Where's the Love for MSU Basketball?

It’s an exciting weekend to be a Spartan! I will be attending the Big Ten Championship this weekend and I will be sure to blog about it next week. Perhaps lost in the shadow of the football team, the basketball team squares off with Nebraska-Omaha at 2pm. For some reason attendance for the Izzone is at an all-time low and is expected to be poor this Sunday. In response this Sunday’s game will be free to MSU students while supplies last. This is an incredible opportunity to those who do not have tickets to experience one of the top 5 student sections in America. For those interested the gate opens at 12:30.

            I for one cannot understand the lack of interest in MSU’s basketball team this year across campus. Yes the team underperformed from expectations last year. It was a year filled with distractions, player turmoil, and exodus of key starters. Yet somehow that team pulled it together to make it to the tournament. What does it say about this program that the worst season Izzo can remember finished with a tournament berth?

            Now we come to this season filled with promising yet still very raw youth. They started off showing positive things while facing two of the very toughest teams in the nation on the road. They’ve come back home and built solid progress most recently evident in our Wednesday victory over a very talented Florida State team while representing inthe Big Ten/ACC challenge.

            This is an exciting team to watch that clearly rallies around its leader Draymond Green (although I wish he’d play more within himself more often). This team plays with a relentless energy it simply did not have last year. Keith Appling already displays the scoring prowess both at the rim and from beyond the arc that made Kalin Lucas Big Ten Player of the year while displaying a stronger dedication to defense and rebounding. I could go on and on about the soaring potential of Nix and Payne, the spacing Byrd and Trice bring when they get more comfortable, and the change of pace post presence of a maturing Gauna. The point is that this team has great potential to make a splash, and is one of the most exciting teams to watch in the nation. I just hope my fellow Spartans will join me in supporting them this weekend as they build momentum to take on a tough Gonzaga team on the road on December 10th.