With less than two minutes left in the game and Michigan State clinging to a four-point lead, Draymond Green took the ball and drove to his left. Desperate for a score and swarmed by defenders, Green spotted his teammate Keith Appling spotting up in the opposite corner. Just as his momentum was carrying him out of bounds under the basket, Green delivered the ball to Appling and supporters from both sides held their breath.

Appling leaped and fired a shot that would go a long way toward deciding the outcome of the Third Round game between Michigan State and Saint Louis. The ball hit the rim, rolled around and dropped in to give the Spartans a 58-51 lead with just 1:37 remaining. After that, Michigan State just needed to hit its foul shots to go on to win 65-61.

"All night they had pretty much been begging me to shoot the ball," Appling said. "We got in the huddle during one of our timeouts and Draymond instilled some confidence in me, telling me I was a 3-point shooter last year, `So shoot the ball.'

"We drew up a play for him and the defense collapsed and I was wide open. He hit me with a pass that was perfect, right in my shooting pocket, and I was able to knock it down. As soon as it came off my hand, it felt good, and once I saw it go through the hoop, I was all smiles."

Sure enough, the defensive game plan drawn up by Saint Louis coach Rick Majerus was to back off of Appling in order to limit the productivity of Michigan State's powerful forwards. On the season, Appling is just 23 of 94 from beyond the arc (24.5%), and with Saint Louis challenging him to shoot, he was only 0 for 2 from long range... until that last shot went in.

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With a 20-5 record and six games remaining, the Michigan State Spartans are closing in on the prize of winning the Big Ten Championship. There was some doubt that the Spartans would contend with Ohio State especially after the rocky start Sparty had this season. No coach would ever dare to have North Carolina and Duke to begin the season, besides Tom Izzo. The fearless leader that Izzo is took the lumps with the two consecutive losses and identified the issues with his team.

The holes that Izzo found were inside presence, consistent perimeter shooting, and rebounding integrity. All of which were aided with potential Big Ten Player of the Year Draymond Green. The same lumps that the Spartans had early in the season also ailed the leader of the team in Green. He lost consistency on his shot and was weak when driving to the basket.

Now with 25 games in the books for Michigan State, the team ranks in the top-ten nationally in rebounds per game. Not only do the Spartans average 40 rebounds a game, they allow the fewest as a defensive unit. While the bigs of Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix haven't been the strongest of rebounds, Green has picked up the slack. He is the top rebounder in the conference by averaging over 10 rebounds per game; Green ranks 13th in the nation in rebounds per game including being 5th in defensive rebounding.

Here are some more team stats:

-1st in assists in the Big Ten

-2nd in blocks in the Big Ten behind Minnesota, 2nd in steals

-Michigan State ranks 4th in offensive production and 3rd in defense

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Although Michigan State has started its season 0-2, they lost by a combined 17 points to two of the top teams in the nation.  Last Friday night, the Spartans fought hard against North Carolina for most of the game.  The team lost its composure late after inching back in the second half.  On Tuesday, Michigan State seemed to fall out of favor quickly in the second half after only being down by one at half.  Yet, with minutes to go, MSU bolted back to only a five-point loss.

The Spartans finally get to return home after a long week across the country.  From San Diego to New York, Izzo’s squad gets their first game at the friendly confines of the Breslin Center.  They don’t have to see Harrison Barnes.  They don’t have to watch Andre Dawkins.  Instead, they get Tigers of Texas Southern.  

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It’s been a long time coming.  Basketball fans have patiently waited for the start of the new season.  They got their fix for a few months with one of the best NBA playoffs in recent memories.  The NBA lockout put a hamper in basketball lovers to get their fix for the past month and a half of basketball activities.  The time has ticked down to this weekend, and to this game. 

