Couch: On the field, Michigan State athletics is winning at a big-time rate this year

Lansing State Journal

Michigan State's football, men's soccer, volleyball, hockey and men's and women's basketball teams have a combined record this year of 57-22-4.

EAST LANSING – Michigan State athletics is no longer living in Camelot, as it was not long ago. Too much has happened in the last year. There are still serious-looking clouds hovering.

But on the fields, on the court, on the ice, the situation collectively is nearly as good as ever.

On Tuesday, one after another, soccer coach Damon Rensing, hockey coach Danton Cole, volleyball coach Cathy George, men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo and women’s basketball coach Suzy Merchant rolled in and stood at the same podium, talking about big things happening in their respective programs.

Izzo, of course, has the No. 3-ranked team in the country, coming off a decisive win over North Carolina. George’s volleyball team begins NCAA tournament play Friday in Omaha, Nebraska, with a decent shot at advancing beyond the first weekend. Rensing’s soccer team is in the midst of its third deep NCAA tournament run in five years, playing at Indiana Friday for a spot in the Final Four. Even the hockey team, dormant most of the last decade, is creating a stir in Cole’s first year, having already won as many games this season as it did all of last season.

“I was just talking to Danton and really, hats off to him,” Izzo said Tuesday. “I am a big Michigan State fan. Not a big Michigan State basketball fan. (When) I actually came here (in the mid-1980s), that ticket in hockey was valuable. There were times I wanted to sell it because I was a (graduate assistant) making nothing, but I enjoyed the hockey too much to sell my ticket. So I just didn’t eat or date anyone because I didn’t have any money. Instead I went to hockey games. I went there the other night. It’s not there where it was. But you can see that we’re starting to make some progress.

“Then, when you look at soccer, you look at basketball, you look at soccer, you look at volleyball, you look at what football’s done.”

The record of those six programs together this year: 57-22-4.

It is not the first time MSU has won at this rate. Nor is it the best record in the country for a school with those sports. Penn State, for example, in the same six sports is 63-23-2 this year, holding a slightly better winning percentage, despite a losing men’s soccer program. Michigan is 57-29-4 in those sports, slightly behind MSU.

But for MSU's athletic department, which is still embroiled in troubling issues outside of the arena — two separate sexual assault cases against former football players and lawsuits against the university for harboring a now-convicted serial sexual predator in Dr. Larry Nassar — these last three months in the arena have been a reminder of how strong the Spartans’ athletic programs are.

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“There’s a fever, and, when there’s a fever, it permeates through the whole athletic department and hopefully the community,” Izzo said. “And that’s the advantage of being more than a one-sport institution, like some have.

“That’s why I’ve always been a great program guy, because I believe in all of them and believe all of them are important. And the better others do, the better our own players see it. And there’s just an excitement.”

The vibe throughout their respective programs is “upbeat,” George said. “You are truly thrilled for everybody and how they’re doing.”

While Izzo, Merchant and Cole are early in their seasons, George and Rensing are entering the most consequential weekend of theirs.

The MSU volleyball team has not forgotten last year’s sobering loss to Arizona in the second round of the NCAA tournament, a terrific opportunity squandered as the Spartans hosted the first two rounds. This team is just as talented, perhaps more so, but wasn’t seeded so it must do it all on the road, beginning against Missouri State on Friday evening in Omaha. If the Spartans win, they’ll likely play host Creighton on Saturday night.

“That still sticks in our craw,” George said of the loss to Arizona. “And for this team to go further and to push beyond that is vital to us. So yes, it’s right there, and it’s still raw.”

Rensing has MSU soccer in the Elite Eight for the third time in five years, after home NCAA tournament wins over Virginia Tech and Western Michigan. The Spartans tied Indiana, 1-1 in double overtime, in the regular season finale in East Lansing. Had either team won, they’d have won the Big Ten regular season title. They’ll play for more now.

“It will be a little harder for us, because I think they will have a good crowd, and they are at home,” Rensing said. “But we have good leadership, and I like the way our guys are playing right now. It will be a 2-1 game. I just hope we have the two.

“I told the guys after the game with Western, ‘We were five minutes away from being co-champions of the Big Ten regular season, and we got knocked out of the first round unexpectedly in the Big Ten tournament. But if I would’ve told you guys those things would happen but we have a chance to beat Indiana to go to a College Cup, (we would take that).’”

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him Twitter @Graham_Couch.

Big weekend for MSU athletics

Men’s basketball
Thursday: Home vs. No. 5 Notre Dame, ACC/Big Ten Challenge, 7 p.m., ESPN
Sunday: Home vs. Nebraska, Big Ten opener, 4:30 p.m., FS1

Women’s basketball
Thursday: At Miami, 7 p.m., ACC/Big Ten Challenge, 7 p.m., ESPN3 (online)
Sunday: Home vs. Western Michigan, 12:30 p.m., BTN-Plus (online)

Volleyball
Friday: NCAA tournament first round vs. Missouri State, in Omaha, Nebraska, 5 p.m., Foxsportsgo (online)
Saturday: If win Friday, NCAA tournament second round vs. Creighton/Coastal Carolina, 7 p.m., Foxsportsgo (online)

Men’s soccer
Friday: NCAA tournament Elite Eight round vs. Indiana, in Bloomington, Indiana, 7 p.m., BTN-Plus (online)

Hockey
Friday: Home vs. No. 4 Notre Dame, 7:05 p.m.
Saturday: Home vs. Notre Dame, 7:05 p.m.