Spartans Knock Out Temple, 72-61, To Advance To Second Round

• CLICK HERE to buy Tickets for the 2nd Round Michigan State Spartan Game

No longer a one-man show, Michigan State hopes its deeper bench will lead to a long run in this year's NCAA tournament. Tom Izzo Wins!

Go Green, Go White

Raymar Morgan led a balanced scoring attack with 15 points and the Spartans beat Temple 72-61 Thursday in the first round of the South Regional despite a sudden shooting slump from spark plug Drew.

Last year, Neitzel was the Spartans' only option on offense. Now, he's got scorers swarming all around. Chris Allen scored 12 points and fellow freshmen Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers each added eight for fifth-seeded Michigan State, which will face the Pittsburgh-Oral Roberts winner Saturday at the Pepsi Center.

Go Spartans

"There were nine or 10 guys that were responsible for this win," Spartans coach Tom Izzo said.
Mark Tyndale scored 16 points for Temple (21-13), which was making its first trip to the NCAA tournament since losing to Michigan State in a 2001 regional final. Daymor Rocks!

Dionte Christmas, the Owls' leading scorer, was limited to three points, 17 below his average, on 1-of-12 shooting.

MSU depicts authority against Temple in the first round.

The Spartans' defense was so good that Temple eventually ditched its sets and let Tyndale just dart to the basket.

Drew Returns and is Alive and Well in Indianapolis

Drew Neitzel scored 28 points in Friday's victory over the Buckeyes. In MSU's loss last Sunday to Ohio State in the regular-season finale, he totaled only six points.

get MSU Collegiate Cool Stuff here

Spartans lived to breathe another day in the Big Ten tournament. "And I'll tell you, he couldn't have picked a better time to bring 'old Drew' back."

Neitzel found the dagger missing from his game this season, squeezing the life out of a gritty Ohio State team fighting for its NCAA tournament bubble existence with the assassin's cold heart that defined his junior season.

He buried a three-pointer just before the shot clock expired with 1:21 left, giving MSU a six-point advantage.

Making the shot was huge, but perhaps more important for the Spartans' current state was that Neitzel wanted the shot. When you're practically begging a natural born gunslinger to fire away, you're in trouble.

But the old aggressiveness was there along with the old swagger. Neitzel was pumping his fists, defiantly shaking his head at defenders as he rained three-pointers on their heads.

Go spartans!

MSU cruises past Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne, improves to 9-1

Coming off final-exam week, the ninth-ranked Spartans (9-1) won their sixth straight game since a loss to UCLA.

Neitzel frequently gets off to slow starts and then turns it on in the second half. This time, he did the exact opposite. Neitzel scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half, then didn't score for the first 12:20 of the second half. "I wasn't attacking as much (in the second half)," he said. "I've got to be more aggressive and look to keep scoring."

Michigan State stormed out to a 36-17 lead on forward Marquise Gray's dunk with 7:04 remaining in the first half.

IPFW (4-5) came back with a 20-5 run that started late in the first half and carried into the second half.

Junior guard Jakari Johnson (Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills) led IPFW with 17 points.
Izzo credited IPFW, which also was coming off finals week, for not backing down.
However, Izzo was still irked by a couple "complete missed assignments" that led to 3-pointers during IPFW's comeback.

"If you do that in our league on the road, you're not going to win," Izzo said. "We proved we're not a mature enough team yet. When you've got a team down, you've got to put them away."
MSU forward Goran Suton said: "We get a big lead and we relax; we think we've already won the game."

As for some of the easy shots he missed inside, Suton said, "Those shots are killing me. I've been missing them for a while. I've got to change that."

Michigan State scored one point in the first 5:14 of the second half before a driving bank shot by Gray helped turn the momentum back to the Spartans.

"I was just trying to bring energy," Gray said. "This was the first time the Izzone (student section) wasn't here. That had an effect on us. It's weird. We're spoiled."

Gray finished with 15 points. Forward, Raymar Morgan had 12 points and seven rebounds.
No secrets

Michigan State University Basketball Tickets

Michigan State has been good, even very good at times, the last six years.
But, their surprising Final Four appearance in 2005 not withstanding, the Spartans haven't been great - as measured by the MSU fans that follow them.

The Spartan program measured by its amazing achievements from 1998-2001: four Big Ten championships, three No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, three straight Final Fours and the national championship in 2000.

This might be the year they get back to the top. With the nucleus of last season's 23-12 basketball team returning, including All-America candidate Drew Neitzel, and the addition of an athletic and talented freshman class, the Spartans are favored to win the Big Ten and appear to be serious contenders for another Final Four and even a national championship.

Buy your tickets early, because they may be hard to get during the season.

Let's forget about the Michigan loss on Saturday and start thinking about Spartan Basketball!

Tickets for Spartan Basketball at Great Prices