Michigan State Spartans Football: Linking Laconically Is A New York Knicks Fan

First Things First: Dave Baldwin hates Michigan Stadium.

Baldwin's four years coaching in the Big Ten were at Michigan State from 2003-06, as the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach under John L. Smith. Since then, he's had stints with New Mexico, Utah State and Colorado State.

Now, Baldwin is at Oregon State as their newest offensive play caller, and will be in Ann Arbor this Saturday when the Beavers do battle with Michigan. In an interview with the Detroit Free Press, Baldwin said that he doesn't have fond memories at the Big House.

"There was one (in 2004) where we were up by 17 points with 7:17 to go and lost in triple-overtime," Baldwin said. "I don’t remember good things about going into that stadium."

Baldwin is winless against the Wolverines, and the fact that OSU is starting a true freshman at quarterback doesn't really help Baldwin's chances of ending the streak.

Second Thing: Cassius Winston curves Michigan.

Just like a failed Tinder match, Michigan is no longer in the running for Winston, after the University of Detroit Jesuit point guard tweeted out his top three schools, Pittsburgh, Stanford and Michigan State on Wednesday.

The No. 29 ranked player in the country has yet to take his official visit to MSU, which will occur this Saturday when Oregon comes to town. Winston has already officially visited the other two finalists.

Forward Nick Ward and guard Josh Langford are the two verbal commits in the 2016 class with two open spots available. Along with Winston, five-stars Josh Jackson and Miles Bridges are also on MSU's radar.

Third Thing: Phil Jackson signs Travis Trice.

Yahoo Sports reported on Thursday that the New York Knicks and Trice have agreed to a partially guaranteed one-year deal.

Trice showed his worth in the Orlando summer league when playing for the Miami Heat, and will get to continue his professional career with a historic franchise in the Big Apple.

Pending a miracle, it's doubtful that Trice sees the court at Madison Square Garden this season, with the likelihood of him being shipped off to play overseas.

Fourth Thing: There's a dress code implemented for Saturday's game.

The university's athletic department has told fans who are attending the Oregon game to wear green if you're sitting in an even numbered section and white if you're sitting in an odd numbered section.

Also, if students are thinking about leaving games early this year, think again, as MSU hats, gloves and hand warmers will be passed out during less than pleasant day and night games.

Fifth Thing: A Heisman Trophy winner favors MSU.

Desmond Howard isn't one to follow or agree to the majority. Hence the fact that he predicted MSU to win the Big Ten title this season, despite heavy support for Ohio State by the media.

Howard citied his reasons for riding the Spartan playoff train due to the resume of quarterback Connor Cook, the talent on defense and head coach Mark Dantonio.

"First and foremost, I think it’s just easy to follow everybody’s lead and pick the favorite to win. It doesn’t take any creativity or any type of imagination to do that," Howard. "When you look at other options and teams that could possibly win conference championships, then I think because of their recent history against the Buckeyes, I think (the Spartans) are a viable option to win the conference."

But at the same time, this is the same guy who picked Stanford to win the national championship this season and ranked Michigan sixth overall in his preseason poll last year (LOL), so I'll take his opinion with a grain of salt.