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msu
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msu
‘little brother’ beilein looks to copy izzo’s program
I give the guy credit for stating the obvious:Beilein, who spoke at the annual Michigan alumni event at Point O’Woods Country Club, said that after a 10-22 season, it’s OK to steal part of the game plan from Michigan State and its highly successful men’s basketball coach, Tom Izzo.
“I think we have to admire them and copy them a little bit and say, listen, what’s made them so good?” Beilein said. “We haven’t been in the (NCAA) tournament for 10 years, they haven’t missed the tournament for 10 years. We have to look at that and say, ‘Why is that happening?’ We have to say, ‘OK, what are they doing that we can do, whether it’s facilities, whether it’s marketing, all those types of things.’
“We have to work hard to play catch-up, knowing that if you just continue to do it the right way, you can catch up,” Beilein continued. “I think it adds to the flavor of college basketball in the state that that rivalry exists. If you’re in Minnesota and there’s not the other team, there’s no measuring stick. Michigan State is a great measuring stick for us.“
“They’re a year ahead of us with a lot of stuff,” Beilein said of Michigan State. “We’re still finishing 2008 and they’re on the 2010’s. They set a great model for people of how to do it, and we’re not dumb enough to say we’re not going to do it that way.”
Everything he said in the quotes above actually makes a lot of sense. But this seems a little odd to me:
“It’s important,” Beilein said of facilities that can compete with state-of-the-art facilities at Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin. “I’m not going to say that we’re going to say, ‘Hey, we can’t recruit kids right now because of the facilities.’ We can do it. Sometimes facilities are more eye candy for recruits. While I know that’s a big part of today’s generation, but it’s more about efficiency with us.”
Efficiency? Yeah, I’m sure that’ll be a huge draw for recruits.
Maybe they can tie it in with an economics lesson — teach the kids about how spending a quarter of a billion dollars on the football stadium renovation means they’ll get to play in the most outdated basketball facility in the Big Ten for another decade.
I love what the Badgers had to say about Crisler last year:
Sometimes described as the 40-year-old landfill behind Michigan Stadium, Crisler Arena is in dire need of an overhaul. The 13,751-seat facility houses cushioned metal folding chairs and plenty of empty seats, as the arena is rarely sold out completely. It also is home to some of the more indifferent and quiet fans in the league, though Big Blue hasn’t had much to root for since the days of the Fab Five.
“The arena is pretty mediocre, considering the attention Michigan pays to its athletic programs and athletic department,” said Daniel Bromwich, senior editor at the Michigan Daily. “It is rarely filled up; only for Michigan State or Wisconsin games is the upper bowl full. The arena itself is old and not very nice.”
Still there are some positives, such as the perfect student seating — courtside, all the way down on one side — and no advertising anywhere in the building is a welcome comfort. Despite the few positives, the building is aging like vinegar at this point, not wine.
No advertising = no revenue.
No revenue = no renovations.
No renovations = no (or few) decent recruits.
No decent recruits = no fans.
No fans = no revenue.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Go get ‘em, John.
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msu, zLife
tooting my own horn
05.22.08 | Permalink | 4 Comments
This is cool. A few months ago I got a letter from the College of Arts & Letters at MSU saying that I had been nominated to apply for the school’s Alumni Association Board of Directors. I submitted an application, and then never heard anything for several months.
Well, there was a letter in today’s mail that said I had been chosen to serve on the board!
My feelings can best be summarized by this clip from Curb Your Enthusiasm:
My first meeting isn’t until October, and my term will last through 2011. In all honesty, I still don’t fully understand what my responsibilities will be as a board member, but there’s an alumni get-together before the Iowa football game this fall that I’m supposed to go to. I guess I’ll get the lowdown then.
For now… go, me!
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msu, sports
UM hoops program a joke
05.06.08 | Permalink | 11 Comments
Hey, don’t shoot the messenger:Michigan athletic director Bill Martin has said the school now has the money for a basketball practice facility. How much will that help bring U-M hoops back to prominence?
What? Does the University of Michigan really have a basketball program? You’re kidding! Seriously, this is well overdue.
Now, when recruits come to visit Ann Arbor, Crisler Arena doesn’t have to be the quick stop on the campus tour. At MSU, the academic center and The Breslin are two gems that blow most of the country – let alone the Big Ten – away when it comes to on-campus facilities. There’s no way that U-M has been able to compete with anything that the Spartans have on the basketball side; most of Michigan’s men’s basketball recruits have flocked there because of its legacy.
However, the Fab Five stuff is becoming an old relic, comparatively speaking. All MSU hoopsters have to do is point to the recent successes, their own recruits and the stability of the coach (Tom Izzo) and U-M is buried deep in the dirt. Then, the mention of the facilities is the coup de grace.
I know, I know. Michigan fans don’t care about basketball anyway. They’re more concerned with the real money sports. Like baseball.
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msu, sports
a tale of two programs
Michigan State will host a Final Four team at Ford Field for the next Big Ten/ACC challenge , making it the marquee game in the series this fall:
EAST LANSING — It could be a preview of the 2009 national championship game in Ford Field.
The Big Ten announced this afternoon that Michigan State will play North Carolina in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in Ford Field on Wednesday, Dec. 3.
"I was a little surprised, but I’m happy about it," Izzo said before Tuesday’s football practice. "I knew we were working on something (big), but I didn’t know it would be in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. I was thrilled when I found out that’s what it was.
"I was not involved (with the scheduling) one iota. I’m surprised that we know now. When do we usually find out? The end of June or July. So when they called me this morning is when I first heard.When I heard about, I said, `Wow!’ "
Meanwhile, the furry rodents from Ann Arbor might be losing a big man from their bottom feeder program:
Center Ekpe Udoh, who just completed his sophomore season, said at Monday’s season-ending banquet that he is considering transferring.
