Spartans Destroy Hoosiers; Improved Wolverines Become the Next Challenge. Bonus: Early Football Rankings?
Submitted by Paul Mercier on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 19:41
A solid performance from freshman Draymond Green was all the Spartans needed to overcome a Durrell Summers shooting drought on Saturday afternoon in East Lansing. The 9th ranked Spartans, now 19-4 on the season, took a small lead into the second half, but came out on fire and never looked back. Led by Green’s double-double (the first of his young career), the Spartans took advantage of Indiana’s youth, and played scorching defense, holding the Hoosiers to 31% from the field and 18% from behind the ark.
Next on tap for MSU is arch-rival Michigan on Tuesday in Ann Arbor. The game marks the only meeting of the two in-state squads this year. Michigan is coming off of a well-fought battle against the #1 ranked Huskies of U-Conn, a game in which most (including me) thought they would get blown out. Despite stumbling recently, this is a much improved Wolverine team. The Spartans will surely have their hands full with Manny Harris, and freshman Stu Douglass is starting to come into his own as a go to shooter as well. Izzo’s team will hope to continue its unbeaten streak in Big Ten road games, which as of now, sits at 5.
In Other News…
Has anyone checked out ESPN.com’s early football rankings yet? Although ESPN admits it is far too early to have precise rankings, they have MichiganState listed as a preseason top 25 contender. The site reports that although MSU will certainly miss Ringer, it returns many starting wide receivers, its entire line-backing and secondary core, and a few solid quarterbacks to compete for a job.
ESPN also notes that MSU plays Michigan, Iowa, and PennState at home; and does not play OhioState at all.
