SPARTAN BASKETBALL PROGRAMS TOP CONFERENCE STANDINGS FOR SEVEN YEARS OF LEAGUE PLAY

March Madness drives us to do crazy things. Like picking Creighton to make the Final Four on your bracket. Or rooting for a team you hate just because their win would improve your bracket standings. Or making picks based on the uniform colors of the team. Stuff like that.

Sometimes the crazy season of basketball compels us to seek out stats, more stats, and even more stats. We saturate our minds in hoops-stats for three days making up our brackets, and then what? Nothing but games to watch, no more stats to crunch.

Well, we've got the answer for you today! We have added up the B1G conference standings for both men's and women's basketball over the past seven regular seasons, and guess who sits at the top of the heap? The Michigan State Basketball programs have won more games than any other conference team in the last seven years of league competition.

2008-2014 Combined Regular Season Conference Standings

1. 170-74     MICHIGAN STATE*****
2. 162-82     OHIO STATE******
3. 151-93     PURDUE*
4. 134-110   WISCONSIN*
5.   54-48    NEBRASKA
6. 125-119   MICHIGAN**
7. 121-123   IOWA
8. 110-134   PENN STATE***
9. 107-137   MINNESOTA
10.   94-150   ILLINOIS
11.   93-151   INDIANA*
12.   72-172   NORTHWESTERN

*conference championships

The seven-year time-frame isn't arbitrary or "cherry-picking", but it's as far back as we can count with MSU on top of the composite league standings. We wanted you to know that Spartan success in basketball isn't just one team in one year (or two), but both programs combined over many years.

While Tom Izzo has been Head Coach for nearly two decades, this seven-year span neatly comprises the entirety of the "Suzy Merchant Era" at Michigan State. Merchant has proven to be the perfect complement to Izzo, as she understands her role and plays it to the hilt with class and dedication and teamwork.

This level of statistical dominance can't happen by luck or a short hot-streak by one team. Looking over the past seven years, you can see only one "down season" by the Spartan Men, and the Spartan Women have been consistently very good the whole time. This data is meaningful because the information-base is so broad that excellence rises to the top.

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SUMMER VACATION STARTS EARLY FOR DUKE DUO OF JABARI PARKER AND JOANNE McCALLIE

Two basketball folks who each turned thumbs-down on Michigan State have an open schedule right now thanks to a pair of Duke tournament losses. Jabari Parker and Joanne McCallie are polishing up their surfboards for the long vacation ahead. That's because both Duke basketball teams have already been knocked out of the NCAA tournament.

Parker is the one-and-done "can't miss" blue-chip five-star basketball recruit from Chicago who played Tom Izzo like a fiddle during his highly publicized recruitment two years ago. Do you remember that December day when Parker held the world in his hand for a few hours as he prepared his great announcement? Most experts had Parker coming to MSU, but when it was time to put on the hat, it was a happy day for Dick Vitale. Jabari Parker was going to Duke. Tom Izzo was heading to Plan B.

McCallie is the up-and-coming young coach who took the reins from two-decade veteran Karen Langeland right after the turn of the century to become Head Coach of the Spartan women's team. She cracked her whip and flapped her jaws and seemed to "walk the walk" as she led MSU to the conference championship, a Final Four, and even an appearance in the national championship game. That tee-shirt-making season impressed all of us here in Spartan Country, but even more those folks in Durham, and off went McCallie to her dream job (with the bigger paycheck).

McCallie left somewhat abruptly, as nobody saw the Duke job likely to open up at that time, and hubby John McCallie was processing his arrest for fighting cops at a Florida airport while wifey Joanne just may have been job-shopping. (Sort of like "Peyton Place" without all of the really juicy stuff.) So we were in a bit of a pickle when Suzy Merchant arrived.

And we felt we were hosed when Duke was assigned to the "MSU Pod" in 2009 as a #1-seed, waiting to play us if we could get by the #9, which we did. And when it came time to confront the old coach, our new coach led MSU to one of the most dramatic victories in the history of Spartan Basketball. When Duke got dumped five years ago in Breslin, we knew our real coach was here to stay.

Well, Joanne McCallie can get out the golf clubs now, as her Duke team took their #2-seed into a comfortable setting last weekend, with games on their home court against the #15-seed and the winner of #10-vs-#7. That last one proved too much for the Lady Blue Devils, as Depaul beat Duke in Cameron-Indoor Stadium to send McCallie off on summer vacation.

At least she didn't have to travel far on the trip home after the loss.

So two prominent basketball people, a young male all-star and a middle-aged female coach, both came up short this past weekend with the teams they chose over Michigan State. While the Duke women are back home for the off-season, the MSU women tip-off Tuesday night against North Carolina just down Tobacco Road. And while Jabari Parker has turned in his uniform for the year, his spurned non-teammates have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen to play top-seed Virginia on Friday night.

Maybe McCallie will drive over to the MSU-UNC game tomorrow night. She definitely has a rooting interest. (Then again, maybe not.)

Maybe Parker will travel up to the Big Apple to see the team that beat his team for the league title play the team that he didn't want to play with in the first place. (Or maybe not.)

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MSU GETS 6th "SWEET SIXTEEN" DURING "JOHN BEILEIN ERA"

Michigan State reached the Sweet Sixteen with two weekend wins in Spokane, Washington, giving Coach Tom Izzo 12 such milestones since 1998. The only coach ahead of Izzo on this list is Mike Krzyzewski.