The Quicken Loans Carrier Classic has been in the works for a few years, but it finally got into place over the past season.  It would allow two of the top programs in the nation to face each other in the oddest conditions college basketball have ever seen.  Not only is the game being played in outdoors conditions, its not even being played on land.  The USS Carl Vinson will be the sight of the first big college basketball game of the year, off the coast of San Diego on 11/11/11.  The away team, North Carolina Tar Heels, come in as the preseason number one team in the nation with the senior leadership of Tyler Zeller and raw talent of Harrison Barnes, John Henson, and Kendall Marshall.  The home bench belongs to the Michigan State Spartans and Tom Izzo.

Izzo has stated that he doesn’t think the conditions will make a big difference in the contest while Roy Williams has repeatedly suggested that this game is going to be very interesting because the surroundings of the game.  Even with wind guards, 7,000 spectators, and a legit hardwood basketball floor, the game has be slightly different in the conditions of playing outside.  Here’s an interesting video done by Sport Science on the issues. 

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It was a season that finished with disappointment; the worst season for Michigan State in a long time.  The Spartans didn’t see the 20-win plateau for the first time since the 2003-2004 season.  Luckily, Tom Izzo was still able to lead his beaten troops to the NCAA Tournament for the 14th straight season.  Michigan State was able to enter the tournament as a 10-seed against an iffy UCLA team.  Even though the Spartans were able to make a great comeback after being down 18 at halftime, they still fell short and the season was over.

But, that’s history now.  Kalin Lucas, one of the most consistent Spartans under Tom Izzo, graduated.  The same goes for Durrell Summers.  Delvon Roe had to leave the team for health concerns.  And, Garrick Sherman transferred.  Truth be told, this Spartan team doesn’t have much of an identity heading into the new season.

The past is the past.  This is the present.  

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It was shocking news to the entire Big Ten network of fans to hear that forward Delvon Roe won’t be returning to the basketball court for his senior season.  Roe, known for his interest in being an actor, cited knee issues for calling it quits with the Michigan State Spartans.  Tom Izzo called for a press conference Thursday to announce the saddening news.

The senior out of Ohio has led the Spartans to two Final Four appearances in his short career.  While he has never been a prolific scorer for MSU, he has seen as a catalyst in important games through both the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.  He finishes second in the school history with 106 blocks.  

The forward had this to say during the press conference Thursday: "This is the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. It feels that I’ve been playing through pain throughout my career at MSU, but the daily grind of basketball – the running, cutting, jumping – has finally taken its toll given the intensity required to play at our level. I started playing basketball because I loved the game, but the pain has taken that away and forced me to always think about just getting through the next few minutes or the next game. I don’t want to just `get through’ anymore. I’ve played on a leg and a half for most of my career, and that’s not fair to my teammates as they go through the daily grind."

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The past two weeks, it’s been talked about the difficulty of the non-conference schedule of Michigan State.  That is always the talk each and every season Tom Izzo coaches.  He enjoys to put his team against tough opponents early to prepare the Spartans against the fierce competition in the Big Ten.

After defending against Duke, North Carolina, Gonzaga, and other opponents, the last weekend of the 2011 calendar year has Michigan State starting its conference play against Indiana.  This is a trap game.  That’s a guarantee because the Hoosiers are close to becoming a solid team against in the Big Ten under the direction of Tom Crean.  Crean has Cody Zeller coming into his lineup this season along with a bunch of other good young pieces of talent.  The other issue is that Michigan State might be walking into that game thinking about what they just got from Santa, and how they sadly have to spend New Years' in Nebraska.  

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At first glance of the Spartan’s non-conference schedule, you can already sense difficulty and interesting headlines in the future.  Michigan State has to not just combat the Big 10 schedule, but also some tough non-conference opponents, with the hardest and most interesting one coming in early November.  Tom Izzo is known for scheduling a grueling non-conference schedule, but his teams always seem to perceiver through it all.

It was a year or two in the making before 11/11/11 matchup North Carolina was set in stone.  The game against UNC will be as neutral a site can ever be.  It will be played on an aircraft carrier on the shore of San Diego.  The Tarheels and Spartans play each other almost every other year and it has turned into a friendly rivalry.  It features two of the best coaches in all of college basketball along with a selected few McDonald’ All-Americans and great fans.

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