5 Things to Know for Feb. 10th; Jackson’s Game Winner Sinks MSU
1. Michigan State lost a nail-biter to Wisconsin yesterday. Traevon Jackson hit a pull-up jumper over Gary Harris with 2.1 seconds left to give the Badgers a 60-58 win. Keith Appling did not play for the second straight game with an injured wrist.
Harris had a particularly rough game. Not only did he get beat on the game-winning shot, but he was just 3-20 from the field. Harris has shot 8-36 from the field (22.2%) the last two games. The way I look at it, MSU almost stole a game in a very tough environment without it's point guard and a 3-20 shooting day from arguably its best scorer. There are no moral victories for a program of Michigan State's stature, but I was impressed with their resolve considering the circumstances. On the bright side, Adreian Payne looked very impressive in his first start since returning from injury, scoring 24 points in 32 minutes.
2. The Michigan basketball team got beat handily by Iowa on Saturday, 85-67. Nik Stauskas never really got going, scoring 10 points on just six shot attempts. Stauskas is now just 5-15 from the field in his last three games. Caris Levert had 22 points for the Wolverines, but the Hawkeyes shot 10-17 from three-point range and shot 47.5% from the field.
3. Yahoo! Sports first reported that the Pistons fired Maurice Cheeks after 50 games. The Pistons amassed a 21-29 record over that time, and are on the bubble of the eastern conference playoffs at the moment.
The Pistons will have to pay the next year-and-a-half of Mo Cheeks' contract, and they are still paying Lawrence Frank this season. Mlive.com reports that assistant John Loyer will take over for the rest of the season.
4. In an interview with ESPN, Missouri All-American defensive end Michael Sam
announced that he is openly gay. Sam is a prospect for April's NFL draft.
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