The Final Four Is Not On The Schedule - A Podcast Discussing Michigan State Basketball.

October 23, 2025: Michigan State unofficially began its 2025-26 season tonight in an exhibition matchup against the visiting Bowling Green Falcons 75-66. It was our first opportunity to watch the Spartans in action and there were some moments that didn’t disappoint.

We expected MSU to have another good rebounding year and this game they did not show that. However, the jumpshooting seemed better and the roster overall looks to be ve...

October 21, 2025: Welcome back to the basketball season! We’re excited to get going again and we lead off today with our preview of Michigan State’s first exhibition game - the Bowling Green Falcons. As you may recall, Bowling Green played at the Breslin last season but this time it’s both teams’ exhibition openers.

The Falcons were middle of the pack of the MAC last year and are projected similarly again this year. Led by their lo...

October 16, 2025: We’ve finally made it through all the Big Ten previews and have arrived at Michigan State. Last year, Rod had MSU at #5 and the team went out and lapped the field by 3 games. This year, we have them as #2 but with all the variability because of the transfer portal - it’s really anyone’s guess. Outside of Purdue looking really, really good.

The Spartans are coming off a fantastic season in which they returned to th...

October 13, 2025: Matt Painter has had a great run at Purdue and has gotten the proverbial monkey off the back of Boilermakers by having success in the NCAA Tournament. He has done what no one else has done in West Lafayette - translate regular season success into post season success.

The Boilers look to be loaded coming into this year with a return of their injured 7’4” center, another almost 7 footer, and the core of Smith, Kaufm...

October 11, 2025: Michigan and Dusty May just got a very wealthy benefactor for their athletics program allowing them to be more than competitive in the transfer market. Resources have always been a little bit of a struggle for the Wolverines but not anymore. They’ve opened the wallet and have one of the highest sought after transfers, Yaxel Lendenborg from UAB. He looks to replace departing Danny Wolf at the 4 and might even be a ...

October 11, 2025: UCLA will begin its 2025-26 season with a little Big Ten experience under its belt. Last year’s team managed a decent finish but seemed to struggle with the travel schedule required to be a part of the league. This year’s team has some very important returning players and intriguing transfers but will face the same brutal travel.

Of note to MSU fans is the transfer of much maligned McDonald’s All-American, Xavier ...

October 9, 2025: Former Purdue standout and current college (and soon to be NBA) color analyst, Robbie Hummel, joins us again today to talk about the Big Ten and college basketball. Robbie is a rising start within the college basketball analyst ranks and brings great insight both as a former player and fan of the game.

In this episode, Hummel gives us his take on Purdue’s incoming super team, what the rest of the league has, MSU, a...

October 9, 2025: Wisconsin has been a relevant basketball program since Dick Bennett took over in the 90s. Before then, Badger basketball was an afterthought. After Bennett came Bo Ryan who led Wisconsin to multiple Big Ten titles and Final Fours.

Greg Gard has continued the tradition of solid Wisconsin teams and this year’s team looks to continue the run. A solid core of returning players with some high end transfers appears to ha...

October 7, 2025: One of the more interesting programs in the Big Ten is Illinois. Since head coach Brad Underwood has taken the reins, the Fighting Illini have been something of an amoeba. Every year not only does the roster shift but so does the philosophy. They have gone from a team of ultra high pressure, to forward focused, to big men and drop coverage, to high volume 3 point shooting, and now an invasion of Europeans.

Although...

October 5, 2025: Oregon finished its first season in the Big Ten under Dana Altman with a solid performance. It was a team that wasn’t great at anything in particular but was good in everything. It earned them an NCAA seed and a decent first showing in the league.

But can Altman and crew improve upon last year’s record? The Ducks return Nate Bittle and Jackson Shelstead who are plus plus players so perhaps Oregon fans can expect mo...

October 2, 2025: Ohio State has had a very strange ten year run in the Big Ten. They have occasionally made the NCAA tournament but certainly not as often as we would have expected considering the level of talent they’ve put on the court. The last few years have been no exception to that rule whether under Holtman’s or Diebler’s leadership.

This is a team that should make the NCAAs and have a very competitive team to give other tea...

October 1, 2025: The season hasn’t started yet but Tom Izzo and his staff continue to rack up impressive wins off the court in the high school recruiting circuit. Today, 4 star 6’8” wing Julius Avent from New Jersey committed to MSU. As early as this Monday, word was that he still needed to visit Seton Hall before making a decision but that was laid to rest this afternoon.

Avent’s father is Anthony Avent who was one of the all time...

September 29, 2025: As we round into the top half of the Big Ten we find ourselves in Southern California with the USC Trojans. After what can only be described as a disappointing year for first year coach Eric Musselman, the Trojans look to have assembled a better team this year.

Although Musselman failed to hang onto starters Wesley Yates and Desmond Claude (both going to Washington) he appears to have a team that will contend an...

September 25, 2025: We have now arrived at the half way point of our Big Ten previews with the Iowa Hawkeyes rounding out the first 9 teams. Iowa is also the last of the our previews with teams sporting new head coaches. This time Ben McCollum who spent just one year at Drake last season ending with an NCAA first round win and a second round exit.

McCollum had a lot of success at the D2 level and he will bring his lead guard Bennet...

September 22, 2025: Just like the last episode on Indiana, Maryland had an interesting season and off season too. First, the ‘Crab Five’ managed to exceed expectations and make it to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament and finish tied for second in the Big Ten. Then, their coach Kevin Willard, participated in a spat with the athletic administration in the media leading to his departure to Villanova after only three seasons at...

September 18, 2025: The beat goes on with our Big Ten Previews and we find ourselves at #12 - the Indiana Hoosiers. Indiana’s strange detour with Mike Woodson has come to an end with a new face looking to end the Hoosiers’ time in wilderness. Since the departure of Bobby Knight, Indiana basketball has been flailing about looking for success. Incredibly, since the departure of Knight, the Hoosiers have only made the second weekend o...

September 15, 2025: Next on the list of Big Ten previews is our #13 team - the Washington Huskies. Last year can only be summed up as a dreadful first year in the Big Ten for the Huskies. They finished last and were bad in just about every category - offensive, defensive, rebounding, turnovers, shooting, and general competitiveness.

This year, head coach Danny Sprinkle appears to be making some serious upgrades to his team both thr...

September 11, 2025: It was a disappointing year for Northwestern and Chris Collins due in large part to the season ending injuries to Brooks Barnhiser and Jalen Leach. The depleted ‘Cats managed to stay competitive all the way to the end and make the Big Ten Tournament but didn’t have enough to compete for a third straight NCAA tournament bid.

This year will feature a senior Nick Martinelli and some intriguing new pieces which we h...

September 8, 2025: The Nebraska Cornhuskers have had an interesting journey under head coach Fred Hoiberg. Hoiberg seemed like the perfect hire for Nebraska’s basketball program back in 2019 with his previous success at Iowa State and ability to identify talent using the transfer system.

Now, in an era where the transfer is a staple of the college game, one would think he would be suited best. However, the results at Nebraska have ...