The Only Colors, a Michigan State Spartans community

I, for one, much preferred that nice, clean ending featured in the 2009 Big Ten basketball season. Mr. Gasaway on MSU's prospects among the five contenders for the conference title: "For my money Izzo's team is the most interesting member of the Gang of Five in this strange new era. Lucas is hobbled and the Spartans are putatively "reeling," but at the end of the day they're still tied for first and they still have perhaps the easiest remaining schedule of any contender. (Put it this way. One in every three remaining Michigan State games will be played against Penn State.) If MSU can just avoid freaking out unnecessarily and pick up a couple road wins at Happy Valley (Saturday) and Indiana (Tuesday), they'll be in good shape to win this thing, possibly even outright." Good to hear a neutral observer (one who know a little something about Big Ten basketball, no less) conclude much the same thing we did last night.

Basketball! Dylan runs down the top five candidates for Big Ten POY in the upcoming season. Can't argue too vehemently with Evan Turner over Kalin Lucas; Turner was the (slightly) more productive player from an individual performance standpoint last season. I'd put those two and Manny Harris in a tier above the other candidates. My sleeper pick is JuJuan Johnson. If he can improve half as much this offseason as he did last offseason, he'll be downright dominant in the paint this season.