But how does that compare to the (now) "great" John Beilein? The "Beilein Era" is seven years long. During those seven seasons, Beilein has made the Sweet Sixteen twice. He has also had two losing seasons and a first-round exit from the Big Dance. That makes four total NCAA invitations.

In the same seven-year period, the Spartans have made the Sweet Sixteen six times, as part of their 17-year consecutive tournament streak.

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MICHIGAN GETS AN EASY PATH

Speaking of UM, they sure have an easy road in the NCAA Tournament this year. They opened against a #15-seed, then played a #7-seed in the second-round. Their next opponent is a #11-seed, and there appears to be an excellent chance that they would play a #8-seed if they win on Friday.

To recap, that's #15, #7, #11, and (maybe) #8. Barely more difficult than the NIT teams the UM women are playing through right now.

Why mention this fact? Only because so many Michigan fans downplayed (or even downgraded) any past MSU tournament run during which the Spartans played low-seeds on the way to a Final Four. Not saying UM will reach the final weekend, but you can see they have quite the cakewalk to get there.

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SPARTAN WOMEN BLAST OFF IN NCAA TOURNAMENT OPENING GAME

The Michigan State Women's Basketball team showed up to play Sunday afternoon in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, beating the Hampton Pirates, 91-61, and advancing to the second round of NCAA action to be played on Tuesday night.

The final margin was deceiving as the game wasn't really that close. The Spartans came out of the first timeout trailing by a point, then put together the mother-of-all-runs to take a 20-point lead before Hampton knew what hit them. The half-time score was 55-22, and Freshman Aerial Powers already had a double-double in the books.

Senior Analise Pickrel made all eleven of her shots, but it was Powers who hogged the stat sheet. Pickrel finished with 21 points and Powers scored 26 and grabbed 18 rebounds in the mammoth blowout.

MSU had two weeks to think about why Nebraska booted them out of the conference tournament after the Spartans finished ahead of the Cornhuskers to win the regular season championship. Then they did to Hampton what Nebraska had done to them.

The Spartans are now in line to become the next "sacrificial lamb" sent by the NCAA to its inevitable doom, playing on the home-court of the higher-seeded team at the Dean Dome. Whether or not they accept that role will be determined Tuesday night.

The women's tournament features home-court advantages for up to 16 teams each year, based on a system that awards tournament sites to teams with adequate facilities, in exchange for the guarantee to be placed in a home-pod if the team qualifies for the tournament. Michigan State has hosted NCAA games in the past, most recently in 2009, when Suzy Merchant coached the greatest upset in Spartan Basketball history by crushing top-seeded Duke by 14 points at Breslin in the second round.

The Lady Tar Heels entered the tournament ranked #12 in the nation, after finishing 5th in the Atlantic Coast Conference. President Obama has picked North Carolina to beat Michigan State on their way to an Elite Eight appearance next weekend.

The game will tip-off Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. and can be viewed on ESPN-2.




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TAYLOR LEWAN: POSTER-BOY FOR UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SPORTS

Taylor Lewan will finally have his day in court. And in his case, he will be the Defendant.

Lewan has been charged with Aggravated Assault for an attack he said he didn't make on the night his team didn't beat Ohio STATE. He said he didn't do it. The Prosecutor thinks otherwise.

Justice moves slowly in Ann Arbor. The attacks by Lewan took place on December 1, and the decision to move forward with prosecution took place on March 6. Quite a local timetable.

Lewan has made a name for himself by playing dirty without being penalized, for mouthing off before and after games, for saying how great it is to be a wolverine and also apologizing for how dirty he played, and for intimidating rape victims into dropping charges against his good rapist buddy. He is the poster-boy for Michigan sports.

Lewan is coddled and privileged and protected by authority.

He is mouthy, brash, double-talking, and attention-seeking.

He looks good, but does bad.

In short, he is the epitome of

the modern chUMp.

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THIS DATE IN chUMp HISTORY: MARCH 21, 2002

We interrupt March Madness to look back at a very important date in University of Michigan sports history. Something very, very, big happened 12 years ago today.

It was on this date in 2002 that a Federal Grand Jury issued an indictment charging Ed Martin with running an illegal "numbers operation" at the Ford Plant in River Rouge, Michigan. It was this legal charge that tied in Michigan Basketball with organized crime.

The charges against Martin specified payments made by him to four UM basketball players over a several-year period, totaling at least $600,000. The technical term for the process is "money laundering", as the wolverine players were expected to pay back the money when they got rich later on in the NBA. This verified the partnership forged between Michigan officials (including men's basketball coach Steve Fisher) and the overtly criminal element.

This case took years to process to its conclusion. An initial investigation was made by UM in the late 1990's, followed by the Big Ten conference looking into the matter. Both reviews left Michigan pretty much in the clear. But the federal agencies were not so forgiving of blatantly illegal schemes operating in the public sector. The Federal Bureau of Investigation stepped in, along with the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service, in other words, pretty much the same folks who got together to take down Al Capone.

