Tuesday 03/15/22

Michigan State’s Independent Voice

IT’S THROUGH THE ROOF Confidence surges as Michigan State heads into the NCAA Tournament STARTS ON PAGE 5

SPORTS

SPOTLIGHT

SPORTS

Sprained ankles and all, Michigan State rediscovers its grit heading into NCAA Tournament

Year in labor: A look into MSU’s relationship with campus workers

Nia Clouden departs Michigan State for WNBA Draft

The pandemic rewrote several parts of our lives, including work. MSU has faced significant issues due to supposed shortages of labor.

Clouden looks to be one of the first guards taken off the board in the WNBA Draft.

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T U ES DAY, M A RCH 15, 2022

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SPORTS

SPRAINED ANKLES AND ALL, 7-SEED MICHIGAN STATE REDISCOVERS ITS GRIT

By Jared Ramsey jramsey@statenews.com If Michigan State found themselves down seven points to Purdue at halftime in the final two weeks of the regular season, you could’ve penned the Spartans in for a disappearance down the stretch and an embarrassing double-digit loss.

It happened against Iowa, Michigan and Ohio State. And as Purdue and MSU returned to the locker room for midgame adjustments, the collective feeling like the game could get ugly for the Spartans hung in the air in Gainbridge Arena.

But that was far from the case for Michigan State, who rediscovered its gritty identity in its three-game stint in the Big Ten Tournament.

Instead of wilting, Michigan State rolled up its sleeves and punched back at the bigger and stronger Boilermakers, taking them to the wire for a 75-70 defeat in the tournament semifinals.

Michigan State stood with its back against the wall and fought back, something this team has not shown much of during the final stretch of the

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regular season. And at the center of the performance was sophomore point guard A.J. Hoggard, who put up 17 points and 10 assists in the de-

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feat on one good ankle.

Hoggard, desperate to provide the team with a storybook ending, grit his teeth and played a team-high 34 minutes after spraining his left ankle in his first five seconds of action.

He could have decided to rest the injury but played through the pain to give MSU a chance to win after losing junior point guard Tyson Walker to the same injury in the opening moments of the game.

“I wanted this so bad for our seniors but we didn’t get it done tonight, so we’ve just kind of got to get back and get another shot at March,” Hoggard said.

In a matter of just 14 seconds of game time, MSU lost its offensive firepower when Walker and Hoggard were escorted to the locker room to treat ankle injuries sustained between the 17:35 and 17:21 mark in the first half.

Walker went down after stepping on another player’s foot in transition and laid on the ground for about 30 seconds before hobbling to the MSU bench. Hoggard replaced him and immediately turned his ankle in the same way, leaving MSU without a point guard for a three-minute stretch.

“To have two ankle injuries in 20 seconds to my two point guards was a tough situation,” MSU Head Coach Tom Izzo said.

With a slight limp, Hoggard returned to the court at the 15:38 mark after receiving treatment in the locker room.

His presence and ability to dictate the offense generated better possessions for MSU but points were still too hard to come by against Purdue’s fundamentally sound half-court defense.

Walker tried to return to the game with 9:22 left until halftime, but after 52 seconds, he

motioned towards the bench for a substitution and immediately walked to the MSU locker room with the trainer. He returned to MSU’s bench a few minutes later with a resigned look on his face and took a seat next to assistant coach Mark Montgomery.

Walker was ruled out of the game with a sprained ankle and was left to look on from the sideline as Hoggard assumed the full weight of offensive orchestrating duties on his shoulders. Hoggard proceeded to play 28 of the final 29 minutes, only taking a 57-second break in the final three minutes of the first half to catch his breath.

In the second half, Hoggard never left the floor. On partially torn tendons working desperately to hold his left ankle intact, he led MSU’s effort to try to overcome the seven-point halftime deficit.

“I’m still a little hurt, but one of us had to play, and I wasn’t going to let my seniors down like that,” Hoggard said. “So, I kind of put my mind to it and forgot that I was hurt until you just said something about it.”

With his soles planted in the painted area, Hoggard started to perform surgery on the Purdue defense that looked impenetrable in the first half. He used his wide body and startand-stop ability to create space to get up shots over Purdue’s towering centers. When he wasn’t taking the shot himself, Hoggard whipped the ball out as fast as possible to an MSU shooter, who either hoisted the shot or drove into the paint against a recovering defender.

MSU scored 50 points and shot 53.8% (21-39) in the second half and was able to whittle Purdue’s once 13-point lead all the way down to one point with 5:45 remaining.

