Sparty's Cupcake Conference Schedule
Sparty may have a good team, but I can't let their regular season BIG championship go without mentioning that they got a HUGE break with their schedule. Perhaps the most advantageous I have seen. Consider their schedule against what I consider the top 5 other teams in the BIG:
Michigan - Only played once at home, did not have to play on the road. Lost at home.
Ohio State - Only played once on the road, and lost.
Purdue, Nebraska and Penn State - Only played once at home and did not have to play on the road. Won at home. All three are absolute bears to beat on the road. Michigan had to play all three on the road, and went 1-2.
Don't want this to be sour grapes, and I know they cant control their schedule. But man...
Bring on the tourneys, and let the best team prevail! Go Blue!
February 26th, 2018 at 9:43 AM ^
??
Their mugging style of play is the reason they make such consistent deep tourney runs. Outside of Duke, is there a program with more final fours than MSU over Izzo's career? Their least bruising, most free flowing team ever got bounced against Middle Tennessee a couple years ago.
February 25th, 2018 at 3:38 PM ^
with only 1 game each against 5 of the better Big Ten teams this year, 4 of those at home. Just ridiculous. We would probably be champs with that schedule.
February 25th, 2018 at 5:09 PM ^
Pretty good chance of it. We'd swap our road games against Purdue and Nebraska for two games against the dregs of the conference. Also, if we'd played Northwestern when MSU did, McIntosh would have been out.
February 25th, 2018 at 5:35 PM ^
Plus, so many of their games were within 6 points, no matter who they played...OT with Rutgers at home? Today barely beating UW, and so on.
Those games are against bad teams. Yes, they beat Purdue at home by 3 on a 3 by Bridges...
I just wonder what is going to happen when they go up against actual good teams in the tournament
But then again, they have Mr March!!! /s
February 25th, 2018 at 7:15 PM ^
Well, with Hollis on the selection committee, we may have to wait a while to find out what happens when they play a good team.
After Michigan I'll be rooting for Villanova, in the hope that the number of coaches who have won multiple National Championships in the time "Mr March" has been head coach at MSU increases from five to six.
February 25th, 2018 at 7:19 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 7:26 PM ^
Ah, that's what I get for relying on Wikipedia.
February 25th, 2018 at 3:38 PM ^
I want to see them next Saturday in the BTT semi's.
February 25th, 2018 at 3:38 PM ^
Truly unbelievable they only scored like 9 points in the second half.
February 25th, 2018 at 4:01 PM ^
And Northwestern didn't even have its best player (McIntosh) in the lineup.
February 25th, 2018 at 3:39 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 3:52 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 4:00 PM ^
Can you quote it when he does or show the video? I just really want to see if he actually says it.
February 25th, 2018 at 4:08 PM ^
For your sake , sure, I'll find a quote in a bit for you. It's been stated many times over the last few years.
February 25th, 2018 at 5:40 PM ^
Still waiting for this
It's been over an hour for something that sounded like you had right at your disposal. I'm betting poor ol' Tom hasn't mentioned this at all this season
He's been talking about other things...or not talking about them
February 25th, 2018 at 10:51 PM ^
February 26th, 2018 at 6:29 AM ^
That quote does not exist
February 25th, 2018 at 4:08 PM ^
he's just a snake oil salesman like the rest of the dirty birds enabling rapists
February 25th, 2018 at 4:41 PM ^
So me proving your comments completely wrong mean nothing because you are going to move the goal posts?
February 25th, 2018 at 5:05 PM ^
exactly what have you proven wrong. You've merely made written defenses with not a single quote, link or other attribution to back up your claims. You expect us to take your word for it? Sorry, we're not a Michigan State rape investigation squad. We will actually require proof of what you say
February 25th, 2018 at 5:40 PM ^
Izzo favored 20-game schedule: "because fans, TV, even the coaches, you want to play the best people." Likes "truest champion you can have."
https://twitter.com/chrissolari/status/921027738932269056
Izzo said there will be strength at the top and the bottom will be a lot better too.
He then addressed the schedule, saying he was reluctant to go to 18 but wanted it to go to 20.
He said everyone wants to play the best people and while it takes away playing other teams, the schedule determines the true champions and lets the performance on the court do it.
https://www.landof10.com/michigan-state/michigan-state-tom-izzo-big-ten…
“One of the things that I miss is the full round robin,” MSU coach Tom Izzo said. “Now I think in saying that, the Big Ten would probably be happy with that. I don’t know if coaches would all because you want to play some non-conference games.
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/sports/columnists/graham-couc…
"It's still a grind," MSU coach Tom Izzo said this week. "And it's still impressive that you've lasted the 18 games in some capacity. But I wouldn't say it's the same as when it was a true round-robin or even closer to it. I think what you're going to see happening in our league is what happened in the ACC and Big East, and that's the tournament becomes bigger than the (regular season), which makes no sense when you really look at it. Because you have a hot game or a bad game and you're out and here you withstood 18 games. That should be your true champion."
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/sports/columnists/graham-couc…
February 25th, 2018 at 6:02 PM ^
Swing and a miss.
One or two of the links I provided were after he won the B1G.
February 25th, 2018 at 3:39 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 3:40 PM ^
Don't get hung up on the details. If you get trolled by a Sparty, just congratulate them on their 2018 regular season BIG 10 championship**.
February 25th, 2018 at 4:41 PM ^
Where am I trolling?
February 25th, 2018 at 3:40 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 3:41 PM ^
Would love to go for a real sweep this season and prove the other game isn’t a fluke.
February 25th, 2018 at 7:48 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 3:43 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 3:45 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 4:05 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 3:45 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 3:48 PM ^
The FBI will take care of that for us.
February 25th, 2018 at 7:58 PM ^
from ESPN.
February 25th, 2018 at 3:47 PM ^
I'm here for the Sparty b-ball slander! Let's do it.
February 25th, 2018 at 3:50 PM ^
The enemy of my enemy is my . . .
Nah, I still hate you.
But I like your choice of basketball enemies.
February 25th, 2018 at 4:22 PM ^
What team do you think OSU has a better chance against in the B1G tournament, Michigan or MSU?
I know OSU and UM both smoked MSU this year, but are you confident that would happen again if they play?
February 25th, 2018 at 4:30 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 4:43 PM ^
I think this is what's called trolling.
Plug year ears, ignore the conversation, then scream "GO BLUE GO BLUE GO BLUE".
Very mature.
February 25th, 2018 at 4:48 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 4:55 PM ^
I was asking an honest question to the Buckeye that I was told yesterday was as valued and level headed poster. You in turn responded by talking about MSU having their season vacated. That's deflecting.
To your comment, the dinner was $70, not $400. Bridges wasn't there, and there was no link to any actual money changing hands. A dirty agent who has already been charged with 3 counts of embezzlement placing "Miles Bridges Mom" on an excel sheet does not indicate a player was bought.
The reason he was cleared to play was that evidence was provided to the NCAA that no infractions took place.
I'm quite confident that MSU will not be impacted by this Yahoo report and there will be nothing vacated.
Are you willing to talk like an adult now?
February 25th, 2018 at 5:01 PM ^
February 25th, 2018 at 5:19 PM ^
Look at his posting history. He pretended to be a UM fan until he realized most people aren't as stupid as his sparty friends.