Ron Mason (1940-2016)

I was stunned Monday morning to wake up and learn of Ron Mason's passing. He was probably the youngest-looking and hardiest 76-year-old man I'd ever seen.

Mason was, if not the greatest coach in college hockey history, one of the greatest coaches. He is certainly in the top two or three.

One fact is certain, he put Michigan State hockey on the map.

Before Ron Mason arrived in East Lansing in 1980, Michigan State hockey was completely average. Amo Bessone did have his moments as Spartan hockey coach, but not that many. In 1966, the Spartans came out of nowhere to win an unexpected national title. But in Bessone's 28 years as coach, he compiled a fairly pedestrian overall record of 367-427-20.

Ron Mason changed all of that quickly. The Spartan hockey program went from being merely competitive to being one of the elites of the collegiate world.

In the early 1980s, Spartan football and basketball had fallen precipitously. Muddy Waters' gridiron gladiators were Big Ten also-rans, while Jud Heathcote was unable to sustain any momentum after the 1979 championship season. Hockey, however, was another story.

Ron Mason built a perennial championship-caliber program, and hockey was easily the biggest ticket on campus. When I arrived at Michigan State in 1986, students waited in line for hockey tickets. Munn Ice Arena was sold out for every home game. Beginning on December 19, 1985, MSU hockey had 323 consecutive home sellouts. (As a student, I went to a handful of hockey games, and that was only because I know some friends who'd managed to get season tickets. Otherwise, there's no way I could have ever made it into Munn).

MSU sports in the 1980s was the reverse of what it is today. In the '80s, you could fire a cannon in Jenison Fieldhouse--then the home of the basketball team--and not hit anyone, while Munn was standing room only. In 2016, they can't give hockey tickets away, while basketball (and to a lesser extent, football) are the hot tickets.

Anyway, one person was responsible for MSU's powerhouse hockey program--and that was Ron Mason.

I won't bother with a recitation of Mason's accomplishments as a coach. All you need to do his "google" his name to find that information. Suffice it to say that he was one of the greatest coaches in the history if college hockey. Perhaps THE greatest.

After retiring as hockey coach in 2001, Mason was MSU athletic director from July 1, 2002 until January 1, 2008. Although he takes some heat in retrospect for his hiring of John L. Smith as head football coach back in December 2002, I've always felt that criticism to be unfair. Although Smith's football schemes ultimately ended up unsuccessful in the gritty Big Ten, he at least cleaned up the program. And in fairness to Ron Mason, he recognized the Smith failure (firing him in 2006) and, along with the assistance of Mark Hollis, Tom Izzo, and Lou Anna Simon (among others) found a great new football coach in Mark Dantonio.

Through his tremendous successes as a hockey coach, and even in his failures as A.D., there's no doubt that Ron Mason always had Michigan State's best interests at heart. So farewell to a great Spartan.

The NFL draft (The "Did Connor Cook urinate in someone's cereal?" edition)

First of all, let me start with the good news. The Tennessee Titans traded up and selected Jack Conklin with the 8th pick in the first round. It's great to see the former walk-on from tiny Plainwell, Michigan make good. I know he'll work his tail off and I wish him the best.


What exactly has Connor Cook done to turn off so many people? I just don't get it. Yes, he has a quirky personality, but couldn't the same be said for Joe Namath and Jim McMahon (just to name a few "free-spirited" quarterbacks off the top of my head). And while on the subject of free-spiritedness, doesn't that often come with the territory when discussing quarterbacks?


I can understand why the Los Angeles Rams drafted Jared Goff with the first pick. He's a local kid from Cal who will sell tickets. And maybe he'll turn out to be a great quarterback. After all, he did play in the PAC-12. Clearly, he also has a big time arm with 4719 yards passing last season and 43 touchdown passes. But I'm not sold on Carson Wentz. North Dakota State? Yes, he has the size that NFL scouts look for in a quarterback, and his numbers were good--but I'm just not sold. Okay, I get it, North Dakota State won three NCAA Divison II national championships with Wentz at quarterback, but the Bison pretty much own Division II football. They've won 12 national championships. (Thank you, Wikipedia).