The entire saga is well documented by various sources, and one of the best summaries of this debacle can be found on Wikipedia. Here is an excerpt from the University of Michigan Basketball Scandal web page:

On March 21, 2002—after almost three years of testimony—the grand jury returned an eight-count indictment charging Martin, his wife Hilda and their friend Clarence Malvo with running an illegal gambling business at the Ford River Rouge plant, money laundering and conspiracy to launder money. According to the indictment, Martin made illicit loans totalling $616,000 to Webber, Taylor, Bullock and Traylor to launder money from an illegal numbers game at Detroit–area auto plants.[31] The loans were made with the understanding that they would be repaid once the players turned pro. Martin was indicted for having paid Webber a total of $280,000 between 1988–1993, which included time from Webber's freshman year at Detroit Country Day School in Birmingham, Michigan to his sophomore year at Michigan.

Some other good sources for information about this identity-defining story about the University in Michigan are Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, the Ann Arbor News, the Michigan Daily, and the New York Times.

So it's a great time for Michigan, a chance to celebrate their criminal history, and their legacy of illegal behavior that will forever stain their school and their sports teams in the minds of those of us who saw this supposedly great institution dodge justice and evade their fate for more than a decade before going down in shame.

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SIX YEARS OF B1G CONFERENCE DOMINANCE BY MICHIGAN STATE BASKETBALL PROGRAMS

We were getting backed up against a wall by all of the chUMp claims of basketball dominance, based largely on a three-game win streak and two one-point victories over the past three years. So we decided to turn up the power on our microscope to see what the FACTS reveal about such claims. What we found was outstanding.

Turns out the two Michigan State Basketball programs combined have the best winning percentage in conference play over the past SIX YEARS. Those are the FACTS. And as we always say, you can have your own opinions, but you can't have your own facts.

We have crunched the numbers and we present them for your review:

2009-2014 Combined Regular Season Conference Standings

1.  148-60    MICHIGAN STATE*****

2.  139-69   OHIO STATE*****
3.  125-83   PURDUE*

4.  111-97   MICHIGAN**

5.    54-48   NEBRASKA

6.  109-99   WISCONSIN

7.  102-106  IOWA

8.    99-109  PENN STATE***

9.    88-120  MINNESOTA

10.  81-127  ILLINOIS

11.  70-138  NORTHWESTERN

12.  69-139  INDIANA*

*conference championships

So whatever this season of March Madness brings, we can rest assured that the Spartan Basketball programs are in great shape, and have won more games in the conference than any other conference school dating back (at least) six years.

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THE STATE OF MICHIGAN IS TURNING GREEN! (part three)

One Sunday in March saw the Michigan State Basketball team rack-up an 18-point lead over Michigan in the B1G Conference Championship game, as the Spartans won it for the second time in four years. The next day, everybody was wearing green, and anybody who wasn't wearing green got pinched. The next day, the President of the United States picked MSU to win the national championship.

Can you see the trend-line here? The State of Michigan is turning GREEN! Consider a few more recent events:

Let's break stride to talk football for a minute. As soon as national signing day was in the books, Ohio STATE Coach Urban Meyer was talking about Michigan State like his new arch-rival. He wouldn't say our name, but talked us up like the top team in the conference. And that same day, ESPN called the 2014 football league race in our favor. (So much for "little brother", right Fitz Toussaint?)

Now to women's basketball, or in this case actually, girls basketball. The top Spartan recruit, signed last November, Lexi Gussert was chasing all sorts of scoring records throughout her senior season. Then last week she was named "Player of the Year" in Class D. Then almost immediately afterwards, she was named as "Miss Basketball" for the State of Michigan. And she finished her high school career on the Breslin floor with her future teammates watching. Not bad!

Back to football. The College Football Hall of Fame announced 75 candidates for new membership, and several Spartans are on the list. Kirk Gibson, Clinton Jones, and Lorenzo White are up for the honor. Even Daryl Rogers made the cut. He wasn't with us for long, but he did coin the famous term "arrogant asses in Ann Arbor" to describe those chUMps. We can remember him for 24-16 in 1978, and for the fabulous "AA" reference.

Now on to education. As in, the College of Education at Michigan State. One of the gems of the MSU campus, the College of Education just made it 20 years in a row ranked as the #1 graduate school of Education in America. Not bad for the place chUMps call "Moo U", eh? (Michigan State also ranks #1 in Nuclear Physics, a field that has nothing to do with horses and cows.)

And we finish in Hollywood, where an East Lansing boy became famous despite his red hair. Tim Busfield, a good outfielder who also made his name as a "thirtysomething" kind of guy, is also our kind of guy. Busfield left the playing field at Patriarche Park to head west, then returned to mid-Michigan two years ago where he lives in a Little House hear Howell with actress (and wife) Melissa Gilbert. And despite never actually attending MSU, he says he is, and always will be, a Spartan.

So we enter this season of March Madness with high hopes, and we will stand alongside our President to cheer on our team, for better or worse. But it can't be too bad, can it? We're living in a Green State!

PART ONE of this series

PART TWO of this series

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THIS DATE IN chUMp HISTORY: MARCH 18, 1994

March Madness is in full swing which generally turns our attention to basketball, but a quick note today about hockey. This is a big date in Michigan Hockey history, as it was on this date in 1994 that UM Coach Red Berenson pleaded guilty to drunk driving, after originally being arrested for indecent exposure and pissing on the library wall.

What's that? A Wolverine Coach behaving below legal standards? How could this be? His name isn't Gary Moeller, is it?

In case you didn't know about this, we bring you the news, two decades after the fact. And don't blame yourself for not finding evidence on your own, as the UM faithful have scrubbed the Internet nearly clean of any record of his arrest. We can find glancing references in comments and blogs, but the main reports are much more difficult to locate. Berenson must have a strong cyber-team working on his behalf.

