The 2011 Favorite Spartan Athlete Bracket: The Munn-Daugherty and Merchant Regions

by Pete Rossman on May 22, 2011 9:34 PM CDT in Michigan State Spartans News Roundup

Announcing the last two regions of the 2011 Favorite Spartan Athlete bracket, the Munn-Daugherty and Mason Regions! The first two sections are the Munn-Daugherty, and here they are:

The only sport-on-sport match-up happens at the top, as Kirk Gibson (you may also remember him from such sports as baseball) faces Muhsin Muhammad.
One of the great things about this undertaking is that it produces random battles. Delvon Roe and Brandon Fields easily falls into that category.
Speaking of random matchups, Bryan Lerg and Draymond Green would easily qualify as one of those.
One of the great underrated Spartan hoopers in Johnny Green faces one of the (possibly, depending on your POV) great underrated football players in Jehuu Caulcrick.

Here's the other half of the Munn-Daugherty:

Under the "If you helped us write Spartan Tip-Off, you get a spot" rule, Al Anagonye gets in and will face Brett Swenson, who you may remember from such clutch kicks as Wisconsin, 2008.
This bracket also presents some tough match-ups, and I think Raymar v. Magic would fall into that category.
The next one will tell a lot about the age demographics of this site. If this site skews old Bubba Smith wins easily. If not, I think Drew Stanton might pull it out.
The last vote in the M-D region pits two great non-revenue athletes against one another. 2010 Masters participant Jack Newman goes up against steeplechaser Nicole Bush, who was one spot away from making the 2008 Olympics.

Next up, the Merchant region:

Sorry to disappoint you, but it's getting past my bedtime so no pithy comments on each matchup. Here's the last four:

So, final thoughts? I know there's bound to be snubs, and I tried to include as many of your favorite Spartans as possible while still allowing spots for non-revenue athletes. I'm going on vacation starting Tuesday, but I'll do my best to have the first "game" up on Tuesday.

Tweet Comment 18 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

I hate to be critical

But we’re really just flushing Raymar Morgan down the toilet by facing him up to MAGIC EFFIN JOHNSON? First off, thats a second sport on sport match up right there. Secondly we are going to follow that with Jack Newman and Nicole Bush, which is perhaps destined to be the most apathetically received match up of the bracket? Come on man!

Also Neitzel Bell is another sport on sport and ridiculously tough. No problem with it being tough but I honestly think Raymar (and any other basketball player) deserves better than going against the arguably greatest player to ever play the sport in the first freakin’ round!

Choices:

Gibson (Tiger bias. Plus my dad once got stalked by a drunk woman who thought he was Kirk Gibson. Points there too.)
Roe (What a tough fighter)
DayDay (Love him. Dont care if hes current or not)
Caulcrick (I just loved watching him destroy Purdue, live in W Laffayette. As Mike Valenti says: He was a bowling ball!)
Swenson (Love the guy, hate to shaft Anagonye but…)
Magic (C’Mon man! Seriously?)
DREW (Best QB we ever had beside Earl Morral who BY THE WAY WHERE THE EFF IS HE! I didnt nominate him so no complaining but Im embarrassed that myself and the rest of Spartan Nation forgot him.)
Newman (Go Golf. But seriously who cares? Drew moves on to the Sweet 16)

Neitzel (Loved him since Day 1, was always my favorite after Brown)
Hoyer (For making Tom Brady wear the MSU apparel and his smarts making up for lack of natural ability)
Kebler (I think you all know…)
Lerg (Champ. Underdog.)
Kay-Lin Loo-Kass! (One of our greats)
Haynie (Who the hell is Steve Garvey? lol)
Smith (Another great. When you think about how many amazing PGs MSU has had… Cleaves, Neitzel, Lucas, Bell, Smith, Snow, Skiles, MAGIC. Kieth Appling… you got a lotta work ahead of you son)
Kelser (Half of the equation that essentially invented the Alley Oop. And he was the Oop)

by Loneytunes on May 22, 2011 11:27 PM CDT reply actions

Votes

Gibby
Roe
Green
Green
Swenson
Magic
Bubba
Newman
Bell (toughest matchup to date for me)
Skiles
Reese
Lerg
Hill
Garvey
Smith
Kelser

