The Final Four Is Not On The Schedule - A Podcast Discussing Michigan State Basketball.

December 15, 2022: Assistant Coach Thomas Kelley joined the Michigan State staff this June after Dwayne Stephens left to take over the Western Michigan program. Kelley played for MSU from 1994-1999 under both Jud Heathcote and Tom Izzo. After playing professionally in Europe for 15 seasons he returned to East Lansing to take a graduate assistant position in 2016. Although Kelley never played in th...

December 10, 2022: Brown came calling to East Lansing to serve as the book end to MSU's brutal November schedule where they traveled over 10,000 miles and played 11 games with very little rest in between. Fortunately for the Spartans, the Brown Bears didn't have a ton of rest (like most of their previous opponents) and were able to prevent the Ivy team from getting anything going offensively the e...

December 8, 2022: Michigan State returns home after a successful trip to Happy Valley with a quick turnaround again but this time their opponent won't have a rest advantage. The Brown Bears of the Ivy League visit on Saturday coming off a tight one point win over in-state rival, Rhode Island and carry a five game winning streak into the Breslin. Led by MSU assistant coach Doug Wojcik's son, Paxson...

December 7, 2022: Michigan State got the game it needed from AJ Hoggard as he led the Spartans to a 67-58 win over Penn State in Happy Valley. Hoggard led the team in scoring with 23 points and 6 rebounds on 6-6 clutch free throw shooting and 1-2 from 3. Joey Hauser chipped in with 12 points and 15 rebounds. Most impressive with the Spartans' defensive effort was limiting Penn State to only 9 thre...

December 5, 2022: Michigan State heads into Happy Valley to take on the Penn St. Nittany Lions in their second Big Ten matchup of the season. Penn State is 6-2 going into this Big ten opener for them despite being a team without a lot of size. The Nittany Lions have relied heavily on the 3 point shot with over half their field goal attempts coming from behind the arc. The Spartans will again be wi...

December 4, 2022: Michigan State for the second straight year drops a game at home to the Northwestern Wildcats. This time it is the season opener and came at the hands of an inability to stop the 'Cats on defense. Northwestern shot 21-24 from the free throw line to hang on and defeat the Spartans. One positive note was the return of Jaden Akins from injury who got to start the game but was clearl...

December 2, 2022: Michigan State prepares for its Big Ten opener against the Northwestern Wildcats at the Breslin Center Sunday night. After going 5-3 in the extremely difficult early non-conference stretch versus high level competition (and down two of their best players) MSU will attempt to begin its assault on another Big Ten title for Tom Izzo. The Wildcats come in struggling on offense ranked...

November 30, 2022: Perhaps it was inevitable that MSU would run into a team that got hot while their legs were out of juice. After playing 3 games in four days in Portland, OR the return late on Monday allowed for little rest before traveling to Notre Dame. The stretch of non-conference games that looked so daunting before the season began proved that way tonight especially as the Spartans were do...

November 28, 2022: It was announced today (November 28) that ESPN is canceling the Big10/ACC Challenge going forward and this will be its last year. The conference challenge will be replaced by the SEC/ACC challenge next year and we suspect we will see some iteration of the Big10/Big12 challenge as its replacement. Anyway, Michigan State will head into South Bend to take on the Notre Dame Fighting...

November 27, 2022: Michigan State faced the University of Portland on their home court in the fifth place game of the PK 85 tournament. It was a tale of three games as Portland dominated the first half with a barrage of 3 pointers (9-19) to take an 8 point lead into halftime (42-34). But the Spartans came back and on the backs of great shooting, solid defense, and tough rebounding took a commandin...

November 26, 2022: A depleted Michigan State team beat an even more depleted Oregon team 74-70 to qualify for the fifth place game against a surging WCC Portland team. MSU played a more complete game against the Ducks and looked connected offensively for the first time after losing both Malik Hall and Jaden Akins to injury. Michigan State played better and looks to continue their semi-surprising r...

November 25, 2022: Prior to leaving for Portland, OR for the tipoff of the PK85 against Alabama, Michigan State suffered two huge losses to injuries - Malik Hall, and Jaden Akins. Akins was sidelined after the Villanova game where he sustained a new injury to his previously injured foot that is not deemed serious but will be rested for a few games. Unfortunately, Malik Hall had a non-operative str...

November 21, 2022: Michigan State opens up the PK85 holiday tournament in Portland, Oregon on Thanksgiving against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Coached by Nate Oats, Alabama plays a unique type of basketball emphasizing the 3 point shot and layups and dunks. It is predicated on analytics that show it best to shoot 3s and take only high percentage two point shots to maximize your scoring on offense. A...