So we turn to the Michigan Daily for a review of the situation:

"On the night of March 16, 1994, as Berenson left Banfield's Bar and Grill in Ann Arbor, a police officer was watching from across the street. The officer watched as Berenson first urinated outside next to a wall of the public library, then got in his car and put it in reverse. Berenson had gone about 20 feet before the officer stopped him and arrested him for drunken driving and urinating in public.

"And suddenly, like never before, Red Berenson was a front-page story. And so was the Michigan hockey program.

"The charges were eventually reduced to "driving while visibly impaired." 

The next closest source we can locate with a brief mention of the Berenson arrest is in Eugene Oregon, and you can check into it right here.

Sure, some might say, "nobody's perfect", and that's exactly our point. The University of Michigan isn't perfect, either, no matter how many incidents they may sweep under the carpet or scrub from the Internet. Right, Brendan Gibbons?

So we bring you these FACTS to help you understand the true nature of the U-of-M. They are just about like anybody else that you would find anywhere else. They do some things well, but they also screw up and even get caught now and again. THEY ARE NOT "SPECIAL" BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT DIFFERENT. They are just another school, and they should be viewed and treated accordingly.




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SPARTAN BASKETBALL PROGRAMS ARE BEST IN B1G CONFERENCE OVER THE PAST FIVE SEASONS

We've added up the regular season win-loss records of every basketball team in the B1G conference, (men and women alike) and we present the combined composite five-year basketball perspective for your review. The standings listed below do not include tournament games.



2010-2014 Combined Regular Season Conference Standings

1.  120-52 MICHIGAN STATE****
2.  114-58 OHIO STATE****
3.  101-71 PURDUE*
4.    99-73 MICHIGAN**

5.    93-79 WISCONSIN
6.    54-48 NEBRASKA

7.    84-88 IOWA

8.    83-89 PENN STATE***
9.    68-104 MINNESOTA
10.  65-107 ILLINOIS
11.  59-113 NORTHWESTERN

12.  57-115 INDIANA*

*conference championships

Spartan fans have become accustomed to basketball success at Breslin and beyond. Both the men's and women's programs have been exciting and competitive for more than a decade. The list above validates what we've been feeling for at least the past five years. Michigan State has the best basketball programs in the conference.

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HOW THE "6-of-the-last-8" CROWD WAS TAKING THINGS WAY OUT OF CONTEXT RECENTLY

Many of us spent the last three weeks listening to all sorts of grand claims from what I'm calling the "6-of-the-last-8" crowd. And the month before that, they were the "5-of-the-last-7" group. In each case, Michigan Basketball fanatics tried to cover up their (obvious) inferiority complex by claiming supremacy for their team after a pair of three-game win-streaks in recent years.

I sure got sick of them, how about you? Never blamed them for being happy about their team, but to hear them constantly try to skew more than two decades of history over a pair of short streaks keyed by a pair of one-point wins was a bit much to stomach. Glad to see Tom Izzo and his team put those folks in their place in Indianapolis.

You can't take away the recent UM victories, and I'm not trying to dismiss them. They've certainly won more games recently, and the rivalry series is EVENING-UP as a result. No doubt it's a much closer rivalry now than at any time since Ed Martin was caught.

But the flaw in their reasoning was to exaggerate the value of a few close wins in the context of a one-sided series marked by Spartan blowouts over the Wolverines dating back nearly 15 years.

We like to use standard measuring-sticks to evaluate the status of a team, a program, or a rivalry series. We think in terms of 5s and 10s, and 25s, etc. So when MSU beat UM in football the first two or three years under Mark Dantonio, I couldn't get quite as excited as some folks did at the time, since the 5-year and/or 10-year metrics still favored Michigan. That series is just now shifting, with the Spartans winning 4-of-the-last-5, and a 5-5 split with MSU scoring a lot more points in the last decade. Beyond those time-frames, the series evens up and moves back towards UM.

So when the "5-of-7" crowd started to make noise, we expanded our measurements to see what the data was telling us. When that group switched to "6-of-8", we examined the data-base further. We found that the series was EVENING-UP, but most certainly had not switched to wolverine supremacy.

The game on Sunday has made the point for us. Even though it was just one game, that single outcome could now be used to switch-back the angle of measurement towards MSU, though only by "cherry-picking" the most favorable time-frame. At this point, one could point out that the two teams have split the last six games, but the Spartans have outscored the Wolverines by more than 30 points cumulative in those match-ups. In other words, Michigan has been winning some close games against Michigan State in recent years, but has not dominated them by any means.

So if you need to fight back against some chUMp who can't figure out what numbers mean, feel free to use the "3-of-6-with-more-points-scored" claim to shut that chUMp down. But please don't make it into a t-shirt or a bumper-sticker or even talk that way around mature adults. The six-game viewpoint only shows that the series is EVENING-UP. For while it may still be "6-of-the-last-9", it is also "6-of-the-last-13" (and of course, 3-3 in the last six).

We will soon be updating our summaries of the MSU vs UM basketball program rivalry series for both men's and women's teams. In the meantime, let's keep it real. The Michigan men's basketball team is better now than they have been for a long time, and it will be harder to keep pounding them down in the future. But the future is yet to be written. For the time being, let's just agree that the series is EVENING-UP.




