I hope everyone recognizes how spoiled we Spartans are right now, and I'm not even talking about the weather the past week here in East Lansing. I am talking about how, between our basketball and football teams the last 6 years or so, we have all been more spoiled than the bitches on "My Super Sweet Sixteen."
(barf)...sorry...still recovering from Saturday...anyway...
Sit back and put things into perspective: our football team has made bowl games during every current undergrad students tenure, and those bowl games have been getting progressively better as the years go on (we can leave out everyones devastation after we ran into the punter). We have dominated B1G basketball for a while now, but if you have been a 4-year student at MSU during the last 12 years, you have experienced your school in the Final Four at least once.
I believe that between our Athletic Director Mark Hollis, and coaches Dantonio and Izzo, we have excellent leadership at the top of our athletic departments. Great leaders produce great leaders. Numerous sports writers or bloggers have placed Dantonio/Izzo as the top football/basketball coaching combinations in the country out of all universities, and no matter what happens the rest of this hoops tournament both our football and basketball squads will finish the year as one of the top 10 teams in the country. In my opinion, if your school has a football team and a basketball team that finish in the top 10, that gives you one of the best athletic PROGRAMS in the country. It should make everyone feel good about paying money to go support the team at the games and hopefully donating money after you graduate from this place.
My point is, everyone likes a winner. Since this is a positive post, I won't even get into the past...we all know Spartans have experienced our fair share of losing teams. Not now. Not anymore. We have winners like Mark Dantonio and Tom Izzo, and they are creating winners like Kirk Cousins and Draymond Green. We are not only dominating the state of Michigan, we are dominating the country...and we're not done yet.
Winners follow winners. We are spoiled right now as Spartans. It may be the weather, but for us, right now...winning has never felt so good.
Go Green. Forever.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Basketball Season
Hey guys, did you know our hoops team was on a 14 game win streak and ranked sixth in the country? Certainly doesn't seem like it. A lot of us are still riding the highs and lows of our football season, and thats understandable. It was a fun year, arguably the best team of the last two generations (I'm giving the grandparents the 60's). However, to most of us at this school right now, and for anyone who has long followed Spartan athletics, this is the time of the year we love and are proud of. Basketball season. It is in full force ladies and gentlemen, and the feeling walking around campus is that the students aren't as excited about this team as they should be. Hell, the ALUMNI IZZONE is responsible for our biggest win of the season, and they received high praise for how they rocked Breslin against Indiana, and they are old.
Maybe the reason our squad isn't getting as much love from within this year is because besides Draymond Green (and I guess I have to put Thornton here too), casual fans don't really know our new contributors. Branden Dawson is contributing more and more each game. Keith Appling seems to have finally turned into the slashing, scoring guard we were all hoping for to replace Kalin, Adreian Payne has one or two rim-rattling dunks per game, and Derrick Nix is in the best shape of his life and has the nimble post-moves of a 270 pound ballet dancer.
The thing I like the most about our team however is how much fun they seem to be having winning. Last year's team had the talent, but they didn't have a fraction of the chemistry this team has. Since the Gonzaga win in Spokane, I don't believe Draymond has played a good game by his standards (and he'd be the first to admit it), yet we are still getting the job done...and we all know he will pick it up when it really matters. This is his team.
One of the coolest things about our basketball program is without a doubt our student section. We are recognized consistently as one of the top five student sections in all of college basketball, but behind Duke's Cameron Crazies, I believe we are #2 (not usually ok with being number two, but you have to give credit where credit is due). We, in the Izzone, are a major factor in our team getting wins at home (obviously). Opponents FEAR the green and white in Breslin. The more raucous the crowd, the more rattled they get.
The point of this is to get everyone off their asses and to help cure your football hangover, cause this team is going places. We can sweep the B1G season at home this year, but the entire crowd has to step it up, starting with Iowa tonight. So pour a little whiskey in your pop, drink maybe one or two more Labatts, and get fucking rowdy in Breslin for the rest of the year. Lets hang some more banners.
