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Michigan State Spartans NCAA Tournament Basketball: On Throwing Bagels

Joe examines a new tradition

By Joe Tuohey
Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

The 2014-15 Michigan State basketball team was mostly unremarkable for much of the year. The team had some nice moments in wins against Ohio State and on the road against Iowa. But they also had some down moments, in bad losses to Texas Southern, Nebraska and Minnesota. Those moments were particularly frustrating. Still, they were a solid team headed into March Madness, but not much was expected of  them.

Inexplicably, they propelled themselves to the Final Four.

Bagels are a mostly unremarkable breakfast food. They have their down moments, like when only cinnamon-raisin is available, or when the automatic slicer messed up and you end up with about 80% of the bagel left on one side and 20% on the other, causing a toasting issue. These moments can be frustrating. On the breakfast food scale, they're definitely behind bacon and waffles. You wouldn't expect them to cause major excitement, but they're a solid breakfast food.

Inexplicably, they were propelled by students towards the sky.

I mean, when you hear about, "students throwing bagels" you expect someone to have grabbed a six-pack sleeve of bagels from their fridge. No. There were dozens and dozens of bagels being thrown around. This is absolutely wild.

I tried to figure out how the bagel throwing came about, but I realized there were more questions than answers. Lt. Steve Gonzalez of the East Lansing Police said, "It was just something that happened." Well that settles that, then.

I can't wrap my head around it. There's a parody Twitter account. There's a meme mash-up image:

The MSU police Twitter account joked about it. Time picked up the story.

Both events have put a new spin on a classic. In basketball, it's become commonplace for Izzo to take his teams to the Final Four, but never has an Izzo team overcome these types of odds or talent deficiencies. Likewise, Cedar Village has always been a place of revelry for students, but never have the revelers been so creative in their celebration.

As someone who can't help but analyze and search for meaning, the lack of explanation for this story is frustrating. Then again, there was just a four percent chance of this Michigan State team making the Final Four. In light of that, is the bagel throwing so strange?

This could have been Just Another Year. Instead, I will never be able to look at a bagel the same way again.

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