After MSU cut it to 57-56

LEFT: Sophomore guard A.J. Hoggard (11) takes a shot for the Spartans over Purdue’s senior guard Eric Hunter Jr. (2) in MSU’s match against the Boilermakers in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana on March 12. Photo by Chloe Trofatter RIGHT: Junior guard Tyson Walker (2) on March 6 against Maryland in their last regularseason game at the Breslin Center. Photo by Sheldon Krause

with 5:45 left, the Boilermakers answered with a 9-0 run in 90 seconds to extend the lead back to 10 and sink a dagger into MSU’s tournament hopes.

“I was very pleased with A.J., but I didn’t notice — you don’t just shazam, you go from here to here,” Izzo said. “He’s making progress, I think he learned something. … It’s 21 days, straight days to change behavior, so one day doesn’t change it.”

The progress needs to turn into consistency fast for the Spartans. The next loss will end the season for good, and Hoggard might be the only option MSU has at point guard.

Izzo said after the game he is unsure of the severity of Walker’s sprain but could confirm that it was not broken.

Michigan State now heads back to East Lansing with a new level of confidence after the run and an equal amount of anxiety about Walker’s status. The hopes of a deep run in the NCAA tournament could rest on the recovery of tendons in Walker’s left ankle and if Hoggard and the team can duplicate the gritty performance.

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Vol. 112 | No. 14

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2022

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Steve Ward, 56, rides an elevator to his floor at McLaren Greater Lansing’s Health Care Campus on Mar. 6. Ward has used McLaren as his primary hospital for years. Over the weekend he had his brother drop off cookies to the nurses, a tradition of appreciation for Ward.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Karly Graham

“The nurses are excellent,” Ward said, “We used to do it every week when we were in there, because one time me and my brother were in there at the same time and we were in there for a couple weeks and we’d have my younger brother stop and grab cookies so the nurses could have them.”

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SPOT L IG H T

YEAR IN LABOR A look into MSU’s relationship with campus workers

By Dan Netter dnetter@statenews.com For a long time, universities have been able to operate with little concern for the effects of local and national labor market trends.

Schools almost always have a steady flow of laborers for the low-wage jobs that are offered on-campus, like dining hall workers or front desk staff, because they have a live-in supply of students willing to take the jobs.

But the pandemic changed this. It is for this reason, among many others, that MSU had to rethink its relationship with organized and unorganized labor over the past two years.

The university had to change its approach in dealing with the shortage of dining hall workers, contract negotiations with a union on campus and mitigating the effects of a shortage of workers that they have little control over.

WHERE ARE THE DINING HALL WORKERS?

MSU gained national attention in October 2021 after an email was sent to faculty members and other employees asking them to volunteer in the dining halls.

“Like other schools and universities across the country, MSU’s Culinary Services is experiencing severe staffing shortages,” the email said. “Faculty and staff are invited to sign up to assist in dining halls with specific needs during evenings and weekends.”

While this was one of the most prominent and student-centered issues of labor shortages, this move followed the decision to close two dining halls and reduce hours of operation in others, which was met by a fury of letters and petitions written by students and parents.

Chief Communications Officer for the formerly Residential Hospitality Services, now the Student Life and Engagement, or SLE, Kat Cooper said that over the past 10 years, MSU has seen a decrease in students applying to work in dining halls. She said many students have told SLE they are more interested in getting work and experience in the field of work they are pursuing.

Cooper points to three trends that have affected dining hall staffing: fewer students choosing to work, older workers starting to retire and the halls needing to restaff in such a short period of time.

“The thing that happened with us is that we needed to go from zero to 100 overnight,” Cooper said. “It’s taken us longer to ramp up to full employment and we’re not there yet, but things are getting better all the time.”

Cooper said starting wages for “dining roles” range between $12 to $15 per hour, which she believes is a market-competitive wage. For the jobs currently listed on the SLE recruiting website, few have the starting wage stated in the job description. Of the jobs related to culinary services with a wage listed the highest-paid starting wage is $13.50 per hour.

As for the decision to email the faculty and staff for help staffing the dining halls, Cooper said SLE administrators decided to send out an email after the administration had heard people from the university asking if help was needed.

Many faculty members and staff reacted negatively to this decision. President and Chief Negotiator for the Union of Non-Tenured Faculty, or UNTF, Kate Birdsall said she thought the email was a joke at first.

