I usually don't let this get lost in the shuffle of football season. But, I'm a little late this year. College Basketball officially started last friday with Midnight Madness. The NCAA allowed schools to start at 7 this year which is gay. Most kept tradition thankfully. I thought I'd get this thread started and we can use it for preseason discussion much like the BT 2006 thread we started for football.

Tom Izzo was noticeably different in his preseason kickoff press conference. Izzo showed up for the first time not wearing a suit. He said it's going to be a workman like season. Back to the basics. Hard work, tough defense, and rebounding. They will spend one season now as the huge underdog. A role they haven't seen in nearly a decade.

Izzo was incredibly excited during the press conference. He said he'd like to see a season like this just once every 8 years. A year to remind themselves that it is going to take defense and hard work to win. He's looking forward to the monster challenge. This year has probably come just at the right time. MSU was terrible on defense last year and they were getting away from "The Spartan Way." This year MSU will have to fight and claw just to be a bubble team. It might be a great foundation for these guys as they prepare for the star studded talent to come in next year.

If Izzo can take this team to the tourney, he deserves Coach of the Year mention. They lost 78% of their scoring and they only have one true shooting guard on the roster. They are also 3 scholarship players short of the limit. I'm surprisingly excited to see if Izzo can do it. A tournament appearance would be a huge accomplishment. Opposing Big Ten teams better get their shots in on State this year. They won't get another opportunity for a long time.

Don't get me started.

Don't get me started.
Don't get you started on what?

Abandoning football so soon?

What if MState BBall starts out 1-4?

The DrTre11 SuicideWatch (see Calendar) is on until the end of October.

You know what, I’m sick of you Denny and I’m sick of the Michigan fans that bitch about basketball talk during football season.

First of all, Denny you’ve posted the suicide watch shit like 4 times. We got the point the first three times. Anybody that spends this much time posting the same shit to the same person 4 freaking times has some obsession issues.

Now to your point about giving up on football. I see you’ve posted in the NBA forum. What the hell are you doing Denny? Posting about basketball during football season?!!!! OH NO! You must be giving up on football. It’s okay to talk about professional basketball, but NO NOT COLLEGE BBALL! I’m sorry if NCAA basketball brings back bad memories, but basketball season unfortunately begins in the middle of football season. If you don’t like it, lobby to the senate like the whack ass volleyball parents. There are fans out there that are interested in the start of college basketball and if the threads interrupts your football jerk off session, go to Mlive and click on Michigan Football. I guarantee fans in Kentucky, North Carolina, Zona, Kansas, Illinois, etc. talk college hoops all year long. If you don’t like a thread when the season is weeks away, blow me.

The BT 2006 Football thread started July 25th. That is an entire month before the season. I guess those fans were just giving up on baseball right? Therefore a preseason basketball thread is more than warranted. If your team sucks, you don’t care about college hoops, or you are just too wrapped up in college football that is fine. But don’t bitch about Spartans wanting to talk basketball. That is our sport and we like to get excited about the season just like you like to get excited months prior to football season. If you don’t want to read it, don’t click on it.

:eek:YIKES!

Should this get moved here?

http://wtfdetroit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6772

http://www.gearandclip.com/emoticons/emot135.gif

I fell the same way tre does about this years program as I do about this generations Detroit Lions. Jus so FUCKING excited that we get to be shitty.

Don't get you started on what?

The "E" word.

Too late, you got me started. How can you be "ELITE" if you have a year of lowered expectations? The definition of elite should include perrenially high expectations, should it not?

Ok, I'm going to stop there for now. Breathe Jethro, breathe.

Should this get moved here?

http://wtfdetroit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6772

http://www.gearandclip.com/emoticons/emot135.gif

[smilie=rofl.gif] I think The Best Damn Sports Show Period should do a show about The Top 50 Sports-related Internet Message Board Meltdowns of all time. Tre vs. Denny might make the cut. WOW!

BTW, did anyone actually see what happened at Michigan State's midnight madness this year? I know Tre always says I'm making fun of State, but it's so easy. This was seriously the gayest thing I've ever seen.......[smilie=humpy.gif]

They decided to go with a "Fright Night" theme......that's all I really need to say.....[smilie=totlach.gif]

I wish I could post all of the pics, but they're in flash, so you'll have to follow the link...LOL.
http://msuspartans.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/101406aac.html (click on fright night photo gallery)

Here's a sample of what I could get-
http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/951/413006.jpg
Tom "Dracula" Izzo?

http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/msu/sports/m-baskbl/auto_action/689393.jpeg
Drew "Scream Dude" Neitzel?

If you click the link, there's another one of Marquis Gray as "The Wolfman" and I saw Tom Herzog walking around with a big ass Frankenstein head on on TV. Are you fricking kidding me?