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TOM IZZO IS NOW THE ALL-TIME LEADER IN B1G CONFERENCE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT VICTORIES

Tom Izzo now has more wins at the B1G Men's Basketball Tournament than any coach in conference history. Izzo was tied with Thad Matta heading into this past weekend, but Ohio STATE went 2-1, while Michigan State was 3-0.

Izzo now has 22 victories in the conference tournament. Matta has 21 Buckeye wins in the tournament, while Michigan Coach John Beilein has eight to his credit.

Izzo has won four conference tournament trophies (same as Matta), while Beilein has zero titles as Wolverines Head Coach.

Izzo is undefeated in conference championship games at 4-0.


Related Content:

JOHN BEILEIN ON PACE TO

CATCH TOM IZZO BY THE TIME HE'S 90

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SPARTANS WIN SEASON BASKETBALL SERIES OVER WOLVERINES

The conference championship basketball game played Sunday between Michigan State and Michigan marked the fifth time that MSU and UM have played basketball this season (twice in the post-season tournaments). By winning, the Spartans clinched the 2014 basketball series, 3-2.

Both MSU Basketball teams knocked their UM counterparts out of the B1G conference tournament this month. Suzy Merchant coached the Spartans to a 72-69 win over Michigan in the second round of the women's tournament on March 7. Tom Izzo coached the Spartans to a 69-54 victory over UM in the championship game on Sunday. Michigan State defeated Michigan in Crisler arena in January in the only meeting of the season between the women's teams.



Related Content:

FOUR-YEAR COMBINED B1G BASKETBALL STANDINGS

THREE YEARS OF BASKETBALL:  MSU vs UM

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IZZO AHEAD OF BEILEIN AFTER WEEKEND TOURNAMENT VICTORY

Tom Izzo has moved back in front of John Beilein in head-to-head competition after winning in Indianapolis on Sunday. Izzo now leads 8-7, after Beilein pulled into a 7-7 tie last month.

Since John Beilein took over in Ann Arbor:

• Tom Izzo leads in games won (8-7)
• Izzo's teams lead in points scored (+68 points)

Coach Izzo has never trailed Coach Beilein in head-to-head wins.




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MSU BASKETBALL DOMINANCE IN B1G CONFERENCE EXTENDS OVER THE PAST FOUR YEARS

Just when we thought that the "three-year perspective" was all we had left to B1G conference basketball, we looked a little further, and guess what we found out? Not only does Michigan State lead the regular season conference standings over the past three years (when counting both men's and women's programs), the Spartans lead goes back for the PAST FOUR YEARS.

So the Wolverines may have evened things up lately, but a three-year OR four-year viewpoint still shows MSU on top. Here are the combined composite standings from the 2011 through 2014 regular seasons:

1.   94-42 MICHIGAN STATE***

2.   85-51 OHIO STATE**
3.   84-52 MICHIGAN**
4.   78-58 PURDUE
5.   72-64 PENN STATE***

      54-48 NEBRASKA

7.   70-66 WISCONSIN

      70-66 IOWA

9.   53-83 MINNESOTA

10. 48-88 ILLINOIS

11. 46-90 INDIANA*

12. 45-91 NORTHWESTERN

*conference championships

This may help explain why all the yapping by the you-know-whos has seemed somewhat out of place, almost a bit forced, only over a recent streak. Especially a streak keyed by a pair of one-point wins.

Like they say, "it is what it is",

but that cuts both ways.

While 6-of-8 may be what "it is",

four years combined at the top

of the conference is also "what it is".

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THREE-YEAR B1G BASKETBALL PERSPECTIVE SHOWS MICHIGAN STATE ON TOP OF CONFERENCE

Just when you started to think that maybe the world actually was created only three years ago, we've got an old perspective to add to the new perspective. Confusing? This is what happens when folks cherry-pick odd time-frames upon which to build their newfound legacy.

To be clear, we prefer standard measuring sticks that add up to multiples of five. You know, like 5-10-15-20-25-30, and so forth. We've noticed that our culture recognizes achievements and records and milestones like 10 years of this and/or 25 years of that, and so on. So it's been a bit difficult to hear all of these Michigan fans trying to define the "new reality" as only including the last three years.

Okay, then. They've had a good streak recently, no doubt. They're not the cellar-dwellers anymore. They have risen up to competitive status. Bully for them. But both of the Michigan State Basketball programs are in great shape right now, as they have been for some time. Being successful at Breslin is not a new experience.

We decided to take their bait and see what the three-year picture actually looks like, when combining conference records of both basketball teams. Guess what? The Spartans are on top.

Here are the composite numbers for 2012-2013-2014:

1. 72-30              MICHIGAN STATE**
2. 65-37            MICHIGAN**
3. 59-43            OHIO STATE*
4. 56-46            IOWA
5. 55-47            PURDUE
6. 54-48            NEBRASKA
7. 52-50            PENN STATE***
8. 47-55            WISCONSIN
9. 43-59            MINNESOTA
10. 40-62            INDIANA*
11. 37-65            ILLINOIS
12. 32-70            NORTHWESTERN

*Conference Championships

So there, you knew something was funny about the crazy claims coming from Ann Arbor, didn't you? All of their boasts require odd-lot time-spans, like three years or eight games, etc. That's okay, they feel good right now. Must be a relief to them to not stink like a kettle of week-old fish. Give them some space, they're exhilarated right now.

But like the old saying goes, "You can have your own opinions, but you can't have your own facts." We present these facts because they have not elsewhere been publicized.