by Gym_Rat on May 23, 2011 5:37 AM CDT reply actions

Votes

Gibson, Roe, Green, Caulcrick
Swenson, Johnson, Smith, Newman
Bell, Skiles, Reese, Greene
Lucas, Haynie, Smith, White

by spartyCPA on May 23, 2011 6:53 AM CDT reply actions

Gibson
Roe
D. Green (only one of three spartans to get a tripple double)
J. Green
Swenson
Johnson
Stanton (Tough choice cuz I loved the Police Academy movies)
Newman (Don’t know either)

Bell (2 more Final Fours than Drew, 1 NC, and plays in NBA)
Skiles
Reese
Lerg
Lucas
Haynie
Smith
Kelser (Sorry Blair, Special K is an MSU legend)

by elgoosh on May 23, 2011 9:10 AM CDT reply actions

votes

gibby
roe
draymond
jehuu (i had class with him and ringer between our sophmore and junior years, jehuu’s junior and senior years)
swenson
raymar
stanton
bush

neitzel
skiles
kebler
greene
lucas
haynie
smith
b. white.

(im trying not to vote for people who i never saw play a spartan sport but thats harder said then done.)

by tbone521 on May 23, 2011 9:47 AM CDT reply actions

Votes

Gibson, Roe, Day-Day, Green, Anagonye, Magic, Bubba, Bush, Bell, Skiles, Reese, Lerg, Lucas, Garvey, Smith, Kelser

by Jim Pingel on May 23, 2011 10:03 AM CDT reply actions

Gibson
Roe
Green
Green

Anagonye
Johnson
Smith
Bush

Neitzel
Skiles
Kebler
Lerg

Lucas
Haynie
Smith
White

by TMadison25 on May 23, 2011 10:23 AM CDT reply actions

votes

Gibson
Roe
Green
Caulcrick

Anagonye
Johnson
Stanton
Bush

Neitzel
Skiles
Reese
Green

Lucas
Hainey
Smith
Kesler

by Adam_ATL on May 23, 2011 10:30 AM CDT reply actions

Mushin Muhammad
Delvon Roe
Draymond Green
Jehuu Caulcrick

Al Anagonye
Magic
Drew Stanton
Nicole Bush

Charlie Bell
Scott Skiles
Ike Reese
Scott Greene

Kalin Lucas
Steve Garvey
Steve Smith
Blair White

by Rocketship Richardson on May 23, 2011 11:07 AM CDT reply actions

Poor Raymar

Muhsin Muhammad
Brandon Fields
Bryan Lerg
Jumpin Johnny Green

Anagonye
Magic
Bubba Smith
Jack Newman

Neitzel
Skiles
Reese
Jeff Lerg

Lucas
Garvey
Smith
Kelser

by Ozymandias on May 23, 2011 12:19 PM CDT reply actions

Votes

Gibby
Roe
Green
Green

Anagonye
Magic
Bubba
Bush

Bell (sorry Drew)
Skiles
Reese
Greene

Lucas
Haynie
Smith
Special K

by mrblond on May 23, 2011 12:22 PM CDT reply actions

wow

Super tough break for Raymar. With the right draw he could’ve gone a long way in this. Instead he ends up against one of maybe 3 athletes against whom he has no chance of advancing.

by steinfi2 on May 23, 2011 1:06 PM CDT reply actions

Muhammad
Roe
Green
Caulcrick

Anagonye
Johnson
Stanton
Bush

Bell
Skiles
Kebler
Lerg

Hill
Haynie
Smith
Kelser

by msukarebear on May 23, 2011 1:08 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

my votes

Gibson Anagonye Bell Lucas
Roe Johnson Skiles Haynie
Green Smith Reese Smith
Green Who Cares Lerg Kelser

by golfnpsych on May 24, 2011 10:00 AM CDT reply actions

punter

Not to be picky here, but we have a punter listed and it’s not Aaron Bates? I know Brandon Fields was probably the best punter we’ve had at actually putting foot to ball; but come on. Seriously? Brandon Fields over Aaron “Career 400 QB rating” Bates? It’s not even like fields went all Craig Jarret for us either… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj7LNJYI—U

Gibby Roe Green Jehuu
Swenson, Magic (Raymar got hosed), Bubba, Newman
Drew, Skiles, Kebler, Greene
Kailin, Haynie, Smith, Kelser

by hawks22gk on May 24, 2011 2:39 PM CDT reply actions

Raymar Morgan screams with outrage!