Maybe the reason our squad isn't getting as much love from within this year is because besides Draymond Green (and I guess I have to put Thornton here too), casual fans don't really know our new contributors. Branden Dawson is contributing more and more each game. Keith Appling seems to have finally turned into the slashing, scoring guard we were all hoping for to replace Kalin, Adreian Payne has one or two rim-rattling dunks per game, and Derrick Nix is in the best shape of his life and has the nimble post-moves of a 270 pound ballet dancer.
The thing I like the most about our team however is how much fun they seem to be having winning. Last year's team had the talent, but they didn't have a fraction of the chemistry this team has. Since the Gonzaga win in Spokane, I don't believe Draymond has played a good game by his standards (and he'd be the first to admit it), yet we are still getting the job done...and we all know he will pick it up when it really matters. This is his team.
One of the coolest things about our basketball program is without a doubt our student section. We are recognized consistently as one of the top five student sections in all of college basketball, but behind Duke's Cameron Crazies, I believe we are #2 (not usually ok with being number two, but you have to give credit where credit is due). We, in the Izzone, are a major factor in our team getting wins at home (obviously). Opponents FEAR the green and white in Breslin. The more raucous the crowd, the more rattled they get.
The point of this is to get everyone off their asses and to help cure your football hangover, cause this team is going places. We can sweep the B1G season at home this year, but the entire crowd has to step it up, starting with Iowa tonight. So pour a little whiskey in your pop, drink maybe one or two more Labatts, and get fucking rowdy in Breslin for the rest of the year. Lets hang some more banners.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Spartan Family
I come from a family of Spartans. I am the 18th person from my family to attend and ultimately graduate from this institution. My family moved to North Carolina from Rochester Hills when I was five, but Michigan State and I kept up the long distance relationship. I am in love with Michigan State University.
I love our football team. The drive back from Indianapolis on this rainy Sunday in December was slightly less than four hours. It felt like 22 years. After the fateful penalty by Isaiah Lewis yesterday which eventually led to a Wisconsin first down and sprayed weed killer on our dreams of roses, I felt similar to the rest of the MSU fans in attendance: shocked, confused, angry, hungover, but most of all, utter sadness that almost brought me to tears. I think the majority of Spartans in attendance thought that if we got the ball back, we were going to win the game. That's just the way things went this year for us. It's been an amazing year.
Does it feel like the football season is over despite our bowl game left to play? Yes.
Should it? I don't think so.
We have been here before. We have felt the way we feel today before. I have been alive for 22 years and I feel like some of these Spartan games I have watched should have been used by President Bush to torture Al Qaeda instead of waterboarding. My freshmen year, the devastating "Little Brother" loss. Up by 10 with seven minutes left until Chad Henne and Mario Manningham took over and eventually put us away. Coach D kept us fired up however: "Pride comes before the fall" (cough four in a row). The Notre Dame game in 2006 when we were up by 16 going into the 4th quarter but failed to get the big plays when we needed then and lost by three. I remember I felt like I choked, and I was watching on TV. Those are the two big football losses for me in my short time on Earth that stand out way above the rest of them. I loved them then, too.
I bring up these losses to prove a point however. We are all madly in love with our Spartans. A girl tweeted at @SpartanProblems earlier and I thought it was perfect for what I was going to try and describe: being a spartan is like a relationship: you go from hopeful, to so happy, to heartbroken in like an hour. Couldn't agree more.
If you were dating the MSU football team, all of your friends would be telling you that you don't need to date this (insert gender-appropriate expletive). He/she is an asshole. He/she is a LOSER. You don't have to take this kind of beating. You love 'em anyway. You see the things that others don't. No matter how sad or pissed off they make you, deep down you are crazily in love.
Our recruiting classes never are ranked near the top 10, yet for the last few years thats where our TEAM has been ranked. Our players are never in consideration for the Heisman Trophy, but this year our entire starting defense was named either first, second, or honorable mention All-Big Ten. Our players get dumb penalties because they are playing too hard or they hate our enemies just as much as us fans do. I think a lot of us feel the same way Will Gholston feels about Denard and Michigan. Our players exceed expectations. Our coach's weekly press conferences aren't always replayed on SportsCenter, but even after last night, in our last 26 games, Mark is 21-5. Best in the B1G. We don't get the kind of attention we want and probably deserve, but maybe thats the way we like it. We love them and we brag to each other, and we stick up for our own. We defend our own.