“If I am working 60 hours a week to make sure that my students have a good experience and learn stuff, when exactly am I going to 4

T HE STAT E NEWS

Downtown East Lansing on Sept. 18, 2020.

Many businesses feature “Now Hiring” signs due to labor shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. State News File Photos

volunteer at Brody?” Birdsall asked.

Birdsall said the best way for SLE to end the shortage of dining hall workers is to raise pay to $20 an hour and add benefits.

Cooper said the email garnered 60 people to volunteer to help in the dining halls. There were administrators who worked in the dining halls as well, but Cooper would not share their names.

The mass exodus from jobs in the foodservice industry was not only at MSU. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the three highest quit rates in the leisure and hospitality industry all happened in 2021, with September being the highest at 6.4%.

Cooper said there were discussions to raise wages higher when SLE emailed asking for volunteers, but said SLE could “afford to be competitive” but not raise wages more than that. SLE, she said, is a self-sustaining division within MSU, receiving all of its money from room-and-board costs.

A FRIENDLY APPROACH WITH UNTF

Another high-profile issue the university takes on is its relationship with UNTF. Fall 2021 saw the UNTF, the Graduate Employees Union, or GEU, and a handful of other progressive student groups like the Young Democratic Socialists and Spartan Solidarity Network hold multiple protests about the safety measures for COVID-19.

One of the highest-profile instances of this was the “Wide Awake” protest outside of the TU ESDAY, MA RCH 15, 2022

Cowles House, President Samuel L. Stanley Jr.’s residence. At this protest, Birdsall called the COVID-19 situation “untenable and unsafe.”

A month after this protest, the GEU and UNTF gathered again for a “Die-In” outside of Stanley’s office. The demands of this protest included transparent communications about COVID-19 plans and options to shift the modalities of lessons from in-person to online.

The UNTF will negotiate its new contract with MSU this spring. During the collective bargaining process, Birdsall said they plan to address a number of issues, such as workload definitions, title designation and pay.

Birdsall said seeing Michigan State Head Coach Mel Tucker’s new, record-breaking contract alongside their cut salaries has helped put the morale of union members into the

“If I am working 60 hours a week to make sure that my students have a good experience and learn stuff, when exactly am I going to volunteer at Brody?”

Kate Birdsall

President and Chief Negotiator for the Union of Non-Tenured Faculty

S POT L I G H T

‘IT’S THROUGH THE ROOF’:

Confidence surges as Michigan State heads into the NCAA Tournament

MSU students crowd on to a bus on Feb. 15. CATA informed students that busses would come around every 30 minutes instead of 10 due to labor shortages. Photo by Madison Norfleet

gutter. She understands that academics and athletics are different accounts at MSU, but said she is not convinced money cannot be moved around.

“We know when we have people, particularly at the instructor level, so people who have a master’s degree but not a Ph.D., who have been here for 15 years and make $40,000 a year to teach tons of freshman and sophomore students,” Birdsall said. “For them to see that, it just kind of boggles the mind. … Stuff like that sends a very clear message when it’s not accompanied with, ‘OK, yeah, we agree your salary sucks. We want to help you fix that.’”

“It’s interesting, the university sure likes to tell us they don’t have any money,” UNTF organizer Richard Fessler said. “And then they sure like to spend a lot of money on things that aren’t educators. So, that’s just one of those things where I think the university generally shows what it values by how it allocates its budget.”

Meanwhile, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, MSU’s average pay for instructors, assistant professors and associate professors was lower than average for other Big Ten Schools.

Despite the protest about COVID-19 procedures and frustration with pay, Birdsall said the relationship between the administration and the union, while sometimes rocky, is overall positive and productive.

The Office of Faculty and Academic Staff Development seems to have taken on a new outlook for how it is choosing to work with the UNTF. In an event put on by the office on Feb. 23 called “Thriving in the Tenure System II: Transitioning from Associate to Full Professor,” Birdsall said the administration members in the meeting, including Provost Teresa Woodruff and Interim Associate Provost for Faculty and Academic Staff Development Marilyn Amey, were very positive and friendly about the fixedterm faculty and about the UNTF during the program.

Birdsall said Woodruff made a comment about wanting to make “MSU 2.0” and that during the meeting, Birdsall was given a chance to speak.

“When I saw the notice of (the meeting), I initially was annoyed, because it’s like ‘Why wasn’t my union invited to talk,” Birdsall said.

“And they were like, ‘Yeah, sure, we’d love to have you.’ So, I gave them an infographic and they shared it, and it was a really positive moment.”