Honestly though, SOMEONE has to take the game against Magic. Is there anyone else in the entire bracket that you’d vote over Magic?

"TOUGHEST PLACES TO PLAY: Minnesota can't find the end zone in their own stadium." - NCAA Football 2010

by The Ghost of John Hannah on May 24, 2011 3:01 PM CDT reply actions

Not in the First Round No

However say he faces Neitzel, Cleaves, Miller, Brown, DeHaan, etc Yes I would cuz I dont remember Magic and its FAVORITE not BEST.

by Loneytunes on May 24, 2011 10:49 PM CDT up reply actions

Google hits

Here are the 64 Spartan favorites, ranked in order of hits on Google, clustered in groups of four. Obviously, common names generate a lot of noise, so this isn’t an indicator of relative fame in many cases. Nonetheless, there are some interesting results:

1 Magic Johnson 5,920,000
  Steve Smith 4,600,000 (the Panthers WR seems to be more famous, though)
  Plaxico Burress 2,830,000
  Greg Jones 2,650,000
2 Shannon Brown 2,310,000
  Ryan Miller 1,880,000
  Charlie Bell 1,490,000
  Chris Hill 1,270,000
3 Jason Richardson 1,170,000
  Robin Roberts 1,140,000 (many, probably most, for an ABC newscaster)
  Morten Andersen 1,090,000
  Johnny Green 926,000 (shares a name with an Oscar-winning composer)
4 Antonio Smith 697,000 (many for a Houston Texans DE)
  Duncan Keith 656,000
  Sara Brown 505,000
  Travis Walton 429,000 (inflated by eponymous UFO-abducted lumberjack! wow!)
5 Mateen Cleaves 412,000
  Kirk Gibson 404,000
  Jack Newman 387,000 (a Dr. Jack Newman is a famous breast-feeding advocate)
  Steve Garvey 382,000
6 Brandon Fields 359,000 (also, a musician)
  Alan Anderson 284,000
  Scott Skiles 272,000
  Anthony Miller 264,000 (leading hits are for an Arizona politician)
7 Bubba Smith 262,000
  Kalin Lucas 216,000
  Scott Greene 215,000
  Justin Abdelkader 210,000
8 Drew Stanton 205,000
  Morris Peterson 187,000
  Javon Ringer 157,000
  Blair White 130,000
9 George Webster 127,000
  Muhsin Muhammad 114,000
  Draymond Green 111,000
  Mike Kebler 110,000 (exclamation point!)
10Kirk Cousins 106,000
  Jehuu Caulcrick 92,200
  Brian Hoyer 89,100
  T.J. Duckett 81,500
11Nicole Bush 71,400
  Delvon Roe 67,900
  Raymar Morgan 63,900
  Franklin Gomez 61,700
12Courtney Hawkins 59,700
  Shawn Respert 58,500
  Greg Kelser 49,300
  Allyssa Dehann 46,900
13Percy Snow 46,600 (some of these are hits for author C.P. Snow)
  Kristin Haynie 43,400
  Ike Reese 41,900
  Jeff Lerg 40,900
14Drew Neitzel 35,900 (another 3000 odd hits for “Nietzel”)
  Brett Swenson 22,100
  Kalisha Keane 18,000
  Aloysius Anagonye 16,900
15Lindsey Bowen 13,300
  Bryan Lerg 12,300
  Tim Bograkos 8,130
  Isaiah Dahlman 6,130
16Floor Rijpma 5,980
  Avery Steinlage 3,430
  Laura Heyboer 3,350
  Mat Ishbia 983 (another 470 hits for “Matt Ishbia”)