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

September 4, 2025: The Minnesota Golden Gophers have basically had a lost four years for their basketball program. Colorado State head coach Nico Medved was discussed as a possible replacement for Richard Pitino 4 years ago buy the Gophers went with Ben Johnson. Now they find themselves in a nearly identical position with a flailing program and Nico Medved as a coaching candidate. Medved returns h...

September 1, 2025: Today we talk about Rod’s predicted #17 team in the Big Ten - just above the cellar - the Penn State Nittany Lions. Mike Rhoades enters his third season with what looks very similar to his year 1 venture - a bare cupboard and a whole lot of new pieces. Last year was not the season the Lions had hoped for as they finished 17th in the league and missed the Big Ten Tournament. And...

August 28, 2025: Things haven’t gone as planned for the Rutgers basketball program for a couple years now. They began their journey into the Big Ten as the ultimate has been or doormat. But under the leadership of Head Coach Steve Pikiell, he developed a program culture that was focused on toughness and eventually winning. That process led them to two straight NCAA tournament appearances. Unfortun...

August 19, 2025: If there’s one constant with the recruiting trail for MSU, it’s that it isn’t constant - or at least always evolving. After the commitment from fast rising point guard Carlos Medlock, Jr., there has been a slew of high profile players scheduling their official visit to East Lansing. We review all those players and handicap the likelihood they end up Spartans in the episode. Are yo...

August 12, 2025: Noted Lansing State Journal columnist Graham Couch joined the show to today to talk some MSU hoops and provide his thoughts on this year’s team. We discussed how surprising the last year was and whether this year can repeat that success. Are you looking for collegiate apparel including Spartan gear? There’s only one place we recommend you go to get your MSU T-shirts, hoodies, swea...

August 5, 2025: Divine Ugochukwu joins the show to talk about what it’s like playing point at MSU, defending under Tom Izzo, and yoga. Are you looking for collegiate apparel including Spartan gear? There’s only one place we recommend you go to get your MSU T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts — Nudge Printing ( https://www.nudgeprinting.com )   Nudge is owned and operated by Gabe and Brittany, two MSU a...

July 31, 2025: Denham Wojcik joined the show to talk about what it’s like to play for his Dad, playing the break with Carr and Fort, and being home for home cooking. Are you looking for collegiate apparel including Spartan gear? There’s only one place we recommend you go to get your MSU T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts — Nudge Printing ( https://www.nudgeprinting.com )   Nudge is owned and operated...

July 29, 2025: Trey Fort joined the show to talk about how he ended up at MSU, what he brings to the team, and how he (almost) feels sorry for opposing teams when he’s on the fast break with Carr. Are you looking for collegiate apparel including Spartan gear? There’s only one place we recommend you go to get your MSU T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts — Nudge Printing ( https://www.nudgeprinting.com )...

July 25, 2025: Michigan State landed its first high school recruit for the 2026-27 season with 6’0” point guard Carlos Medlock, Jr.   Medlock played his first three years at Wayne Memorial High School where he started all of them. He will be playing his senior year in Missouri at Link Academy. Although Medlock was not heavily recruited last year he has blasted up the charts and received high major...

July 22, 2025: We are joined tonight with our friend Jay Bilas to once again talk about the Spartans and the state of college basketball. Jay weighed in on what he thought about MSU’s season and whether he was surprised. Then we talked a little Big Ten and coaching before hitting the meat of the discussion. Bilas was probably one of the earliest analysts to talk about what was coming in college at...

July 17, 2025: It’s summer which means Moneyball is happening in Lansing. In case you aren’t aware, Moneyball is a free pro-am tournament that runs for two months every summer featuring current MSU players. Moneyball Sportswear sponsors the event at Holt High School which is free to attend. There are only some things to take away from Moneyball. You can’t learn much about defense or rebounding sin...

July 10, 2025: There have been a lot of great players who have played under Tom Izzo. In his 30 years as head coach, he has had top recruits who have gone on to play pro and others who were barely recruited who became great. It’s easy to forget the trajectory of some of these greats but ultimately Rod goes over why he thinks they are the best of the best. We rank the top fifteen Spartan players of...

July 2, 2025: Tonight we were joined by MSU assistant coach, Saddi Washington who joined the team last year after a long stint in Ann Arbor. Washington is the son of former MSU great, Stan Washington, one of the all time greats in MSU basketball history. Coach Washington talked to us about his career and what he has learned under some great head coaches: Tom Izzo, John Beilein, and Greg Kampe. We...