“We’re thinking about it,” Udoh said, adding he plans to go home to Edmond, Okla., after final exams in the next few weeks and discuss his options with his family. “Anything’s a possibility.”
He plans to make the decision “as soon as possible – I want to be fair to both parties.”
Hey, remember the Fab Five? Michigan’s AD sure hopes you do:
Michigan athletic director Bill Martin made an unusual comment at the Wolverines’ season-ending banquet Monday night. Martin pointed to former Fab Five player Jimmy King in the audience, and said: “One of these days I want to host a reunion of that entire team,” adding he wanted to do it as soon as possible.
Yeah, because it’s cool to honor cheaters like Chris Webber:
In U-M’s NCAA violations case involving the payments from booster Ed Martin to the players Webber “and his family received a total of approximately $280,000 in extra benefits from the representative between 1988 and 1993, a significant portion of which was received after the athletics representative became a representative of the university’s athletics interests in the spring of 1992.”
Part of the NCAA sanctions stated that U-M had to disassociate from Webber (and the other three involved athletes, Louis Bullock, Robert Traylor and Maurice Taylor) for at least 10 years from the date of the sanctions, May of 2003.
That means the disassociated individuals cannot: assist in the recruiting of athletes or helping an athlete while enrolled at U-M, they cannot donate money to the athletic department, they cannot get any benefit not available to the public at large, and their personal records were vacated.
Somebody needs a T-O, baby!
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msu, stefy, zLife
weekend update
Stefy was in town this weekend, and since I probably won’t get to see my girl again for at least three weeks, it was nice to spend some time together. We went out for dinner on Friday after I got home from work and then came back to watch the MSU game against Memphis.
I’ll cut in here with a quick aside about the game. In a word: painful. Memphis clearly deserved their #1 seed, and the first half was perhaps the worst 20 minutes of basketball we played all season. It was a bummer to see Drew Neitzel go out on a sour note after giving us four terrific years in green and white, but at least he went out with class:
“It’s been a great ride,” said Neitzel, after scoring six points in his final game. “I’m so thankful, so blessed for the opportunities I’ve had to wear this uniform for four years. … I’ve learned a lot from coach Izzo and my teammates over the years, played with some great players.
“You know, it’s been great. I’m blessed.”
Neitzel, the starting point guard as a freshman on that 2005 team, leaves as MSU’s 14th all-time scorer (1,534 points). He is fourth at MSU and 10th in the Big Ten in assists (582). He’s also third on the school’s 3-pointer list (273) and the all-time leader in free-throw percentage (86.6 percent).
“I said all along, he’s been the All-American boy,” Izzo said. “He’s an Academic All-American. There’s only been four in the history of our program. You know, he’s overcome a lot. It was his dream to play at this level.
“You hate to see a guy not have one of his best games in the last game, but he should be remembered more for what he gave off the court, into the community.”
Back to the rest of the weekend now.
Saturday was a fun day to go walk around Eastwood and do a little shopping. It was by no means ‘warm,’ but you could definitely tell that spring was in the air.
Later that afternoon we went back up to Eastwood for a double date with Stef’s high school friend Ty and her boyfriend Paul at Max & Erma’s. We had gone out with them for a similar dinner back in the fall, but it was nice to get together again and catch up on everything.
Yesterday Stef and I went over to my dad’s for lunch with the family. Sherry picked up some Chinese take-out on her way home, and those egg rolls from Ing Credible really hit the spot.We hung out and played with the girls for a couple hours after lunch, then came back to my place and watched Star Wars on DVD and ordered a pizza for dinner. See? This is why my girl is so amazing — she actually likes Star Wars.
Anyway, that was basically it for the weekend. Stef headed back to Chicago this morning, which means I’ll have at least a couple really boring weekends between now and our next visit. The one bright spot is that my mom’s birthday is next Wednesday, and I’ll be going to Ohio the weekend after that, so at least I won’t go totally nuts here in Lansing.
Yep… still need a vacation.
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msu
round one down
It’ll only get tougher from here, but today’s victory was exactly what we needed. I’ve been waiting to see a win like this for months, where everyone else steps up during a game where Neitzel struggles to put points on the board. I also appreciated the fact that we weren’t afraid to attack the full court press, which created a few nice fast break opportunities that never seemed to develop during the Big Ten season.
Pitt is one of the hottest teams in the country right now, and even though my boy Barack has the Panthers taking out the Spartans in the next round, I still feel like we have a decent shot at winning this game.
Of course, that assumes everyone not named Drew Neitzel can man up and play like they did today. Go GREEN!
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msu, zLife
i’ll definitely be buying this
The world’s greatest mascot will grace the cover of the 2009 NCAA Football game for Wii, which basically means I’m obligated to pick up a copy as a loyal Spartan fan.Okay, so I was probably going to buy this anyway, but come on… this is pretty sweet.
I haven’t bought a football game for any video game console since Tecmo Super Bowl way back in the day, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to handle all these high falutin’, whiz-bang graphics.
Who knows though, maybe I’ll be able to break some of the records I set back during my Tecmo days: +3,000 yards for Barry Sanders, 120 sacks for Michael Cofer, etc. I bet I could do some serious damage with Javon Ringer, although Brian Hoyer might be a liability. I’m sure his digital doppelganger will be just as disappointing as the flesh and blood version.
Anyway, I can’t wait to plunk down $50 on this bad boy when it comes out in July. I’m sure I’ll want to waste all sorts of time indoors playing video games in the middle of a beautiful summer.
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