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THIS DATE IN chUMp HISTORY: MARCH 12, 1883

Michigan fans are chattering non-stop about their three-year reign of basketball excellence these days. (And by "basketball", they mean "men's basketball".) Kudos to them for crawling out of the sludge in recent seasons, but what impact might this short-term run have on their so-called "All-Time Wins Record" in football? After all, it's going to be hard for them to reconcile three-year perspectives with their famous rugby teams of the 1880s and 1890s. Without those rugby games counted as "all-time wins", the UM numbers drop off considerably.

But not necessarily in 1883, when the University of Michigan Rugby Club won their only game of the year on this date in history, March 12.

Wait, March? For "football"? Who plays football games in March? Nobody does, but back in the covered-wagon days, the rugby players had an exhibition scrimmage, reportedly attended by zero spectators. And they won the game, 40-5, over the "Detroit Independents". There is no recorded information available about the "Detroit Independents", leading us to believe that they were a very independent group, indeed! So independent that they really didn't exist beyond that field on that day.

But the proto-wolverines needed a win badly, as their "all-time wins record" at that point was 2-3-1. So they lined up a group of bodies and got the win. Hail to the victors, eh?

It would be neat to say that they won one for their Coach, but there was no coach of that team. They like to keep track of the "event" as a football win, but there was no tackling below the waist allowed, and no forward passes, either. Those five points by the nobodies was probably a field-goal, which was worth more than a touchdown on that day and for two decades to come.

The rest of their season was played eight months later, with three games between November 19 and November 27. They lost to Wesleyan, got pummeled by Yale, clipped by Harvard, and finished off by Stevens Institute. So they were 1-4, with only that one memorable triumph over the motor city nobodies.

Of course, this was before there was a "Motor City", because there were no automobiles. No cars, no coach, no fans, not really football at all. But the Michigan faithful ardently believe that it was a football game, and a victory, no less. Um, okay, whatever.

But that rugby game was not played in the last three years, so it doesn't really count, right? In fact, the all-time football record of the University of Michigan is actually 26-15, as history began for the Wolverines only three years ago.

Keep this one in mind the next time you see one of those yellow shirts with the silly "all-time wins" claim.




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SPARTAN BASKETBALL DOMINANCE COVERS THREE-YEAR TIME-SPAN

Nice to see Michigan State ranks on top of the B1G when it comes to basketball this year, especially since that makes it two years in a row as the best combined program in the conference. We summed up the totals from 2014 yesterday. Here are the totals from 2013, originally published about a year ago.

We decided to check back to the previous year (2012) since we hadn't counted that one up yet. To quote Gomer Pyle, "surprise, surprise, surprise"......MSU was on top that season as well! (Okay, tied with Ohio State, but none were better.)

Here are the combined basketball league standings from 2012:

• 24-10 Michigan State
• 24-10  Ohio State
• 21-13  Purdue
• 21-13  Michigan
• 19-15  Iowa
• 17-17  Penn State
• 17-17  Wisconsin
• 14-20  Nebraska
• 12-22  Indiana
• 12-22  Northwestern
• 12-22  Minnesota
• 11-23  Illinois

If you've been reading this web site, you can probably see where this is going. We reported that MSU has led the conference in combined team wins for three years in a row. Get it, that's three years in a row. Did you notice that number (3), the number THREE? Some people want to talk about the three-year perspective these days, especially in basketball. So we'll add up those numbers and report them tomorrow!

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THESE chUMp COMMENTS ARE FOR AMUSEMENT PURPOSES ONLY

We enjoy reader comments, and we've been getting more of them lately, including from a few regulars. We've heard from "Mr.OldGlories" and "MSUJiboo", and we get steady input from "MSUSpartan76" and of course, "return2glory". We even heard from "CMann" and "ATown" recently.

But you know how it is with trolls and such. We've started to attract a few who like to enter comments as "Anonymous" and then listen to themselves laughing over their hilarious perspectives. They do amuse themselves. We clean them up as fast as we can find them, but we've even had a delete/review/restore process with a series of anonymous comments that resulted in re-posted comments and a new screen name, "TheBlueWall". That's right, we've even talked with the blue-wall dude, and he's put up some feisty points. We may have questions about some of those points, but BW seems intelligent and literate and those are good things on a web site. So we can talk to him, and will plan to do so when he shows up again.

But we can't really find a way to talk to chUMps like this one, who posted his comment after one of the recent articles about the Michigan State Women's Basketball team:

Bwahahahahahaha!!!! Things have gotten so bad in EL, now they use the women's team to puff the chest. How the mighty have fallen. 

The chUMp doesn't notice the content of the article, in which it is clearly stated that the "mighty" HAVE NOT fallen. The story is about the last decade of success for the Spartans, though you can pick up along the way that MSU has always been very effective at beating the Wolverines. It's much more of a "continued success" story than it is a "mighty have fallen" piece. So this guy is pretty far off-track.

But again, that's why we call them "chUMps".

So then another chUMp shows up with this comment after, yes, another recent article about the Michigan State Women's Basketball team:

Nobody with half a brain cares about women's basketball. Same court, same dimensions, but two completely different games. Although I get it, you Sparty's haven't had a lot to cheer for lately, gotta take what you can get?

It doesn't take long to figure this guy out. He is somehow aware that the University of Michigan has had a women's basketball program for decades, yet says only people with half a brain (or less?) would care about it. It's the dead giveaway that this guy is a Walmart Wolverine with no connection to college now or at any time in his life. He has adopted UM as a personal joy ride, and uses a highly edited memory function to sustain his perpetual fantasy.