June 28, 2025: It might be the off season but there’s still a lot going on at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. Incoming sophomore transfer, Kaleb Glenn, tore his patellar tendon and is out for the year. We discuss the implications of the injury, our expectation for its impact, and more. Then we move on to talk about the new offers for high school players for 2026 and what it might say about whe...

June 18, 2025: We are joined this week with MSU assistant coach, Jon Borovich. Borovich joined the staff 3 years ago from Northwestern although he has had a long history with Tom Izzo. Not only did he serve as a grad assistant perviously under Izzo but he worked under former Izzo assistant coaches Mark Montgomery and Brian Gregory. Borovich goes over the upcoming roster: where he has seen developm...

June 12, 2025: It’s easy to forget with the constant buzz about the transfer portal but high major D1 schools still do recruit high school athletes. Of course, MSU is no stranger to going after big fish and the 2026 class is no different. Some very interesting recruitments include legacy kids like Jaxon Richardson, Mateen Cleaves Jr., and KJ Torbert. However, in a sign of the times, there is a ver...

June 5, 2025: Michigan State let go its athletic director, Allan Haller, a few months ago for a variety of reasons. By all accounts, Haller was doing a good job in managing the athletic hiring and firing and administration of the programs at MSU. However, he struggled coordinating and successfully fund raising both for the department and for the ‘off the books’ NIL. So Michigan State hit the trans...

May 29, 2025: Michigan State continued to round out its roster as it added 6’ 3” Sophomore Divine Ugochukwu from the University of Miami (Florida). The point guard who started over half of Miami’s games last year had a good freshman year averaging 5.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg, with an assist to turnover ratio of 2.3:1.6. He shot 63% at the rim which would have made him a leader at MSU last season. His most ob...

May 22, 2025: Today’s the finale of our Big Ten Recap where we talk about the top of the standings of the Big Ten. We review Purdue, Wisconsin, UCLA, Michigan, and Maryland. As we all know, MSU lapped the field in the Big Ten this year but the top was in doubt as teams like back to back champ Purdue showed signs of competing at the top and Wisconsin had a very surprising run exceeding most analyst...

May 15, 2025: Part two of our Big Ten Recap is here where we talk about the middle of the pack of the Big Ten. We review Minnesota, Rutgers, Ohio State, Indiana, Oregon, and Illinois. There was turmoil in this group with two coaching changes: Ben Johnson getting fired at Minnesota and Mike Woodson being encouraged to retire at Indiana. Rutgers had two top 5 Freshman but were unable to put any viab...

May 8, 2025: Today marks the first of our three part series recapping the season for the Big Ten’s teams. We begin our tour with Washington and then continue through Penn State, Nebraska, Iowa, USC, and finish with Northwestern. The group of teams included some interesting storylines with first year coaches Danny Sprinkle from Washington and Eric Musselman at USC. It also included the final year o...

May 1, 2025: Today’s show is on the current roster status of MSU and its upcoming 2025-26 Big Ten Schedule. Last week we discussed the possibility of 5 star recruit Darius Adams joining the Spartans after decommitting from UConn. Those who follow Michigan State recruiting know that Adams was a target of MSU’s in this class. He ended up at Maryland and we discuss what that means.   Also, Jase Richa...

April 23, 2025: This episode focuses on two things, MSU’s season in review and the potential recruitment of Darius Adams. At one time, MSU was one of the final teams angling to bring 5 star McDonad’s All-American, Darius Adams, but lost out to UConn. Well, UConn, brought in a lot of portal guards and they allowed Adams out of his commitment. This left a question whether Adams might be the final pi...

April 16, 2025: Michigan State continues to expand its roster and just as we expected, they looked to add another guard. Well, in comes Trey Fort, a 6’4” SG from Samford who averaged 41% from 3 this year and has one year left in eligibility. Although he isn’t a primary ball handler, he should help in MSU’s backcourt. The probable addition of Fort brings up the next obvious question - who’s next fo...

April 11, 2025: With the departure of MSU’s seniors, graduate students, and Jase Richardson to the NBA, there was an obvious need for bodies to complete next year’s roster. So Tom Izzo and the Spartans went into the portal and signed 6’7” 220# Kaleb Glenn from FAU. Glenn was a former teammate of Jeremy Fears in AAU and for a year at LaLumiere in Indiana. He comes ia Louisville and then FAU where l...