By Paul M. Banks Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, Michigan State entered this past season ranked #2 in the AP poll. They had their struggles in midseason, but played up to the hype when it counted in March. Without top player Kalin Lucas, the Spartans still finished just one HORRIBLE non-call away from playing in [...]

By Paul M. Banks Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net When Kalin Lucas went down, Michigan St. lost their best player and floor general. His replacement Korie Lucious, a 5-10 sophomore point guard from Milwaukee, did an admirable job in his place.

Paul M. Banks, Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, has an exclusive with NFL Network analyst/former San Francisco 49ers Coach Steve Mariucci in the Michigan St. locker room. Iron Mountain, Michigan is a unique place. Rarely, does a small town like this produce two individuals who achieve such a high level of success in the such [...]

By Paul M. Banks and Jeff Ghiringhelli, The Sports Bank.net By now you all know that Michigan State’s Kalin Lucas will be out for the remainder of the tournament with a ruptured achilles tendon. Rehabilitation will last 4-6 months, but head coach Tom Izzo is confident that he will make a full recovery and be [...]

By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, This year’s NCAA tournament will see Arizona, North Carolina, UCLA and Indiana missing from the dance card. Those four tradition rich programs have produced 22 National Championships and 144 tournament appearances. So what are the benchmarks, the numbers, the standards of entry into the same [...]

By Paul M. Banks, President of The Sports Bank.net When Michigan State meets #3 Purdue on Sunday, it’ll have huge influence on who wins the Big Ten regular season title. But beyond that…who will eventually take Purdue’s #1 seed in the NCAA tourney now? The Purdue Boilermakers are 12-3 in the Big Ten, a half-game [...]

For two days the Big Ten football coaches and three players from each team gather in Chicago for Big Ten Media Days.  From what I could tell, this year’s event was pretty bland (are they ever exciting?), but I guess that’s what you get when Lane Kiffin doesn’t coach in your conference.   So what did [...]

Well, last night did not go nearly as well as Saturday.  Bulls lose.  [ESPN]  Hawks lose.  [ESPN] Rumor has it that ESPN is considering changing up their College Gameday crew.  If this is true I can’t imagine anyone ever watching it again.  Ever.  [SEC Live News] So the Lions got a new logo and new [...]

For three weeks every year the NCAA Tournament dominates the sports world.  This year the final game had to share the spotlight with baseball’s opening day, but for the most part it was all we cared about.  Taking a look back at some of the games, here are some tournament thoughts. The Big Ten did, [...]

The Cubs season got off to a great start with a lead-off homer from Soriano.  The Cubs went on to beat the Astros 4-2.  [MLB.com] North Carolina pummeled Michigan State to win the NCAA Championship last night.  Sorry all you people without jobs in Michigan.  [ESPN] Michael Jordan and Jerry Sloan were inducted into the [...]

After months of games, the college basketball season will come to an end tonight at Ford Field in Detroit, and the script really does seem like something out of a movie.  At least that’s what CBS and ESPN are telling us. Despite all the hyperbole and sappy package pieces, the Michigan State-North Carolina match-up does [...]

Last week I said that the general dullness of the first two round of the NCAA Tournament wasn’t such a bad thing.  I thought that since so many good teams won, the second weekend would be that much better than most years.  I was absolutely wrong. The last four days were no better than the [...]

Hey everyone, StevieY and I are going to try something new this weekend.  We will be liveblogging the Louisville-Michigan State game at 1:20 pm central time on Sunday.  It will be different than some liveblogs you’ve seen.  Unlike the type they do on Deadspin where you have to keep refreshing, we will be using a [...]

Once again, if the early games turn out to be disappointing there is still plenty of hope for a great game at night.  First, Michigan State and Kansas will meet in a great coaching match-up among other things, then North Carolina and Gonzaga will finish off the Sweet 16 games. (3) Kansas vs. (2) Michigan [...]

Day one of the Big Ten Tourney was pretty boring, to put it bluntly.  Minnesota led pretty much the whole way and ended any hopes Northwestern had for their first ever tournament  berth.  Then Michigan jumped out to an early lead and never looked back against Iowa, all but clinching their first tournament appearance in [...]