• MSU v TT in the Alamo Bowl: Air Raid basics and how Leach will attack MSU - The Rivalry, Esq.
  Not many plays, but lots of formations.
• Michigan State safety Danny Fortener: Texas Tech offense unfamiliar to Spartans defense | MSU Spartans - - MLive.com
  Well, there's not much time left.  Better get on that.
• Michigan State linebacker Greg Jones: Decision on NFL will come after the Alamo Bowl | MSU Spartans - - MLive.com
  Stay, please.  Pretty please?  With sugar on top?
• Football: Young MSU linemen drawing praise | greenandwhite.com | Lansing State Journal
  Going to need them to draw more praise next year.
• The Most Valuable College Football Teams - Forbes.com
  MSU the 16th most valuable football team in the country.  Woo, skyboxes.
• Turnovers doom Spartans ... again - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN
  Eamonn Brennan, of The Dagger and Inside the Hall fame, has taken up residence with The Sports Leader.
• Big Ten Geeks's Blog - Big Ten Network
  Draymond Green is the +/- leader among the regulars (once again) vs. Texas.  Derrick Nix also a force for the positive in his time on the floor.
• Purdue Basketball Blog: Well, the easy part's over...(scattered thoughts)
  Not many chinks in the Boilermaker armor at this point; clearly the Big Ten favorite.
• Turner's goal: Play 3 weeks from tonight (Hoops & Scoops: an OSU basketball blog)
  Power of positive thinking?
• Lake The Posts - Northwestern Football Blog: Ho-Ho-Hum...10-and-1
  Not a normal blog headline for the NW basketball team.
• Rush The Court " Blog Archive " Brackets, Braces & Parentheses – Part 1
  Graphical proof that being tall helps, particularly on defense.

Bonus nonlaconical/noncheerful pre-holiday statistics

To follow-up on the concerns I expressed last night about the MSU basketball team's lackluster performances to date against quality opposition, here are the team's tempo-free numbers when you isolate just the Gonzaga/Florida/UNC/Texas games:

There's not a lot to hang your hat on there.  The team has shot the ball well inside the arc and from the free throw line, and the offensive rebounding has been up to Izzo standards.  But the turnover issues and poor 3-point shooting--not two areas in which you'd expect a team that returns a big group of perimeter players to struggle--have really held the offense back.

Defensively, the numbers are pretty uninspiring across the board.  And it's hard to say exactly where we can expect significant improvement going into Big Ten play--maybe 2-point percentage as the big men get more experience and we don't face Tarheel/Longhorn-quality post players (fewer easy baskets off turnovers would help there, too). .

The four teams against whom these statistics were posted are currently ranked 1, 28, 55, and 74 by KenPom (1, 15, 47, and 61, if you prefer Sagarin).   So you're talking about roughly the equivalent of the top two-third of the Big Ten.  Some fundamental statistical shifts are going to have to occur as the team moves from this 4-game sample into the 18-game sample of conference play.

Alright, with that does of noncheer delivered, I wish all of you a Merry Christmas.  Things will likely be pretty dead around here over the long holiday weekend.  We'll start afresh next week and hope that the new year heralds more jocund* times for the Spartan faithful.

*Good find in the old online thesarus, eh?