The main point is, the relationship we have with our teams is like the relationships we have with our family members. We do weird traditional things that other teams and fans don't understand. We tell stories about our team that no one else could possibly tell because they can't relate. Our teams are like family because sometimes they surprise us, but sometimes they let us down. They piss us all off and frustrate us beyond belief, but just when you think there is no hope, Keith Nichol catches a prayer of BJ Cunningham's dome and we reach Nirvana. We have fans that didn't graduate from here, and maybe some of those fans shop or work at Wal-Mart, but our fans certainly don't root for us because its the sexy thing to do or because we always win. They just feel the love. We love our teams and they love us right back. We'll smell the roses soon enough.
Go Green. Forever.
I love our football team. The drive back from Indianapolis on this rainy Sunday in December was slightly less than four hours. It felt like 22 years. After the fateful penalty by Isaiah Lewis yesterday which eventually led to a Wisconsin first down and sprayed weed killer on our dreams of roses, I felt similar to the rest of the MSU fans in attendance: shocked, confused, angry, hungover, but most of all, utter sadness that almost brought me to tears. I think the majority of Spartans in attendance thought that if we got the ball back, we were going to win the game. That's just the way things went this year for us. It's been an amazing year.
Does it feel like the football season is over despite our bowl game left to play? Yes.
Should it? I don't think so.
We have been here before. We have felt the way we feel today before. I have been alive for 22 years and I feel like some of these Spartan games I have watched should have been used by President Bush to torture Al Qaeda instead of waterboarding. My freshmen year, the devastating "Little Brother" loss. Up by 10 with seven minutes left until Chad Henne and Mario Manningham took over and eventually put us away. Coach D kept us fired up however: "Pride comes before the fall" (cough four in a row). The Notre Dame game in 2006 when we were up by 16 going into the 4th quarter but failed to get the big plays when we needed then and lost by three. I remember I felt like I choked, and I was watching on TV. Those are the two big football losses for me in my short time on Earth that stand out way above the rest of them. I loved them then, too.
I bring up these losses to prove a point however. We are all madly in love with our Spartans. A girl tweeted at @SpartanProblems earlier and I thought it was perfect for what I was going to try and describe: being a spartan is like a relationship: you go from hopeful, to so happy, to heartbroken in like an hour. Couldn't agree more.
If you were dating the MSU football team, all of your friends would be telling you that you don't need to date this (insert gender-appropriate expletive). He/she is an asshole. He/she is a LOSER. You don't have to take this kind of beating. You love 'em anyway. You see the things that others don't. No matter how sad or pissed off they make you, deep down you are crazily in love.
Our recruiting classes never are ranked near the top 10, yet for the last few years thats where our TEAM has been ranked. Our players are never in consideration for the Heisman Trophy, but this year our entire starting defense was named either first, second, or honorable mention All-Big Ten. Our players get dumb penalties because they are playing too hard or they hate our enemies just as much as us fans do. I think a lot of us feel the same way Will Gholston feels about Denard and Michigan. Our players exceed expectations. Our coach's weekly press conferences aren't always replayed on SportsCenter, but even after last night, in our last 26 games, Mark is 21-5. Best in the B1G. We don't get the kind of attention we want and probably deserve, but maybe thats the way we like it. We love them and we brag to each other, and we stick up for our own. We defend our own.
The main point is, the relationship we have with our teams is like the relationships we have with our family members. We do weird traditional things that other teams and fans don't understand. We tell stories about our team that no one else could possibly tell because they can't relate. Our teams are like family because sometimes they surprise us, but sometimes they let us down. They piss us all off and frustrate us beyond belief, but just when you think there is no hope, Keith Nichol catches a prayer of BJ Cunningham's dome and we reach Nirvana. We have fans that didn't graduate from here, and maybe some of those fans shop or work at Wal-Mart, but our fans certainly don't root for us because its the sexy thing to do or because we always win. They just feel the love. We love our teams and they love us right back. We'll smell the roses soon enough.
Go Green. Forever.
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