A SHORTAGE OF CATA DRIVERS

In late January, MSU, along with the Capital Area Transportation Authority, or CATA, announced that after classes move back inperson, CATA bus routes would operate at a reduced level.

While MSU is only a member of the CATA and is not directly responsible for the issues the group faces, the reduction of bus routes on campus has been one of the biggest ways issues of labor shortages impacted campus life.

One of the reasons for the reductions in route frequency is because of a shortage of transit workers, MSU Deputy Director for MSU Police and Public Safety John Prush said. Throughout the state and the country, public transportation riders have faced longer waits because there are not enough bus drivers to sufficiently staff transit authorities.

Prush, who is the representative for MSU on the CATA Board of Directors, said CATA is short drivers because there are none to be hired and because the pandemic, particularly after the holiday season, has led to many workers calling in sick.

Prush said the reduced route frequency was not something CATA or MSU chose to do, despite rumors that say otherwise.

To mitigate the effects of CATA’s reduction of campus services, Prush said MSU decided to help alleviate demand for buses by providing complimentary parking at metered parking structures on campus through spring break.

A possible factor for why CATA is having trouble finding new workers and possibly retaining old employees is its contract negotiations with the Amalgamated Transit Union, or ATU, Local 1039. For over two years now, CATA and the ATU Local 1039 have gone through the collective bargaining process, using bridge contracts to last until a permanent one is agreed upon.

However, in April 2021, CATA took drastic measures to attempt to move along with negotiations by eliminating retirement healthcare for new hires, changing overtime policies and moving the annual pay raise to 3%.

Neither CATA’s spokesperson nor ATU Local 1039 President Steve Soliz wished to comment on this story.

Prush did not go into details about the plan if CATA is not able to find enough drivers to bring operations back to normal at MSU. “I’m staying optimistic, and we’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Prush said.

Sophomore guard A.J. Hoggard (11) fakes a shot and passes the ball as Michigan State took on the Purdue Boilermakers in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana on March 12. Photo by Chloe Trofatter

By Sean Reider sreider@statenews.com In a game that was an uphill climb nearly every step of the way for Michigan State, the Spartans found their summit with 5:43 left in the hands of sophomore guard A.J. Hoggard.

He hesitated for a second, blew past the perimeter, spun to his right and met senior guard Eric Hunter Jr. under the basket to put up a shot on an ankle he forgot was injured.

It went in. In favor of Purdue, the score was 57-56 as Hoggard flexed in joy on the run and the Spartans stood on the doorstep of completing a comeback they’ve struggled to even muster in the latter part of the season with very few exceptions.

In a moment where things can and have gotten a little out of hand this week, Hunter didn’t blink. He promptly corked off two consecutive threes to put Michigan State back in the hole and effectively kill the comeback despite them swinging away wildly in the final minutes. Purdue won 75-70 and advanced to the Big Ten Championship for a showdown against Iowa, a team that rallied successfully for a win themselves not long before the Spartans tried to do much of the same.

And just like that, it’s on to the NCAA Tournament for Michigan State. Two close wins and a clambering loss over three days in Indianapolis didn’t do much to change a lot of the narratives around Michigan State.

Some of the favorites: they’re old but inexperienced. Tough, but not the bullies of the Spartans’ past. Good enough to play with anybody, but not good enough to win.

Three days criss-crossing the rainbow pinwheel at Gainbridge Arena’s halfcourt did make something clear: the Spartans aren’t really bothered by any of that. They haven’t been playing, practicing or thinking like a team that’s looking for a peak in a culture that’s been built around peaking at the right T U ES DAY, MA RCH 1 5, 2022

time — that is, this time of year.

So, it’s right back to base camp for what they hope will be one final methodical ascent towards reaching the potential that was flashed, one final climb to finding some of the glory that’s avoided them throughout this season. Head Coach Tom Izzo, the everengaging sherpa of more than a few runs up the mountain over the years, said he was disappointed and proud after getting knocked out of the Big Ten Tournament, but certain about one thing.

“Right now the better team won, but this team’s going to get better in a week and we’re going to see if we can do some damage,” Izzo said.

The way up? Like the narratives, it hasn’t changed this season and it certainly didn’t change in Indianapolis.

In other words, playing Michigan State basketball. Living out the three words plastered on their locker room walls that will stand as the generational pillars defining the program long after Izzo eventually calls it a day and somebody new steps up to the helm.

