Trying to get into basketball mode; and a Heart of a Spartan book report

I'm having a hard time making the transition from football to basketball. The joy and euphoria of the MSU football team's accomplishments in 2013 still consume me.

But Big Ten action is underway for the Spartan basketball team. They opened up play on New Year's Eve at Penn State: a game in which MSU started off sluggish in the first half but completely shut down the Nittany Lions in the second half. Today, the Spartans are on the road for again, this time against Indiana. Though the Hoosiers are in a rebuilding year, Assembly Hall is a notoriously difficult place for visiting teams. I see this game as a dogfight, with the Spartans probably pulling away late--but I wouldn't be shocked at all if Indiana pulled the upset.

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Back in November, I was the lucky beneficiary of a $50 gift card. I knew immediately what I wanted to use it on: something I'd wanted to obtain for a year, but never had due to its high cost (and some people not getting the hint during holiday seasons): Jack Ebling's book about the Michigan State football renaissance, Heart of a Spartan. As luck would have it, the $50 gift card covered the price of the book.

I've been reading the book here-and-there since November. I had to take a break from reading it during the twelve days I was on vacation in late November (it's far too large of a book to take on any travels), and only got to it a few times during the hectic Christmas holiday.

The book is good. Jack Ebling is a talented and insightful writer, and few people are as well-versed on MSU sports history and lore as he. The book is also chock full of outstanding color photographs. My only criticisms are that Jack takes a few too many potshots at "that school down the road," and the book could have used a better copy editor. There are far too many typographical errors littered throughout the text. In fact, there are so many typos that I wonder if the services of an editor were actually used at all.

It also seems that much of the book was taken from Ebling's blog posts on the Red Cedar Message Board, as he makes a few references to "this board." For readers not familiar with the online Spartan Tailgate and Red Cedar Message Board, this may be confusing.

Quibbling aside, Heart of a Spartan is a well-written and fascinating look into the program that Mark Dantonio has built at MSU, and is full of emotional stories of what makes this football program so special. I just finished reading the chapter about Arthur Ray, Jr.'s struggles with cancer, and the 2011 game against Youngstown State in which Ray's roommate and friend Joel Foreman voluntarily ended his consecutive start streak so that Arthur Ray could start the game against Youngstown State. It is such an amazing tale of bravery, selflessness, and friendship and I will admit I was teary-eyed.

Heart of a Spartan is a must-own for any MSU football fan. And, no, Jack Ebling didn't pay me to say that.

One month until football season (and other thoughts)

It has been a long time since I last wrote in here as I have, for the most part, taken a break from Michigan State sports and college sports in general.  That's not to say I have been living in a cave and have not taken note of the Penn State situation or the Big Ten meetings in Chicago, but I have been spending most of my time enjoying the summer, watching in my son's Pony League baseball team in June (and working with him on his baseball skills), watching (and being frustrated by) the Detroit Tigers, recovering from an unexpected hernia repair surgery in July, and occasionally tuning into the Olympic Games.

So let's play a little catch-up: The NCAA handed down sanctions against Penn State, and by-and-large I agree with them.  What surprised me was the ruling that Penn State vacate all football wins between 1998 and 2011, thereby stripping Paterno of the all-time record in victories. My immediate reaction was that the NCAA was piling on.  But at the same time, I can understand the argument that the cover-up of Sandusky's evil during this period gave Penn State a competitive advantage that it most definitely would NOT have had if the world knew what Sandusky was doing.  What happened at Penn State was "lack of institutional control" at its most egregious, so it's hard to argue that they were hit too heavily by the NCAA.

Michigan is getting a lot of love from the media (like that's something new?).  They are the consensus media pick to win the Big Ten football title this year. Michigan should be good this year, but Big Ten champions? I'm definitely not convinced.  Then again, I'm hardly an unbiased observer.

This morning, Jack Ebling was on Staudt on Sports.  Unfortunately, I did not catch the entire interview because I had was in a doctor's appointment (follow-up checkup to make sure I recovered from my surgery, in case anyone is interested).  I was surprised to hear Ebling on Staudt's show, because I thought that Ebling and Staudt (two of the kingpins and elder statesmen in Lansing-area sports) did not get along.  This notion was based on something Ebling said on the radio a few years ago when he called out a certain local sports commentator, but not by name. At the time, it was obvious to me that his anonymous sports commentator was Tim Staudt.  If Ebling and Staudt had differences in the past, it must be water under the bridge now because both guys seemed to enjoy the interview, and Ebling had some interesting things to say about his career as a journalist, the upcoming Big Ten season (he goes against the grain and picks Purdue to win the Leaders Division), and his soon-to-be released book about MSU football, Heart of a Spartan.  The book is a must-buy, as it sounds outstanding.

As we approach the start of college football, I will try to post more in this blog.  I meant to post more this summer, but obviously that didn't happen. I think I was more burned out than I realized and really needed a few months to recuperate, since it's such hard work being a couch potato sports fan.