At the time of his comment, it had been about 9-1/2 weeks since the Rose Bowl victory. In his mind, that game did not happen "lately". The second-place standing in the Sears Cup fall sports season, in his mind, suggests that we "haven't had a lot to cheer for". Then there's all that stuff we've been saying about the Suzy Merchant Show.

Or even this news item that came up in the last 24 hours, which by most accounts would mean "lately". I know, it's an "academic thing", not like the TV shows most chUMps enjoy, but I mention it (and include the link) not only to refute his claim, but also to mock his non-university-affiliation. Clearly, he's a dolt, which is a general prerequisite for chUMp status.

Let me add that only a fool would call men's and women's college basketball "two completely different games". Again, that's the old days, and I mean the really, really old days. I would say the Rebecca Lobo Generation has already seen two general phases of overall player advancement across the women's college game since her playing days ended. The women's players of today are most definitely playing real basketball, same as the men.

Just no dunking, I get it. But I grew up in Jenison Field House watching Big Ten players who couldn't dunk. Well, they could, but it was a technical foul, so no slam-jams in games (not even in warm-ups). But I'm pretty sure it was real basketball. So only a few women have dunked, so what? Today's Division One women's college players are doing all of the same things that basketball players have done for decades. Rules have varied slightly from one league and/or era to another, but right now, the shot-clock is the only major rules differential between the two divisions. Men's clock is 35, Women's clock is 30. For whatever reason.

So keep the comments coming in, feel free to create a simple name that you can use in order to maintain a clear conversation, check for your typos as there is no "spell-check", etc. And if you're a chUMp, and you lay one of your eggs on our platter, we will most certainly delete you and prepare you to be roasted, just like this.

Posts from chUMps are for

our amusement purposes only.

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SPARTAN BASKETBALL PROGRAMS WIN 2014 B1G CONFERENCE COMBINED LEAGUE STANDINGS

The regular season of college basketball has ended, both men's and women's, so let's take a look at the combined basketball standings in the B1G conference 2014 regular season. Some folks may recall that Michigan State was on top last year, with 23 men's and women's team wins. Well, the Spartans have finished in first again, this time with 25 wins.

Here are the combined basketball team standings for the 2014 regular season:

• 25-9   Michigan State*
• 23-11  Nebraska
• 23-11  Michigan*
• 20-14  Iowa
• 19-15  Penn State*
• 16-18  Purdue
• 16-18  Minnesota
• 15-19  Ohio State
• 15-19  Wisconsin
• 12-22  Indiana
• 11-23  Northwestern
• 9-25    Illinois

*regular season champion

Spartans everywhere can take pride in the fact that MSU had the BEST OVERALL BASKETBALL PROGRAM in the B1G conference, with more wins than any other member school. And this isn't just a "peak year" or a fluke, as Michigan State also recorded the most wins in 2013.

For those who aren't used to counting women as equals to the men, consider these facts:

• The women play on the same court as the men
• The women have basically the same uniforms as the men
• The women are all MSU students, just like the men
• The women get funding from the same budget as the men
• Tom Izzo and Suzy Merchant have the same "boss" (Mark Hollis)

Sure, it was just men who played in the "old days", but those days are long gone. Many male Spartan alumni take pride in the female sector of the student body (for various reasons) and here is another reason for school pride.




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SPARTANS WIN 23 OF LAST 25 IN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL AGAINST WOLVERINES

The Michigan State Women's Basketball team beat Michigan for the 23rd time in the last 25 games on Friday night. The Spartans now lead the all-time series between the two schools, 64-16. Translated statistically, that means MSU has won 80% of all games against UM.

Suzy Merchant is now 15-2 against Michigan since taking over as MSU Head Coach seven years ago. She has led the Spartans to two regular season trophies in the past four seasons.

Michigan State has won 9 of the last 10 against UM, outscoring them by 78 points.

The Spartans have met the Wolverines four times in the conference tournament, winning all four games.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL RIVALRY NOT CLOSE

(click here)

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SPARTANS SEND WOLVERINES HOME FROM CONFERENCE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

The Michigan State Women's Basketball team knocked arch-rival Michigan out of the B1G Conference tournament tonight 61-58. The Spartans led for less than three minutes of the game, scoring the last two baskets and forcing a tough shot (to tie) that missed at the buzzer.

Senior Analise Pickrel led MSU in both scoring and rebounding, with a game-high 16 points and 7 boards. Tori Jankoska scored 14 points and dished out five assists with no turnovers. Becca Mills had 11 points, and Brandy Agee scored nine points off the bench.

The Spartans fell behind early, missing a number of good shots before the first timeout. Michigan took advantage by jumping to leads of 6-0, 21-11, and 27-13 before MSU rallied back to 31-25 when Agee hit a basket with four-tenths of a second remaining before half-time. She was fouled on the play, hit the free-throw, and it was a three-point UM lead at the break.

Michigan State grabbed a two-point lead early in the second half, but held it for less than a minute, as Michigan led by as many as seven points until Jankoska hit a layup with 1:15 remaining to give MSU a one-point lead. The Spartans got a stop, then Agee made a key rebound and putback to extend the lead to three points with 31 seconds to play. UM got two three-point attempts that missed at the end.

