MIghty Spartans of Michigan State Crush Division Two Indiana University of Pennsylvania 83-45

Breslin Center East Lansing, MI It was the last of the exhibition season for the mighty Michigan State Spartans tonight. You already know that they won. IUP

Breslin Center

East Lansing, MI

It was the last of the exhibition season for the mighty Michigan State Spartans tonight. You already know that they won. IUP knew it before they got on the bus to come here. The final score was 83-45, but on this night there are brighter horizons the Spartans see ahead.

The Spartans kick off the season for real on Friday against McNeese. That game tips at 7pm and this is not a good week to be coming to East Lansing. The Spartans face preseason #1 Kentucky in eight days in Chicago and Izzo would love to beat his nemesis in recruiting John Calipari.

It isn’t often you play a big game that early, unless you are coached by Izzo. You can see that game inching closer with his intensity.

Tom Izzo probably played his starters a little more than he wanted, and I assume will do the same on Friday. For now the Spartans probably would have had a more productive evening scrimmaging than playing an overmatched IUP.

Gary Harris was the leading scorer. He dropped 21 points, but Keith Appling had three points, 11 assists and three boards. The best stat of the evening may have been that MSU had 24 assists on 30 baskets.

Joe Lombardi the head coach of the Crimson Hawks said of the talented Spartan team, “Grateful for the opportunity Coach Izzo gave us to come up here and play. We have a program that has been competitive in these type of games and Michigan State is by far the best team we have played. They really create a lot of problems trying to shoot the ball. Add that to their ability to pass and share the ball.”

Tom Izzo was not as complimentary of his team. After being surprisingly content with his team’s first exhibition you can tell Kentucky looms. He was cantankerous with the refs and his team. Saying, “Our defense wasn’t like the football teams. I wasn’t really happy because when you finish poorly you are never really happy. Are we going to sustain excellence or are we just not gonna finish games. If you want to talk to any of our players come to the gym, they will be sleeping on cots in the gym until they start making free throws. We let one (turnover) turn into three or four. That was the bad news.”

In case you are wondering the Spartans shot 48% from the charity stripe.

I asked Izzo about suspended R-Fr Kenny Kaminski. Izzo had said prior to the start of the season that he thought his suspension would be, “Two or three games.” So with this being game two, what did he think? Izzo said that it would be three games. “I just don’t think it really counts without a regular season game in there.” Kaminski will travel to Chicago for game four of the season versus Kentucky, but Izzo said it, “Wouldn’t be fair, “to expect him to get his first game action of the year in that game.