Wow. I know if Michigan did anything like that I would rip on it BIGTIME, so I really hope Tre's green goggles don't come in here talking about how cool it was.

haha, that meltdown is can be blamed on years of moodini,wizzle,jickboy,filly complaining about bball talk in october. I was going for a Dennis Green like meltdown.

Jethro, I'm not going to get into the Elite stuff again. Of course I have to give a "short" response though and hopefully we can end it there. Bball isn't like fball. You lose 4-5 guys and you are losing half of your team. You don't lose half of your team in football. North Carolina had 2-3 really down years when Felton and the boys were young. Is UNC elite? Bball is just different. As long as you only have a couple in a decade, you are okay. ESPN validated Eliteness when they put MSU at #8 All Time Program.

Fright Night was super gay! Horrible. I'm sure it will be better next year and I'll be there.

I agree with the limited eliteness argument. You never go through an entire decade with the same school being a contender every single year. MSU will be elite as long as Izzo has all his marbles.

MSU will be elite as long as Izzo has all his marbles.

http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/951/413006.jpg
He may be losing them.

Well played.

Ok Tre. I'll also keep this very short. Over and over again you specifically stated in your "Michigan football is NOT elite" comments that you couldn't use the history of the program to determine whether they were currently elite or not. So you can't POSSIBLY use the #8 all-time stuff as a validation.

Just admit it, Michigan football IS elite. Not just was, but IS. As soon as you do admit it, I'll let the word go forever.

http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/951/413006.jpg
He may be losing them.

You only wish.


Jethro, Michigan has fought back and regained former status. I stand by my opinion that they were not Elite the last few years and this year was critical because they were often viewed as a program that was losing it. BTW, where are the UM fans bitching that this is a bball forum? haha

We own basketball too...


lol

Michigan has fought back and regained former status.

That's good enough for me

We own basketball too...


lol

haha, classic stuff

So I took a look at MSU's schedule and I'm once again disgusted by the Big Ten schedule. State plays NW and PSU only once again. Some common sense needs to go into this scheduling and this scheduling is not fair whatsoever. Anyways, here is my take on the BT. MSU would have jumped all the way to #1 or #2 had Brown returned. Very disappointing!

#1 Wisconsin- Tucker is the best in the BT and they will have some solid wide body goons to go with him.

#2 Ohio State- Great coach, #1 recruiting class in the country coming in, but Oden will miss time due to injury and there will be some unexpected losses because no matter how good the freshmen are, they are still freshmen.

#3 Indiana- Sampson's defensive intensity will instantly be felt around the BT. He is a product of the Spartan Way therefore, his team will play D and rebound. White healthy, sucks for the BT.

#4 Illinois- A lot of solid guard play and a good coach will send them to the dance again. This year we will see what would have been last year had Brown not broken his foot.

#5 Michigan- This team will struggle with pg play. How much they will struggle will determine where they fall this season and whether or not they finally reach the dance. The two meetings with MSU will determine this team's fate. I predict they win both for the first time in an eternity. They MUST win both though. UM has won like 2 of the last 20 or something. They must get past MSU with MSU being down. They need it psychologically and for the W/L column. If they happen to drop one or both, it would be catastrophic to their post season chances.

#6 MSU- This team has a legend on the bench. It's a good thing. Izzo and Neitzel are the only people that can save MSU this season. Neitzel has to be flat out great. Izzo says he's capable of doing a Skiles (17 ppg to 27 ppg). I think he can average 15, but they'd need 19-20 to make the tourney. Izzo basically sacrificed this season for the future. They are 3 schollies short of the max, he could have easily signed another good guard which they will desperately need. But, he chose to save schollies for the 07-08 studs. They would need 20 ppg from Neitzel, 10 ppg from Walton and Joseph, and 15 from Sutton. Not going to happen. They'll miss the tourney. They could be the first of the top tier of BT teams to miss it. Michigan could also miss but usually they have a joke non-conference so I think that will get them in.

I'll get my game by game predictions in soon.

Michigan State opens up tonight. Grand Valley with be within 10 points. Especially if Raymar doesn't play. I really really hope he's okay, because I'm really excited about him this year and MSU really needs him. I think if they played later in the year, MSU would win by 20, but the looks of them in practice the other day tells me that they are not ready yet and they need to work out a lot of kinks. Many of the players did not know their plays yet!

As I said, State will be horrible! They were down 14 in the second half to GVSU. Man, wish it wasn't this bad. I was ready to be patient, I don't know about this.

Do you have a final tre?

State won by 4. I guess this game was a little misleading though. Raymar didn't play as I thought might be the case. Good news though, just a strain. Kept out just to be safe since it was an exhibition. He's a starter and probably a 10 pt a game guy. In addition, Quise really didn't play. His ankle is still bad and he played only a couple of minutes and didn't make much of an effort because of the injury.

GVSU was 27-4 last year with 4 starters back. Do I want to see it this close? No, but it's not as bad as I thought with 2 potential starters out on a team with little depth.

