Accelerated timetable for Big Ten expansion
Teddy Greenstein reported yesterday that Big Ten representatives will meet in D.C. today as part of the AAU meetings. BCS meetings are next week. If things happened quickly, you could be looking at expansion by June.
Three- and five-team scenarios are on the table. Unnamed source:
"I don't think 16 is scaring anyone off, as long as you can find that many (five) that are a good enough fit. They're looking long-term, across the horizon. What gives them the best shot at keeping value at a high level?"
Rittenberg has extended commentary on the matter. The buzz he's heard from football programs in the league seems to match Greenstein's story.
Durrell Summers to Return for Senior Season
by Pete Rossman on Apr 16, 2010 11:42 AM CDT
in Basketball
27 comments
(HT: Stones1981, CNNSI)
More good basketball news: Durrell Summers has chosen not to enter the NBA Draft and return for his senior season at Michigan State. There was a little bit of doubt about whether he'd enter the draft to get a sense of where he would go and what skills needed work. However, he wasn't predicted by many to be a first-rounder this year, and with the glut of prospects leaving school in the past month, this seems like the best move for Durrell at this point. The thought of going 12-13 deep next season isn't coloring my opinion at all. Not. One. Bit.
Naturally, we can't have one rumor end without another replacing it, so here's what I've heard: Derrick Nix is leaving MSU to become the new companion to Doctor Who. You can say it's not true, but there have been confirmed reports of Derrick with a sonic screwdriver. Who are my sources? I can't tell you because THAT WOULD MAKE ME LESS IMPORTANT AND DESTROY MY MESSAGE BOARD CRED.
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Spring football: Arthur Ray running; Line shuffling; Hondo enthusing; a little recruiting
by witless chum on Apr 16, 2010 10:14 AM CDT
4 comments
[Bump. Football! --LVS.]
Some spring football links from the usual places.
Rexrode points out that Arthur Ray Jr. is doing drills in shorts this spring. Dantonio says he's going to try to play next spring. Wow. As Rexrode says, even if he never plays, that's awesome. Hey Joe also updates on the offensive line's apparent starters as of now.
In practice Thursday, the OL ones were: LT D.J. Young, LG Joel Foreman, C John Stipek, RG Chris McDonald, RT Jared McGaha. The twos were: LT John Deyo, LG Ethan Ruhland, C Nate Klatt, RG Antonio Jeremiah, RT J'Michael Deane.
That's an interesting group of twos. Is Antonio Jeremiah (listed at 360 pounds) really going to do something on the offensive line, or is it just a function of the spotty o-line recruiting from late period John L. Smith (Deane and Stipek are the only ones around) and the early bit of the Dantonio era (remember the O-line recruit who left campus after a week or something?) The move of Micajah Reynolds to DT (if it's permanent) would suggest that the coaches feel pretty good about Jeremiah, or maybe bad about their non-Jerel Worthy options at NT?
I remember hearing some enthusing about (R-Soph) Chris McDonald's athleticism, supposedly he ran track when he was a high schooler as part of relay team. J'Michael Deane was talked about last August as the probable starter at RT and then hurt his foot. (His backup status may still be punishment-based) Jared McGaha (R-Junior) was also talked about in the mix at RG and RT last year.
Rexrode also updates on David Barrent, the celebrated recruit from last year, that he's participating in spring practice after having surgery in December.
Hondo reports that Keith Nichol is taking a very high percentage of the snaps at X receiver because of the great strides Andrew Maxwell at QB.
He also says that Dan Conroy and Kevin Muma are having a battle to replace Brett Swenson. At least right now, post-Swenson is a scary, scary time, for those of us who haven't had Tom Wilkinson and his crew in to remove the 2005 special teams memories. Because he's him, Hondo also anoints Aaron Bates as the best punter in the Big 10 (could be) and incoming freshman Mike Sadler as the second-best (that seems unlikely).
The 3-4 defense gets a quick mention, with Dantonio saying it was to get the best players on the field. That makes a lot of sense to me, not only in terms of Will Gholston but in the available people on the defensive line, with people line Blake Treadwell, Tyler Hoover and Kevin Pickelman who might fit better due to size playing a traditional 3-4 end than a traditional 4-3 tackle or end. But, who knows what the actual prevalence will be. Trying new schemes seems like a fine idea after last year.
In another spot Hondo gives some of his story on last year's defense.
There were some critical points. One head coach, whom the Spartans played this season and I am a close friend with, assessed the Spartans defensive backfield this way to me, "When you watch the film I really don’t think it is coaching. They have their guys in the right spots. You see where guys have good technique and that goes to coaching. What really is troubling from a coach’s perspective is that they don’t play the ball well in the air. That isn’t coaching, that is instinct. Once they upgrade on talent, you can tell the coaching is there."