“Rebound, defend and run,” senior forward Gabe Brown said. “Those are our main staples here and that’s what we focused on, and I felt we did a great job of just doing that. And right now we’ve just got to keep on doing that and keep on getting better each and every day.”

This style shined through as they fought for the boards necessary to jump out to a big lead against Maryland. Played the type of defense that made Big Ten Player of The Year sophomore guard Johnny Davis look like a shell of himself, and got the fastbreak buckets that were essential to keeping a comeback bid alive against Purdue.

With this in play, the confidence among the program has surged at maybe the right time.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 STATEN EWS.CO M

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FINDING THE GLASS SLIPPER: Mid-Major teams to ride in your NCAA Tournament brackets

By Eli McKown emckown@statenews.com College basketball has figured out what college football has not: Mid-major schools competing for a title is actually super fun!

Cinderellas are what make March Madness the most wonderful time of the year.

Yeah, that’s right, slide over Santa Claus — Sister Jean is going dancing.

The unpredictability of March is the most satisfying — yet frustrating — thing the world has to offer. I’m going to try to make sense of the madness. While I cannot guarantee my Cinderella choices will be a better option than your uncle’s strategy of picking the team with the better mascot, we may at least provide a source to blame your busted bracket on.

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE

Offense, offense and more offense. That’s what March is all about, right?

The Jackrabbits’ offense is lethal, ranking 12th in adjusted offensive efficiency by Kenpom. Living and dying by the three ball, the Jackrabbits have four key rotation players who shoot the ball at 40% or higher this season. Sophomore guard Baylor Scheierman leads the way, shooting a scorching 47.3% on 169 attempts.

South Dakota State has been here before. They’ve got the experience, and it shows with their 21 consecutive wins leading into the tournament. Their only losses come from 2021, holding an undefeated record in 2022.

South Dakota State draws a favorable matchup with Providence early on, who struggled as of late. After that, a shootout with Iowa awaits. If they can take those two games, the Jackrabbits can hop their way into a matchup with Kansas in the Sweet 16. Buckle up.

MURRAY STATE

I could just write 30-2 here,

but you picked up the paper or clicked on the link for more analysis than that.

Murray State has been known for its professional guards like Memphis’ Ja Morant, Phoenix’s Cameron Payne or former Milwaukee guard Isaiah Canaan. This team is a bit different with junior forward KJ Williams leading the way with 18.2 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

The Racers’ only losses came against a quality East Tennessee State program back in November 2021 when they shot 1-16 from the three-point line and against top-seeded Auburn in December 2021.

Ranking in the top 30 of Kenpom, calling Murray State a Cinderella may be a disservice quite frankly, but Jeff from sales hasn’t watched any college basketball this season and might gloss over that fact.

It’s a shame Murray State and San Francisco have to face-off as both have Cinderella potential with their guard play. But

Nia Clouden departs MSU for WNBA Draft

By Sara Tidwell stidwell@statenews.com Michigan State women’s basketball senior guard Nia Clouden declared via Twitter on March 8 that she will be entering her name into the 2022 WNBA Draft. Clouden played four seasons but has chosen not to use her extra COVID-19 year of eligibility.

Clouden averaged 20 points, 4.2 rebounds and assists and 1.2 steals per game by the end of her fourth season, on 42.7% field shooting and 39.6% beyond the arc.

She’s one of the best free-throw shooters in the NCAA, averaging 88.5% from the stripe that puts her in the top 20. She’s also No. 12 in free throws attempted with 192 and No. 3 in free throws made with 170.

Clouden also received the notable honor for first-team All-Big Ten, putting her in an elite group with six other Spartan women to have received conference accolades each season during their entire career in green and white.

In her fourth season at MSU, she broke and reset a school record for most points scored in a single game with 50 at Florida Gulf Coast in late December. She also set herself several career-highs in that game, with 46 minutes played, 17 field goals made and 28 field goals attempted.

“Spartan Nation: Thank you for your loyalty and enthusiasm. All your cheers, signs and support fueled me to go harder every game. The green and white has served me well and I will continue to make you proud,” Clouden said in her Twitter statement.

CONTINUED FROM ROOF PAGE 5

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“I feel like it’s through the roof,” Brown said.

“I feel like our guys are confident. I feel like all our coaches are confident in us. We’ve just got to keep on working and keep on pushing every day and it starts in practice. So this week, we going to really grind, we’re going to really grind things out, look at film, just get down to the nitty-gritty and get a win.”