Maybe Connor Cook's stats aren't as eye-popping as Goff's and Wentz's, but 9194 career passing yards (in three seasons) with 71 touchdowns and only 22 interceptions is not too shabby. In addition to that, Cook led MSU to a 36-5 record as a starter, with two Big Ten championships and two bowl victories--three bowl victories if one counts the 2012 Buffalo Wilds Wings Bowl in which Cook took over for a struggling Andrew Maxwell. Though Cook's numbers in that game were pedestrian at best, he provided a spark that the Spartans needed to achieve that come-from-behind victory.


Not only was Cook a great player on the field, but he never got into any trouble. By all accounts, he was a good student and law-abiding citizen. Am I just looking at this through green-tinted glasses? I don't understand why Connor Cook is still on the board.

Spring Game

I'm skipping the spring game this year, and watching a bit of it on TV.

I feel a little bad missing it, and hope there are enough other Spartan fans there so our fanbase isn't again accused of being apathetic by certain members of the media.

Based on what I'm seeing on TV, it looks like an okay crowd. Maybe about 30-40,000.

My initial observations are that Tyler O'Connor looks sharper at quarterback than Damien Terry. And as is often the case in MSU spring games, defense is dominating.

What can anyone take from these spring games, anyway? It's almost like watching a spring training Grapefruit League baseball game and making a broad generalization about the upcoming Detroit Tigers season.

Putting the Middle Tennessee State game to bed, and what is going on with hockey?

In case you're wondering, I'm over the Middle Tennessee State loss. In fact, for whatever reason it never bothered me nearly as much as it apparently did my fellow MSU brethren. Don't get me wrong, it pretty much ruined the tournament for me (I've barely watched since the loss), but nobody has had to talk me off any ledges.

Even if MSU had made it past the first round, I'm frankly not convinced the Spartans were any guarantee for the Final Four anyway.

Speaking of the Final Four, my NCAA bracket is completely shot to hell. All of my Final Four picks have bit the dust. At this point, I'm reduced to finding the teams that would bother me least if they won it all, and pull for them. Those two teams are, in order, Villanova and Oklahoma. (I am most certainly NOT pulling for either North Carolina or Syracuse)

In other news, Mark Hollis has thrown his public support towards Tom Anastos and Anastos will get at least one more year as Spartan hockey coach. I really don't follow the hockey program closely enough to decide if this is a good idea, though allegedly Anastos has a good recruiting class coming in. Part of me cynically believes Hollis doesn't want to admit he screwed up the Anastos hire in the first place.

All I know is that if the hockey team has another season as awful as this one, the screws will turn much tighter and the small but vocal hockey fan base will clamor even more vociferously for a change.

Hockey is an absolute shell of what it was when I was a student (1986-1991). Students waited in line for season tickets, and the demand was so great that two different half-season packages were doled out. Of course, a large factor in hockey's popularity back in the '80s was that basketball then was woeful and football generally mediocre.

With Tom Izzo turning the basketball program into a national power, and Mark Dantonio (maybe) doing likewise in football, hockey's struggles are less noticeable. Frankly, outside of a handful of hockey diehards, I don't get a feeling that current students give a hoot about hockey. I'm not sure if the athletic department feels much pressure to improve the program. It feels like an afterthought these days. Perhaps this will only change if basketball slips in the future, or enough disgruntled hockey fans put up a big enough fuss.

An abrupt end to the basketball season

What is there to say?

Michigan State ran into a spirited team in Middle Tennessee State that out-worked, out-hustled, and out-shot them. The Spartans, unfortunately, played one of their worst games of the season when it mattered the most.

It's an incredibly sad way for Denzel Valentine, Bryn Forbes, Matt Costello, Colby Wollenman, and [maybe] Deyonta Davis to end their collegiate careers.

It also concludes what has been, outside of the Big Ten Tournament championship  (remember that?) and a first-round NCAA tourney win for the women's team, a bad week for MSU sports; and also, a bad week for two people associated with Spartan basketball, Branden Dawson and Mateen Cleaves. More on them later.