November 19, 2022: The Spartans held on to defeat the Villanova Wildcats 73-71 at the Breslin on a snowy night in East Lansing. After being up 16 with less than 8 minutes to play, Villanova almost came all the way back using key turnovers and opportunistic 3s and free throws to catch up and beat MSU. Fortunately, Tyson Walker was there in the clutch to prevent Michigan State from losing this game...

November 16, 2022: Michigan State welcomes in perennial power, Villanova, to the Breslin as part of the Gavitt Games this Friday. The Spartans are coming off an exciting win in double OT against #4 Kentucky while the Wildcats are struggling off to a 2-1 start defeating LaSalle and Delaware St and a loss to a weak Temple team. Legendary coach Jay Wright retired over the off season and leaves former...

November 15, 2022: Michigan State traveled to Indianapolis to take on #4 Kentucky (#1 in KenPom) in the Champions Classic as an 8 to 10 point underdog and comes away with a gritty win against Oscar Tshiebwe and a collection of great Wildcat athletes. Led by Joey Hauser's 23 points and 8 rebounds with 4-7 3 point shooting, the Spartans out-toughed Kentucky on the boards 45-38 and forced two overtim...

November 13, 2022: The high profile games keep coming for MSU as they meet #4 Kentucky in the Champions Classic on Tuesday, November 15. Kentucky enters the game ranked #1 in Ken Pom and an 8 point favorite. Kentucky returns last year's national player of the year, Oscar Tshibwe who is coming off a recent knee injury and is listed as questionable for the game. Can the Spartans carry over the inten...

November 12, 2022: MSU played its second game on an aircraft carrier against #2 Gonzaga on Veteran's Day and almost pulled off the upset. National player of the year candidate, Drew Timme, led the Zags down the stretch with 22 points and 13 rebounds as just a little more than the Spartans could handle. Despite being up by 12 in the second half, Gonzaga went on a run with improved defense and putti...

November 9, 2022: After dispatching its season opening opponent, Northern Arizona, Michigan State begins its non-conference gauntlet with the #2 ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs. The game will be the second time MSU has played on an aircraft carrier on Veteran's Day, the first being against North Carolina when Obama was president. Aside from the unusual playing conditions, the Spartans will be tested by a...

November 7, 2022: Michigan State opened its season against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks from the Big Sky conference with a final score of 73-55. Led by senior Joey Hauser who scored a double double with 18 pts on 6-12 shooting (4-8 from 3) and 10 rebounds the Spartans controlled the game from start to finish. Other performances of note was Pierre Brooks with 14 points on 4-7 3 pt shooting in 1...

November 5, 2022: The season opener is here as Michigan State hosts the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks from the Big Sky conference. Last year, NAU was 9-23 overall and 5-15 for a last place finish in conference play. They finished ranked 340 in KenPom where they didn't do anything very well on either side of the ball. Michigan State will look to get things set right before the gauntlet of games agai...

November 2, 2022: Michigan State won the exhibition game over division 2 Grand Valley State University at the Breslin Center 73-56. It was a game where the Spartans trailed at half time 31-36 after a less than impressive defensive and rebounding performance. The second half was a vast improvement as MSU held GVSU to 27% shooting. Most important, however, was that MSU looks to be in decent shape at...

October 31, 2022: The season has finally arrived (sort of) as Michigan State hosts the Grand Valley State Lakers to the Breslin Center on Tuesday, November 1. GVSU is a D-II school who has played MSU in the past and is coming off an exhibition loss to Eastern Michigan a few days ago in Ypsilanti. This will be our first chance to see how MSU looks in the middle with Sissoko, Kohler, and maybe Coope...

October 27, 2022: We sat down with Graham Couch of the Lansing State Journal and Couch and the Rube Podcast to get his thoughts on MSU's upcoming season and a host of other NCAA basketball issues. We talked about the potentially larger than expected role of Carson Cooper, whether Mady Sissoko can hang at the 5 spot, and what it will take for MSU to make a deep run in March or flame out and miss th...

October 25, 2022: MSU held a scrimmage in Knoxville, TN with the top rated Tennessee Volunteers this past weekend where we have only limited images and information. Reports coming out say that MSU held their own despite the absence of Jaden Akins although how the coaches approached the scrimmage may have been very unorthodox. Rod and Eric then discuss how recruiting has changed over the past few y...