Hoggard, the battered dynamo in Saturday’s second semifinal with 17 points and 11 assists, kept the same grinding energy as his co-captain when discussing the vaunted lessons to be gained after a loss.

“We learned a lot about ourselves up here fighting, proving people (wrong) a little bit,” Hoggard said. “We’ve got to get back to the drawing board when we get back … and just try to get better so we can prepare for March Madness, as coach said, and just continue to 6

T H E STAT E N EWS

get better and rally each other, don’t get too down. I wanted this so bad for our seniors but we didn’t get it done tonight, so we’ve just kind of got to get back and get another shot at March.”

All that’s guaranteed is 40 more minutes for Michigan State.

One-and-done time takes on a new meaning this time of year. If they hadn’t already, things tend to get awfully real awfully quick.

“I went home early last year and I’m not trying to go home early this year,” Brown said. “We’ve got to get back to the drawing board. We’ve got to get back to Michigan State basketball like we’ve been playing this weekend.”

But, with a new season in swing, the focus is just as singular as it was back in November.

TUES DAY, M ARC H 1 5, 2022

S PORTS I give Murray State the edge in that one and they have the offense to take on Kentucky in the following round.

CHATTANOOGA

Chattanooga graduate student guard David Jean-Baptiste was in the transfer portal in December 2021. Then in March, he sent the Mocs to the Big Dance with a prayer shot from just past the half-court line to lift his team over Furman.

Chattanooga is full of stories.

Remember the Kansas-Kansas State stool fiasco? The culprit that lifted the stool to hit someone, graduate student forward Silvio De Sousa, is playing for Chattanooga, too.

This is a team that is tremendous defensively, holding teams to 42.3% shooting from the field and 30.1% from beyond the arc. They have the size to guard major teams from the point guard spot up to the center spot and sophomore guard Malachi Smith (20.4 points per game) and Jean-Baptiste (14.7 points per game) to supplement their scoring.

The Mocs are a matchup-proof squad with legitimate NBA talent on the roster. Their size with De Sousa on Illinois’ junior center Kofi Cockburn is a huge thing to have heading into this one. I’m sure the Fighting Illini would have

loved to have anyone else.

Storylines matter in March though, and this team has that, too. I think the basketball gods will like this team. Write this one in Sharpie to make some noise.

DAVIDSON

Stop me if you have heard this one before, but Davidson is next-in-line to make some noise in March.

Oh, and it is against your favorite team too.

Ranking in the top 10 of

Kenpom’s adjusted offensive efficiency, this team is full of firepower across the roster.

Former Michigan State guard and three-point marksman junior Foster Loyer leads the way and knows his way around the MSU program. Since leaving MSU, Loyer found his home — leading the Wildcats in scoring with 16.5 points per game, including shooting nearly 45% from beyond the arc. Loyer looks like everything he was promised to be in East Lansing.

Around Loyer, their four

starters, including junior forward Hyunjung Lee (16.3 points per game), shoot the three-ball over 33% with three of the five shooting over 40%.

With only five losses on the year and a handful of those coming without Loyer due to injury, the Wildcats have already taken down big-time opponents like Alabama and fellow Cinderella hopefuls Delaware. In their matchup with San Francisco, the Wildcats just fell short.

With Michigan State poten-

tially missing junior guard Tyson Walker, I think Davidson can win this one. In their potential matchup with Duke, they have a chance with their veterans to do something very similar.

This team doesn’t have a lot of size, but when you’re shooting the way they are from the three, you don’t need to. I really like Davidson to make some noise in March here.

COLGATE

No, not the toothpaste com-

pany. But these Raiders are pretty clean themselves.

After beginning the season with a paltry 4-10 record, the Raiders have won 19 of their last 20 leading up to the tournament.

Colgate prides itself on the defensive end, running up and down the court with one of the fastest paces any team has to offer. They’re flat-out hard to prepare for. Along with their blistering pace, this team lives and dies by the three with five players shooting at or better 33% from beyond the arc. Nobody on this team is a top dog, they just combine to bury you.

For any opponent, this is a difficult and unique team to prepare for. Wisconsin in particular doesn’t have a true size advantage on Colgate with their typical strong post play lacking this season. Colgate not only could exploit this matchup, but they could all the way to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight if they get hot enough.

This team could be like some refreshing mint to freshen your mouth when you wake up in the morning or it could be a jarring orange-flavored toothpaste your dentist is plunging in your mouth during your cleaning. Either way, it’s going to be a fun ride, and I suggest getting in while you can.

Moira Joiner MSU Women’s Basketball

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