Michigan State shot poorly the entire game, winning on the strength of a +13 rebound-margin, including +11 on the offensive boards. The Spartans also had 14 assists on 24 made baskets. Cyesha Goree was held to eight points and two rebounds for Michigan, after averaging nearly a double-double this season.

This is the second year in a row that MSU has knocked UM out of the women's basketball tournament, and the fourth time in as many meetings. The Spartans are now 64-16 all-time against the Wolverines.

MSU advances to the semi-final round of the tournament tomorrow evening against Nebraska. The approximate game-time on Saturday is 6:00 p.m.




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MSU vs UM BASKETBALL GAMEDAY: QUICK STAT PACKS

PERIMETER PLAYER MATCH-UPS HERE

FRONT-LINE PLAYER MATCH-UPS HERE

MSU SEASON STATS PAGE

MSU PLAYER CAREER STATS

UM TEAM STATS PAGE

ESPN LIVE BOX SCORE

GAMETRACKER

Best MSU 3-point Shooters:

• 33% - Aerial Powers
• 33% - Becca Mills
• 37% - Tori Jankoska
• 37% - Analise Pickrel

Best MSU Free-Throw Shooters:

• 74% - Analise Pickrel
• 75% - Aerial Powers
• 75% - Klarissa Bell
• 79% - Tori Jankoska
• 79% - Becca Mills

Best UM 3-point Shooters:

• 43% - Siera Thompson
• 45% - Madison Ristovski

Best UM Free-Throw Shooters:

• 81% - Nicole Emblad
• 82% - Madison Ristovski
• 83% - Shannon Smith
• 88% - Siera Thompson

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MSU vs UM GAMEDAY MATCHUPS: FRONT-LINE PLAYERS

The Michigan State Women's Basketball team carries a five-game win-streak into tonight's game against Michigan in the B1G conference tournament. The second-round game between MSU and UM will begin at 6:30 p.m. tonight on the Big Ten Network.

Both teams will have their hands full in the back-court, as four players for each team will see plenty of action. We previewed the perimeter match-ups here. Let's take a look at the "bigs" who will play for each team.

The Wolverines have only two players that see regular playing time, and they're both good, a senior and a sophomore:

• 6-3 Junior, Cyesha Goree
• 6-4 Senior, Val Driscoll

Driscoll starts most every game, but plays the fewest minutes of the starting group. She averages six points and six rebounds per game. She's a reliable veteran who plays well within the system.

Goree is the match-up problem of the night for Michigan State. She's averaging nearly a double-double after doing very little her first two years. Her weakness is free-throw shooting, where she hits less than 60% of her shots.

The Spartans have four players who play power-forward and center:

• 6-3 Senior, Analise Pickrel
• 6-3 Junior, Jasmine Hines
• 6-4 Junior, Becca Mills
• 6-7 (R)Junior, Madison Williams

Pickrel and Mills start and usually play heavy minutes, while Hines comes off the bench for 15-25 minutes per game. Williams is used occasionally, limited by her surgically repaired knees, but has been effective at times this season. Pickrel was second-team all-conference, while Mills was honorable mention.

It looks like MSU can rotate defenders on the UM "bigs", but it seems unlikely that Pickrel will draw much time on her. Mills and Hines should be able to handle either Michigan starter, and Williams may very well be the answer to Goree for short stretches. I would like to see Pickrel taken off low-post duty to be deployed on any one of the UM wing-players where she can present a devastating size mis-match.

The key for the Spartans to contain Goree is to let her move freely on the perimeter, where she is just a passing partner to her teammates. Her defender needs to maintain presence in the paint to stop Goree down low. Hines can do this, as well as Mills and Williams.

Any one of the MSU players can control Driscoll, though she will probably have her moments a few times during the game.

Michigan State should be able to win the battles down low, assuming no foul troubles. The only game-breaker player for Michigan in this game likely would be Cyesha Goree.




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MSU vs UM GAMEDAY MATCH-UPS: PERIMETER PLAYERS

Looks like a close game tonight between Michigan State and Michigan women's basketball in round two of the conference tournament. Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

Let's take a look at the guards and wing-players who will get most of the minutes in tonight's game.

UM generally runs six players throughout the game, with little help expected beyond the first player off the bench. They list four guards on the roster, but two of those "guards" could be considered small forwards. We'll put them all in the same group:

• 5-7 Freshman, Siera Thompson
• 5-7 Junior, Shannon Smith
• 5-10 Sophomore, Madison Ristovski
• 5-11 Junior, Nicole Emblad

MSU uses a seven-player rotation, with two other subs that can play depending on the situation. Let's look at the four primary guards for Michigan State:

• 5-8 Freshman, Tori Jankoska
• 5-11 (R)Freshman, Brandy Agee
• 5-11 Senior, Klarissa Bell
• 6-0 (R)Freshman, Aerial Powers

Assuming Jankoska covers one of the 5-7 starters, the Spartans will have a small height advantage in every match-up. One of the shorter UM starters will have a bigger player on them at all times, and the larger UM guards will still be outsized. No amount of switching will change that when Michigan has the ball, and MSU can create favorable mis-matches by forcing defensive switches with the 5-7 guards.

All but one of the players listed are good free-throw shooters, the lone exception being Agee for MSU. Everybody for both teams shoots the three-pointer with some effectiveness.

Suzy Merchant likes to play man-up defense, and a zone would not be suitable against Michigan with their outside shooting strength. So these players will be going head to head tonight in Indianapolis.




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