Neitzel was apparantly awesome with 27 and Suton also apparantly played very well with 16. The praise was given by those commenting on things they saw them do, not necessarily just because of the points since it was against a D2 school.

As I said, State will be horrible! They were down 14 in the second half to GVSU. Man, wish it wasn't this bad. I was ready to be patient, I don't know about this.

Yikes!:eek:


#5 Michigan- This team will struggle with pg play. How much they will struggle will determine where they fall this season and whether or not they finally reach the dance. The two meetings with MSU will determine this team's fate. I predict they win both for the first time in an eternity. They MUST win both though. UM has won like 2 of the last 20 or something. They must get past MSU with MSU being down. They need it psychologically and for the W/L column. If they happen to drop one or both, it would be catastrophic to their post season chances.

I really have to argue with this point. I actually do think U-M will win both meetings this year, but if they lose 1 or even both, I don't think it will be CATASTROPHIC. They could still make the dance with a few quality B10 wins.

It's wierd to talk about basketball right now. I'm not in that mode at all.

I believe it would kill Michigan because there are many more games that they are almost certain to lose. Therefore, they need to take advantage of State being down and win those two that they should win.

They need to win from a mental standpoint too. I know they got one last year, but they've won like 2 in the last 20 or whatever it is. They need to get over the hurdle and start winning more or they are always going to be the little brother. Especially if they can't beat State this year!

They need to get over the hurdle and start winning more or they are always going to be the little brother.

Kinda like how State used to be Michigan's "little brother" in football? Now, it's more like "baby brother".

State won by 4. I guess this game was a little misleading though. Raymar didn't play as I thought might be the case. Good news though, just a strain. Kept out just to be safe since it was an exhibition. He's a starter and probably a 10 pt a game guy. In addition, Quise really didn't play. His ankle is still bad and he played only a couple of minutes and didn't make much of an effort because of the injury.

GVSU was 27-4 last year with 4 starters back. Do I want to see it this close? No, but it's not as bad as I thought with 2 potential starters out on a team with little depth.

Neitzel was apparantly awesome with 27 and Suton also apparantly played very well with 16. The praise was given by those commenting on things they saw them do, not necessarily just because of the points since it was against a D2 school.


Yeah, GVSU is no ones bitch. Their sports programs would be D1 if there we're any way into the school besides M45 and a back entrance through Jenison. They had an awful loss early in the tourney last year, but we're talking D2 championship.

Kinda like how State used to be Michigan's "little brother" in football? Now, it's more like "baby brother".

OOOOOOOH it's always back to football isn't it Moodini?! This is freaking hilarious. When I posted the same type of response a few weeks ago in a football thread, you said, "It's always back to basketball." What a joke.

That's why I went off. ABSOLUTE HYPOCRITE.

Anyways, I wouldn't even give U of M "baby brother." Maybe baby sister. You'd have to win more than 2 of the last 20. You'd probably have to finish in the Top 65 in the last decade. I think if you lose to your rival by more than 50 at some point in the series, you don't even deserve baby brother. Even MSU football finishes among the Top 65 once in awhile.

Not beating your rival once in 5 years is pure babyness.

The College Basketball Season starts tonight baby! Absolutely feeling it. I'm also excited to see some big dogs get knocked off early. Early season upsets are always great. Maryland is on ESPN's upset watch tonight.

Coaches versus Cancer tomorrow (no Jethro, Izzo isn't making a fashion statement with the kicks, it's to support the cause -remember that haha)

Michigan State tips off its season tomorrow against Brown. Hope we get TV coverage, can't put into words how excited I'd be to watch some Spartan basketball again!

Go State!

Not beating your rival once in 5 years is pure babyness.

How about beating your rival twice in a freaking decade????!!!!!!!! And you get two shots minimum a year! Hahahahah

Insert rolling on the ground, cracking up laughing emoticon

Wrong. You forget the year when we only played each other once and Michigan won.

How about beating your rival twice in a freaking decade????!!!!!!!! And you get two shots minimum a year! Hahahahah

Insert rolling on the ground, cracking up laughing emoticon

Insert the emoticon then playa.

Wrong. You forget the year when we only played each other once and Michigan won.

LOL Yeah, my bad. They've had 19 chances then. LOL

Enough Terrordome, more College Basketball.

MSU vs. Brown tonight! The Spartans start their season off with a shaky opponent. One that uses a Princeton style offense. Hopefully Lights Out is healthy again and Gray's ankle is better.

I'm going to predict a 9 point win for the Spartans tonight. It will be very close at some moments of the contest. The Spartans will have a second half run to pull out the win.

I don't know for sure if this one is on TV, but 90% of MSU's games are. But, I'm thinking Brown might not get the TV time. I hope its on though. I'm anxious to see Raymar in a game.

Go State!