Shannon Brown is Now a Laker : 2-17-09

Michigan State up to No. 6 in new AP poll

Detroit Free Press

The Spartans jumped three spots in the Associated Press Top 25 poll released today to No. 6. In the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll, MSU is No. 5.

Michigan State defeated Michigan, 54-42, last Tuesday. MSU also benefited from losses by Duke, Wake Forest and Marquette last week.

Michigan, who rebounded from the MSU loss with a 70-67 overtime win at Northwestern on Sunday, did not receive a vote in either poll.

Connecticut (24-1), the runaway No. 1 for a third straight week, hosts No. 4 Pittsburgh (23-2) tonight. Oklahoma (25-1) held No. 2, while North Carolina (23-2) stayed third.

Washington, which was ranked for two weeks before falling out for one poll, returned this week at No. 22 and was joined by newcomers LSU and Dayton, which were 23rd and 25th.

They replace Utah State, Ohio State and Florida State, who all lost one game last week.

Michigan State in the Home Stretch

After MSU's much welcomed win in Ann Arbor this past Tuesday, every Spartan can take a deep breath, relax and prepare for the final six games of the Conference play, the Big Ten Tourney and hopefully a deep run into March. Here are some notes to consider about our boys in Green :

• 57 points = the combined amount that MSU beat Minnesota and Indiana by, their last two opponents. The Gophers shot just 28.8 percent. The Hoosiers were slightly better at 31 percent. Minnesota and IU combined for 16 assists and 37 turnovers.

• The two game results before the UM game = MSU 76, Minnesota 47 and MSU 75, Indiana 47. At game time, Minnesota was the #2 team in the Big Ten. State lead that game 57-19 with 12 minutes left in the entire contest.

• MSU leads the nation in rebounding margin this year.

• After the Michigan game, The Spartans have an entire week off to study, heal and prep themselves for the stretch run into The Big Ten Tourney and March Madness.

• A Big Ten Championship is in their grasps right now at 10-2 alone atop The Big Ten with Illinois two games back at 8-4. MSU beat Illinois on January 17th to cap off an eleven game win streak.

• State's toughest games left on the schedule are looking to be at Purdue on Tuesday Feb 17 (who has tanked as of late thanks to a Robbie Hummel back injury) and at Illinois on Sunday March 1st. The key to those games will be getting and keeping a lead to quell any home team fan melee.

• MSU's currents rankings are AP 9th, ESPN 9th, RPI 6th. The RPI ranking defines the seeds for the NCAA Tourney.

• Since the loss to Penn State, MSU has been without their second leading scorer Raymar Morgan who was considered to be a pre-season first team Big Ten All American. He should finally be well and rested for the February 17th Purdue game.

• In the past few days, the teams ranked numbers 5, 6 & 7 in the AP poll have lost, this should work wonders for out chances of getting a #1 seed in the Tournament :

#5 Louisville lost to Notre Dame by 33 points
#6 Duke lost to #3 UNC
#7 Wake lost to unranked NC State
#10 Marquette lost to #13 Villanova
#11 UCLA lost to #18 ASU


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MSU vs UM 2009 Basketball Recap

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Michigan State beats Michigan 54-42

The Spartans have won 16 of the last 19 in the series.

The Spartans (20-4, 10-2 Big Ten) have won three straight to open a 2.5 game lead over Illinois and Ohio State, moving closer to their first conference championship since 2001.

Michigan State held its third straight opponent to fewer than 50 points for the first time since the 1951-52 season.

Michigan State is 7-0 in true road games, joining Connecticut, Louisville and Utah State as the only undefeated Division I teams on opponents’ home courts.

The Spartans are 6-0 in the Big Ten on the road and are a win away from matching their school record set in 1978, Magic Johnson’s freshman season, and 1999, when they won their second of four straight conference titles.

MSU is 10-2 in the Big Ten; everybody else in the league has at least four losses.

Michigan State has a week to prepare for its toughest remaining game, at Purdue. No matter what happens in that one, the Spartans will be in sole possession of first place with five games left. Three of those five will be in East Lansing. One of the road games is against Indiana, the worst team in the league.

It is hard to imagine the Spartans losing three more games. And even if they do, somebody else would have to run the table to knock MSU out of first place.

Kalin Lucas made 13 of his 15 points after halftime.

The Spartans were without second-leading scorer Raymar Morgan.

Travis Walton, with some help from his friends, shut down Harris. Harris had just two points in the first half and finished with seven total on 2-of-10 shooting after entering as the Big Ten’s second-leading scorer. U-M forward DeShawn Sims made nine of 14 shots. The rest of the Wolverines were seven for 32.

Michigan made 32 percent of its shots in the first half, made just two 3-pointers on 10 attempts and gave up nine points off eight turnovers.

The Wolverines made 35 percent of their shots overall and missed 20 of 24 3-pointers.

MSU alumnus, film producer back in town, available for media interviews

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University alumnus Bill Mechanic will be back in town for a prescreening of his latest movie, “Coraline,” the first stop-motion – a frame by-frame animation technique – film to be shot in 3-D and scheduled for release Feb. 6.

“Like many alums, I have always felt a debt and a loyalty to MSU for getting me started in the world at large,” said Mechanic, executive producer of the film. “With ‘Coraline,’ the connection was very direct. ‘Coraline’ is the story of a family that moves from Michigan to Oregon.

“Coraline” is based on Neil Gaiman’s best-selling children’s book of the same name. Henry Selick, who directed “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” is the movie’s director. In the movie, Dakota Fanning plays the voice of Coraline and Teri Hatcher plays The Mother and The Other Mother.

While making the movie, Mechanic made sure that his alma mater was not overlooked even in the smallest of details.

“While we were in the preproduction phase, the costume designer was showing me the key outfits for the principal characters,” he said. “Everything was great until we got to The Father who, to my chagrin, was wearing a U of M sweatshirt. I said: ‘Not on any movie I produce!’ And so, at no small expense, a specialist had to knit a new miniature MSU sweatshirt The Father now wears in the movie.”

In cooperation with MSU Athletics, the MSU College of Arts and Letters is hosting an invite-only, sold-out, prerelease and reception on Feb. 1 at Celebration Cinema’s IMAX Theatre lobby, 200 E. Edgewood Blvd., Lansing. However, Mechanic will be available for interviews from 6 to 6:30 p.m. Media should check in at the registration desk located near the IMAX Theatre lobby.

MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo and football coach Mark Dantonio are scheduled to attend the events with their families.

Mechanic, who owns California-based Pandemonium Films, earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the College of Arts and Letters in 1973. He is the former chairperson and CEO of 20th Century Fox, which under his supervision produced award-winning movies such as “Titanic” and “Braveheart.”

For more information about MSU’s College of Arts and Letters, visit www.cal.msu.edu. To listen to a podcast with Bill Mechanic, visit http://spartanpodcast.com/?p=488. For more information about “Coraline,” and to watch a trailer of the movie, visit www.coraline.com.

MSU vs Minnesota Basketball 2009 Recap

MSU was winning 56-19 with 12:30 left in the entire game