Back to today's game. I have to admit that, due to an unforeseen circumstance, I wasn't able to see most of it. Instead, I followed on my phone, listened to Will Tieman and Matt Steigenga's largely incredulous and mournful radio broadcast, and then finally the last 6 minutes or so of the CBS TV broadcast. Poor Steve Smith, former MSU standout, probably wishes to never have to provide color commentary for another MSU hoops game. Under the circumstances, he was unfailingly professional.

It was a stunning way for the season to reach conclude, and I still feel a bit numb. Strangely enough (or maybe not strangely), I'm neither angry nor even particularly depressed. More like shocked and numb. The Spartans seemed so out-of-sync today that I suppose I had a sense of foreboding throughout the game, and this gave me time to prepare myself for the inevitable.

Every single time it seemed that the Spartans might get it together and take the lead in this game, Middle Tennessee State responded with a score. In the final three minutes or so, the Spartans did what I rarely ever see them do: they panicked. Middle Tennessee, to borrow the tired old expression, smelled blood in the water and put MSU away.

Now to Branden Dawson and Mateen Cleaves. I'm disappointed with Dawson's situation (accused of domestic assault), but I am downright sick and despondent over Mateen Cleaves' sexual assault charge. Not that I know Cleaves personally, but from what I do know of him (or think I know of him), it seems completely out of character. If Tom Izzo, someone I consider to be of high moral standing, chose to name his son after Mateen, then that says a lot about Cleaves--or so it would seem.

It's now up to the court of law to decide. Maybe there is a dark side to Mateen Cleaves that few know about? I hope that's not the case, but if it is--and Cleaves committed the crimes of which he's accused, he needs to face the consequences.

Michigan State/Purdue pre-game dispatch

I watched the Big Ten Network's replay of the Michigan State/Maryland game and I have just a few observations of the game:

*I swear that every time Jim Nantz would say, "It's been [such and such] minutes since Maryland has scored," the Terps were guaranteed of draining a 35-foot 3-pointer. I counted, and this occurred at least three times during the game.

*I try not to get down on the play-by-play/color guys too much. (If I can get away with it, I'll simply watch games with the sound turned down). However, I have to say that Grant Hill seemed to have a hard time hiding his Maryland pom-poms. Perhaps he forgot the Terrapins are no longer in the ACC.

I followed up watching the MSU/Maryland replay by watching a little of the Purdue/Michigan game. The Spartans will have their hands full with Purdue's big men: Hammons, Haas, and the "almost Spartan" Swanigan. I know this is probably stating the obvious. If the Spartans can just hold their own in the paint and knock down the outside shots they didn't make yesterday against Maryland, they should be okay. I hope they didn't expend too much energy in dispatching the Terrapins. This game might go right down to the wire.

See you on the flipside.

White-knuckler against Maryland

I don't think there is a sport that sends me as perilously close to cardiac arrest as basketball, specifically Michigan State basketball. One would think by this point, after decades of white-knucklers--most of which end up in Spartan victories--I'd be used to it. I'm getting a little better at keeping it together in these games. The expletive count is down since I got married and had kids. In addition, after all the success MSU has had under Tom Izzo, I kind of expect the Spartans to find a way to win despite whatever adverse circumstances befall them.

The second half of today's Maryland game was about as enjoyable as a teeth cleaning or maybe a hernia operation (yes, I've had one so I'm speaking from experience). In any case, the Spartans overcame turnovers, poor shooting, great defense from Maryland, and a largely M.I.A. Bryn Forbes to find a way to win. Huge kudos to Deyonta Davis, whose blocked shot late in the game (14 seconds left? I can't remember, it's a bit of a blur now) was the pivotal play of the game.

So now it's on to a second consecutive appearance in the Big Ten Tour championship, this time against Purdue. I assume the Boilermakers will have a large contingent in Indianapolis. I hope that the determination of MSU's seniors will be enough to get the Spartans' fifth Big Ten tourney title.