5 Things For Monday March 17: MSU Brings Home Big 10 Championship in Dominant Fashion

1. The Michigan State bandwagon is filling up quickly.  After a dominant weekend which saw them dispose of top teams Wisconsin and Michigan, everyone seems to have the Spartans in their Final Four.

Yesterday's win against Michigan was about as impressive as they get this time of year.  Big Ten player of the year Nik Stauskas only shot 4-14 from the field and had to work for everything he got, much to the credit of Gary Harris.  Branden Dawson was awesome, taking home tournament MVP and scoring 15 points on 7-8 shooting.

Spartan fans had been waiting for the team to turn in a few performances like this.  Now, it appears that Michigan State is a very trendy pick to go to the Final Four or even win the whole tournament.  If they play like they did yesterday, there are only a handful of teams that can beat them.

MSU plays Delaware Thursday at 4:40.  Delaware is 25-9 on the season, and played a few power teams out-of-conference.  They lost at Villanova by four points, and at Ohio State by 12.

2.  The MSU hockey team played their final series of the season against Wisconsin.  Friday night they got an overtime goal from Lee Reimer to win 5-4.  Saturday they fell behind 4-0, but rallied to make it a 4-3 game.  However they could not put home the equalizer, and the Spartans went home with a 4-3 loss.

3.  The Red Wings playoff chances took a major hit this weekend.  They got bullied 4-1 by the Blackhawks Sunday night, as former Wing Marian Hossa had a goal and two assists.

Marian Hossa and Johan Franzen were both up for contract renewals during the 2009 season.  Franzen got a contract renewal, and there 'was not enough cap space' to resign Hossa.  If the decision was truly 'Franzen or Hossa', it does not look very good right here:

Detroit is three points out of a playoff spot, but has two games in hand on the Rangers and the Captials.  Here are the full standing courtesy of NHL.com.

4.  The Tigers have major decisions to make regarding their shortstop position.  Jose Iglesias will start the season on the disabled list, and may miss an extended period of time.  He is flying to Colorado to get another opinion on his shins.  That Detroit Free Press article does a very good job laying out the in-house options for a potential replacement.  They may go out and get Stephen Drew, but the Tigers would have to give up their first round draft pick to sign him.  Stay tuned.

5. The Women's NCAA basketball selection show is tonight.  The field of 64 will be unveiled at 7 o'clock tonight on ESPN.  ESPN has projected Michigan State as a five-seed.