breslin Center on March 6th. Next up for MSU is Northwestern, which isn’t a gimme game. Enough speculating on the future, I’m just going to bask in the glory of another Spartan win over the Wolverines. Go Green, Go White! Victory for MSU!

MSU beats Minnesota 65-64

Mike — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 01:20:25 +0000

From the very start of this game, I figured MSU was going to lose. Minnesota was playing at their best, blocking shots, stealing the ball, and hitting the 3-pointer. They were playing a lockdown defense that prevented MSU from getting easy baskets in the paint, or any offensive rebounds for that matter. MSU always seems to be a slow team to start games, and they were REALLY slow in this one, waiting until about 9 minutes left in the second half before they showed any spark, and began to cut a 13 point deficit. By the way, 13 points is the most they’ve been down to any Big Ten opponent this season. Under the best circumstances, 13 points is 5 possessions, so it took a real lockdown defense by MSU to counter Minnesota’s performance earlier in the game. The Spartans never lead the game until Kalin Lucas hit a clutch 3-pointer with about a minute and a half to go, to put the Green & White up 65-62. Then, just to make things dramatic, Minnesota scored, stopped MSU and called time out with just under 15 seconds remaining. They bumbled their final play and Raymar Morgan came up with the ball as time expired, giving MSU one of it’s most impressive wins this season.

I think the big thing for MSU this game was we were forced to go outside because Minnesota was defending the paint so well. Luckily, the 3-ball was starting to fall for us just when we needed it. Also, Minn. started looking pretty tired at the end of the second half, so MSU’s conditioning must be serving them well. I’m looking forward to this Tuesday’s away game at the Evil University of Michigan. I’m not counting on anything, but I feel pretty good about our chances against Michigan on the road. Go Green, Go White! Victory for MSU!

Spartans beat Iowa in nail-biter 70-63

Mike — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 03:30:17 +0000

For the second game in a row, MSU played a good half of basketball–the middle half of the game. They started off slow, just like against Illinois on Saturday, then they started to pull away from Iowa. At one point, they were up by 19 points. It was clear that Iowa was getting winded by MSU’s fast-break offense & pressure defense, but Iowa was able to get back within 3 thanks to several long bomb 3 pointers which seemed like they were shot from Iowa City! I think when MSU gets up big, they start playing sloppy, taking quick shots, and trying to showboat too much. It’s fun to see Durrell Summers’ & Delvon Roe’s acrobatic slam dunks, but some times they try to push the ball up court when there’s not a clear opening. Iowa’s a lot better team than their record indicates, and they showed a lot of intestinal fortitude on the road against the Green and White. I’m continually impressed by Draymond Green’s decision making–including a quick save in the final minutes by deflecting the ball out of bounds off of an Iowa defender to help MSU retain possession. I was also happy to see Kalin Lucas continue his double digit scoring streak, extending it to 30 games. MSU now sits atop the Big Ten at 6-0, but they have a tough test on the road against Minnesota this Saturday. I’m afraid Minnie might have the Spartans number, playing them tough at the Breslin Center earlier this season. Go Green, Go White, Victory for MSU!

Remember the Alamo?

Mike — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:00:06 +0000

MSU’s football team suffered a fate similar to Davey Crocket as they got killed by Texas Tech at the Alamo Bowl last night, by a score of 41-31. I’m not really that disappointed, because I was expecting them to lose, and in all fairness, MSU played much better than I expected. This game was a complete mismatch from the start, since Texas Tech has one of the top passing games in the country (#2 I think), versus MSU’s near bottom of the country pass defense. I hope that’s something that gets fixed next year, because I truly believe that it was our poor pass defense that caused us to lose against Central Michigan & Iowa this year. Oh well, there’s always next year. At least it’s baskeball season!

We’re # 2!

Mike — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:59:31 +0000

O.K., so MSU got shellacked by UNC. I knew the game was over within the first 10 minutes, when UNC was up by around 20 points, but I’m not upset at all. MSU went a lot further than I had expected, and provided us with a lot of thrills for a couple of weeks. I only wish they had been more competitive. I don’t know what the deal was, but MSU turned the ball over way too many times and rushed shots since the start of the game. The bad news is that we’ll be losing Goran Suton and Kalin Lucas, but the good news is that most of the other MSU starters & good bench players will be back next year, and will be a much better team in my humble opinion. I don’t know if they’ll be good enough to win it all next year, but don’t be surprised if they make another Final Four run.

Spartans Beat UConn!!!

Mike — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 03:59:11 +0000

MSU just beat UConn 82-73, awesome!!! I can’t wait until Monday night, but the UNC Tar Heels look pretty tough. I’m not getting my hopes up, but if MSU can beat Louisville & UConn, they should be able to beat anybody. GO GREEN! GO WHITE! GO MSU, BEAT UNC!