Game #145 of 364 40% complete

Welcome back to my 11th season traversing the U.S.A. in search of college basketball games. This is my first trip to Michigan to kick off a three-game series. Flying in the middle of a government shutdown had me worried that I might never see the shores of the Great Lakes. Actually, I was surprised to learn that Detroit does not overlook a Great Lake, but a smaller one called Lake St. Clair. However, it was very cool to look out over the lake and see the Canadian flag flying.

I arrived in the morning in Detroit with time to kill before the night game in East Lansing. I love to walk along scenic areas, so the River Walk on the east shore of Detroit was a must. I was expecting very cold weather, but the temperature was a comfortable 50 degrees.

The trip east to East Lansing took about an hour. Anytime I visit a big campus, finding free parking is always a challenge. I try to do research ahead of time, but most of the time the information is out of date. I’ve learned to simply ask a parking attendant at a paid lot, ‘Where can a guy without a pass park?’ Sometimes there isn’t free parking, but this time I was directed to the free Kellogg parking garage. Did I ever tell you how much I hate parking in a garage for a game? It took me an hour to get out of the garage after the game.

I saw the Michigan State Spartans earlier this year in an exhibition game against UConn. They are very athletic but lack consistent scorers. I was especially impressed with forward Coen Carr, who flew through the air multiple times to throw down some impressive dunks. Coach Izzo may not win the Big Ten title this year, but he will, as always, be a tough out in March

San Jose State gave MSU a surprising battle and actually outscored the Spartans in the second half, 37–33. SJSU was led in scoring by Colby Garland’s 22 points. He was the best player on the floor that night. Although the game was never in doubt, I’m sure Coach Izzo was not happy with the second-half letdown. I love his quote in the postgame presser: ‘We got fat and sassy at halftime.’

Jeremy Fears, the MSU point guard, is on an assist roll and could challenge Purdue’s Braden Smith for the Big Ten lead this season. Fears has 28 assists in three games this year. He is the brother of Jeremiah, who now plays for the New Orleans Pelicans.

This was an arena similar to Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke, where the students occupy much of the courtside-level seating. This setup must be a dilemma for athletic directors: Do you let the high-level donors sit near the court as a reward for their substantial contributions, or do you risk losing their goodwill by giving those seats to students, who provide far more spirit and noise but far less revenue?

Followers of my blog know that I like to point out first occurrences. This was the first game in my travels where both teams had the same nickname—Spartans. I tried to avoid using “Spartans” in the paragraphs above to prevent confusion. Perhaps someday I’ll see the UConn Huskies play the Washington Huskies.