- Dave Dye concurs with the community here that the win over Bradley was big for MSU’s chances at success down the stretch.
- Grant Wahl likes six Big Ten teams’ chances of making the Big Dance: MSU, IU, OSU, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Purdue. He also notes that future MSU opponent Texas, despite the loss of Mr. Durant, has the two most impressive wins in college basketball to date: vs. Tennessee on a neutral court and at UCLA. Should be a great game at the Palace on the 22nd.
Beyond that, I’m taking the night off. Let’s try to get some reader feedback going. Here’s a question to get the ball rolling:
Izzo has established a national reputation for scheduling tough nonconference games. What are the most memorable nonconference games MSU has played during his tenure?
The one that jumps to mind for me is the game we played against Florida in 2000 after beating them for the national title the previous season. My wife and I were in the upper-deck student section at Breslin. The crowd was absolutely deafening before the game and ominously chanted “Teddy, Teddy” every time Dupay touched the ball throughout the game. Dupay actually seemed to thrive off it and put up 17 points, but MSU prevailed 99-83.
Your turn. Take us on a trip down memory lane.
Student Season ticket holder for 5 years, ’99-’00 to ’03-’04:
Most memorable game (although it’s a bummer):
Duke in ACC/Big10 challenge, ’03
Pregame: Loudest I’ve ever seen the crowd pre-game (Including Nat. Championship banner raising, Numerous Big 10 title clinchers, etc.) Loudest by far.
Post Game: Breslin Center was empty with 7 minutes left in the 2nd half, MSU down 20 most of the game. No crowd noise whatsoever, you could hear a pin drop.
Well the BasketBowl was kind of memorable, even if Kentucky won.
That Duke game was a killer. MSU spent most of the game playing as if their plays were designed to pass the ball to the Duke players.
UConn 2000, they were the defending national champs and we simply destroyed them, it was the kind of non-con win you usually get against someone like Florida A&M, not a top 20 team on national TV.
Other great ones
Dec. ’99 at UNC- no Mateen but MoPete shows the country what we all knew-that he was an all-american
The year we beat Kentucky at home in a game where neither team scored 50, Hutson and Bell were big and we kept the home court streak alive.
Kentucky ’04- the Bograkos 3 pointer to win it, great moment for a great Spartan
Thanks for throwing in a few wins out there, spartanproducer. The UNC game was the other one that stood out in mind. Set the tone for the season–they intended to win the national title even with Mateen out for a extended period.
Had forgotten about the Bograkos three-pointer to beat Kentucky. Just about every game they’ve played against Kentucky has been a great one–with the ESPY-nominated, double-OT game they won to get to the 2006 Final Four being the best of the bunch.