Spartan Speak

After a decent run in the Big Ten tournament that saw the Michigan State basketball team beat Maryland and Wisconsin before losing a competitive game to Purdue in the semifinals, the Spartans drew a 7-seed in the NCAA tournament, and oh, boy, there are storylines galore.  MSU drew 10-seed Davidson in the first round, and its leading scorer is former Spartan Foster Loyer. And if MSU wins that game, longtime nemesis Duke likely awaits in the second round in Mike Krzyzewski's final season with the Blue Devils.  Then, Chris, Graham and Phil make their Final Four and national title predictions before ending the podcast with a little football talk. 

If you're from Greater Lansing or a Michigan State alum, the new HBO show "Winning Time" has something for everybody. The series debuted on Sunday night and Graham, Chris and Phil give three thumbs up as we open the podcast with a discussion about the show.  We then move on to previewing the Big Ten tournament, debating which teams are in the bubble, discussing the seven-seed Spartans' opener against 10-seed Maryland, predicting who will win the tourney, and then predicting who wins the MSU game.

Things are trending downward for the Michigan State basketball team, which lost at home to Illinois on Saturday and was throttled on the road Tuesday by Iowa. The schedule doesn't get any easier as the Spartans play Purdue, Michigan and Ohio State - two of them ranked in the top 25 - in the next seven days.  Detroit Free Press beat writer Chris Solari and Lansing State Journal sportswriters Graham Couch and Phil Friend try to get to the bottom of the tailspin, while also gauging where MSU stands with an NCAA tournament bid. Plus, predictions for the Purdue and Michigan games. 

Tuesday was, perhaps, an inopportune time for the Michigan State basketball team to blow a 14-point lead against Penn State - a team below them in the Big Ten Conference standings.  The Spartans' loss to the Nittany Lions opened up a whole new set of questions for Tom Izzo's squad, including a look back at the Spartans' recruiting effort in recent years. We then look ahead to Saturday's game against Illinois and Tuesday against Iowa. 

The Michigan State men's basketball team has hit its annual Big Ten swoon, as the 17th-ranked Spartans have lost their last two games, getting blown out Saturday at Rutgers then falling at home Tuesday to Wisconsin.  Graham Couch, Chris Solari and Phil Friend sort through the carnage of those two games, select what changes could (and should) be made to the lineup and preview upcoming games against Indiana and Penn State.  They round out the show with the latest football news, including the commitment of 3-star QB Bo Edmundson and Marco Coleman's hire as the defensive line coach. 

On this week's Spartan Speak podcast, host Phil Friend, Lansing State Journal sports columnist Graham Couch and Detroit Free Press beat writer Chris Solari break down the Spartans' last two games, beating Michigan on Saturday and Maryland on Tuesday. Then we preview Saturday's game against Rutgers before talking about signing day, two four-star commits and incoming transfer running back Jarek Broussard.