So, basically, the habitual torching was the fault of the players, especially the departing seniors, not the coaching or scheme. We'd certainly like to think that is true, but I dunno. Removing Otis Wiley and Johnny Adams from 2008 to 2009 was really the only change. Was Wiley really that good? He was good and he did make a lot of plays, but that seems too much. The alternative explanation that it was MSU's scheme has the problem that they ran the same stuff in 2008 and 2007 and did quite a bit better. 2008 didn't feature as good of a pass rush as 2007, either.
The Freep gives us a longer article about new QB commit Connor Cook, which includes this explanation (or apologia) on why he only had a scholarship offer from MSU (Edit - also had an offer from Miami of Ohio - Pete).
"Before he selected the Spartans Cook was hearing from schools like Iowa, Boston College and Connecticut. He said Iowa was the school along with MSU that recruiting him the hardest."
They also had a ranking of the best players in the state at each position. MSU commit Taiwan Jones is judged the best safety prospect and Lawrence Thomas is judged the best overall. So, we should win everything.
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Return of the Spartans
by KJ@theonlycolors on Apr 15, 2010 9:11 PM CDT
in Basketball
32 comments
![They'll be bock. [/Schwarzengger accent]](https://web.archive.org/web/20100419073934im_/http://cdn0.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/350635/43955_ncaa_final_four_butler_michigan_st_basketball.jpg)
So Kalin Lucas is definitely playing a fourth year in the green and white. And this excerpt from Joe Rexrode's blog sure makes it sound like Durrell Summers isn't entertaining thoughts of departing early any more:
Once a human being confirms it on the record, I expect to say the same of Durrell Summers.
I think it's safe to start getting excited about next season.
Raymar Morgan is the only player among the top 11 MSU players in minutes played this past season who will not return for the 2010-2011 season. To get even more precise, 84.7 percent of the 2009-2010 Spartan minutes played will return next season. Of the 15.3 percent of minutes that are not returning, 13.2 percentage points belonged to Morgan. The other 2.1 percentage points belonged to Isaiah Dahlman, Tom Herzog, and Jon Crandell. (I'm assuming Herzog doesn't come back for the moment, just to be a conservative statistician.)
My guess would have been that a returning minutes percentage of 84.7 would represent the high-water mark during the Tom Izzo era. But it doesn't. Here are the numbers going as far back as StatSheet can take us:
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He's a 220-pound guy who runs a 3.97 pro shuttle and has a 38 vertical. He will be in the game. He can play.
3 days ago
KJ@theonlycolors
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The Offseason
by KJ@theonlycolors on Apr 15, 2010 7:59 AM CDT
in News Roundup
20 comments
OR "Ask not what the blog can do for you. Ask what you can do for the blog."
The period between the end of basketball season and the beginning of football season is a long, dry stretch in the college sports blogosphere. You've got spring practice and football recruiting commitments, but that's really all there is in terms of regular, hard news to talk about. Beyond that, you're largely left to looking back and looking forward. We plan to do some of that--for both the basketball and football teams--over the next four months, but we're also open to ideas that you, our gentle readers, may have for offseason discussion topics.
Caveat: The most likely way for brainstormed discussion topics to get implemented is for some of you to get the conversation rolling with FanPosts. (FanShots are OK, too, but something more than a sentence or two is more likely to draw comments from your fellow TOCers. FanPosts are also more likely to attract the notice of people in the wider interwebs searching for information on a topic using The Google.)
It's now been nearly a year (360 days, to be exact), since we launched this site. Over those 12 months, a solid base of readers/commenters has emerged. Reader dialogue has really picked up in the last few weeks, coinciding with the Final Four run, and people are taking advantage of the FanPost/FanShot options on a pretty regular basis.
We'd love to see that momentum continue over the summer heading into football season. LVS and Pete will be doing some football preview stuff, and I'll be doing my usual offseason basketball analysis. But I think there's a real opportunity to continue to build something that's bigger than just the musings of three MSU fans with limited time--namely, a vibrant community of Spartans trading observations, ideas, and emotions.
Building that kind of community was my goal when I made the move from the old site, and--my rambling, obscure-statistics-based posts to the contrary--remains my #1 goal for the website today.
So have at it. What would you like to see happen around here between now and September (or beyond)? And how can we as a blog community make it happen?
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Trey Zeigler to play college basketball at CMU
The Morning Sun is citing sources close to the CMU situation. Zeigler will choose to play for his father at Central over U-M, MSU, et al.
This has been a strange situation for the last few months, as Michigan State hasn't had a scholarship spot open for Zeigler, but remained on his list, presumably to leave the option if a spot opened up and he decided MSU was the right destination. (We still don't know what Tom Herzog's status is for the next season.)
Anyway, it's over now. On to the 2011 class.
Best of luck to Mr. Zeigler as a Chippewa. As a basketball fan who lives in Michigan, it'll be nice to have a specific reason to follow MAC hoops action.
HT: UMHoops
MSU basketball: Lucas returning for senior season
Kalin Lucas will return to Michigan State for his senior season, his father confirmed Tuesday.
"He'll be back," Kenneth Lucas said of Kalin. "He's focusing on getting healthy, he's not worried about (the NBA) right now."
Huzzah!
5 days ago
LVS
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