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Host Nick Lundberg discussed all MSU sports updates: volleyball, women and men's soccer, women and men's basketball, football and hockey with IMPACT sports director Brendan Schabath.
The State News sports reporters discuss all MSU sports.
Nick Lundberg 0:10
Welcome back, everyone. My name is Nick Lundberg. And this is the Sports Roundtable, your end of the week sports update on all things Michigan State. Live from impact station here at Holden Hall. I'm with Brendan, the sports director at Impact. How are we doing since the last time we saw you, Brendan?
Branden Schabath 0:23
It's been a minute, I was glad to be here for the first episode and glad to get some of our other people from sports involved with this podcast since then, but it's been good a lot of stuff has happened. I'm sure our football discussion today is gonna be a little different than it was for the pilot episode. But it's been good. It's been good. There's been a lot of really great things from some of the smaller sports and you know, he talked about both soccer teams. Basketball is right around the corner, too. There's a lot of stuff going on.
Nick Lundberg 0:51
There's a lot of stuff to look forward to even though we you know, we have to talk about football, unfortunately. But I want to dive into one of the teams that's making a lot of waves on campuses women's soccer. Last week, they beat number six, Penn State on the road two to one, Lauren Kozol had a massive seven saves, and then they beat Maryland on the road, again, four to nothing, which was their largest big 10 margin of victory since 2013. This is the team's best start to play in school history. A lot of players making waves which we can get into a little bit. But, Brendan, where did this team come from?
Branden Schabath 1:25
I mean, I think when you we talked about Jeff Hosler, that the first time I was on here, and you look at his track record, and it's at Grand Valley State in which he went to nine, division two national championships, one five, in all of his nine years there, as the head coach, but it's tough to, you know, understand, and especially for a smaller sport, like like soccer, where maybe, you know, a bunch of fans and US media, too, are not as well versed in it as a sport like football or basketball. It's tough to understand it know if that level of coaching is going to translate to the division one level and not just the division one, but the power five, level two in a very good soccer country and big 10 country. And I think it speaks for itself the fact that he went to nine national championships in Division Two, I don't think you know, I think we're realizing now no matter what level you're at, that's a feat that deserves all the recognition and is absolutely amazing. And it's not a huge surprise that this team is that good. It's more of a pleasant surprise. It's something that, you know, maybe they're surpassing expectations, but we expected them to be good. And you you talk to some of the players around this program, you talk to the people that are close to the women's soccer team, the red cedar rowdies who are very close fans and followers.
Branden Schabath 2:50
There was a vibe and you could tell that this team was going to be good and they are going to compete for some high level awards. And it's just coming to fruition now and it's great to see I think the only thing we need is we need this team to have that national recognition they have not been ranked astonishingly by the United Soccer Coaches poll and that needs to change this team is so good. They've had multiple girls get in the the top drawer soccer national team of the week. Jordyn Wickes was just recently for this week. Justina Gaynor, I think the week before two weeks before, I mean, they've been a lot of fun to watch. They've been outstanding defensively, Lauren Kozol might be the best goalkeeper in the country.This team needs to be ranked. I mean, we have to put the rest of the nation on notice and say, you know, check out Michigan State because you're going to see him come postseason time if you haven't seen him already.
Nick Lundberg 3:45
Exactly. And I just wanted to say that or I wondered floated out there that Jeff Hosler might be a top three coach on campus, if not the hottest.
Branden Schabath 3:54
I think he might be the best coach on campus. Honestly, the way he turned this program around in year one, I mean, they were expected to finish I believe, second to last in the big 10 in his first year, and they finished fourth. And again, they were expected this season to finish six, and they're already at the top of the big 10 Right now obviously, there's still some games left to finish out the rest of the season, but to just completely do a 180 with a program that was really struggling, was losing some talent to the transfer portal as well. He brought Bria Schrotenboer back after she transferred to Duke. She came back here. She's been great on that. backline for Michigan State. It's really nice to see one of these teams make a rebuild the way they're supposed to. I know you and I have grown up Detroit sports fans and unfortunately obviously fans of Michigan State and we've been through in our short lifetime a number of rebuilds, unsuccessful ones all add and it's nice to see one that's working out.
Nick Lundberg 3:54
It is and this team just has blown me away they're nine one and three on the year they're gonna play Michigan. Another big match of obviously Michigan's always a big game this Sunday. But moving on to another team, the other soccer team on campus that has been doing a lot better than they were at the start of the season the men's team. After beating Michigan, we talked about that in the last podcast, they beat Wisconsin over the weekend. One enough. One nail, they'll play Penn State tonight at seven. Now there, they have four wins on the season, still four losses in two draws. But it's been nice to see them. We talked about it. It's been nice to see them kind of come back from what they how they started to where they are now.
Branden Schabath 5:34
Yeah, I mean, the way they started the year, it was easy to kind of lose your hopes maybe for this team. And some of those losses came against good teams, but not big 10 teams. And so you you wouldn't be too crazy to think, Oh, well, they've even started the big 10 season yet. Where's that gonna go. But they've really turned it around. I think it took a few games for the freshmen to get there, kind of get their sea legs under them and learn what college soccer is all about. I think Owen Finnerty has the most confidence of anybody on this team right now. He's been playing really well lately for them. Injury to Will Perkins and some other guys, you know, has, you know, kind of slowed them. But the team has won through those injuries. And through some of those losses, Louis Sala missed the game due to a red card, you know, him and him and Perkins are captains on this team. And they were still able to pick up wins without those guys. That's huge. And that just goes to show how well these freshmen are learning and how well they're being coached by Rensing and the rest of his staff. And I think there's a lot to like about these freshmen, not just for the rest of this season, but for the years to come. It's hard to tell where this team will be come postseason time. You just hope like in any other sport, they're playing their best soccer at the right time. And it seems like they might be on a trend do that right now, this game against Penn State has a chance to get over the 500 mark and be a game above. And that's a really big opportunity. Penn State's usually a pretty good team. That'll be a tough matchup tonight. But if they can go out there and win that and make a statement that will set them up very well for the rest of the year.
Nick Lundberg 7:11
And it's surprising that we're even talking about this after the mood around the team for that throughout the first five games or so they just they've, they've been a completely different team, the second half of their schedule, but moving on to another squad that has been showing a lot of freshmen early is hockey. Even though they lost their exhibition to the US national team development program. They had two freshmen Dorwart and Shouty both, they both scored in the exhibition, and they will move on to Bowling Green for their first regular season game this weekend in a series or first two regular season games, excuse me.
Branden Schabath 7:47
Yeah. Let's call a spade a spade. It's never good to lose to 17 and 18 year olds who are gonna be on your team and a couple of years. And hey, it's not just this year, Michigan State has lost to the US NTDP many times before. But there were some things to like. And I think if you really this is an exhibition game. And you don't want to take too much from it. But other positives to take are the guys that we saw on the US NTDP roster, some of them are already committed to come to Michigan State Trey Augustine, their goalkeeper was 34-37 on saves. And two of those came in the third period when his team was already up four to one two of those goals for Michigan State. But I think Nightingale made a good point in his presser after that game. And you know, he said it was a slow start, but he thought they were definitively the better team, the second half of the game. And I think he's right. And they came back and scored two in the third period and didn't give up any more. The defense kind of held its ground a little bit and gave them a chance to win that game. But the main storyline here is that this is going to be a long season. It's not going to be easy. And I don't think we can expect a Jeff Hosler like turnaround from Michigan State hockey. But this is a team who won the national championship in this century, you know, and they want to get back to that level of play again, the big 10 is fantastic for hockey. There are so many great guys who are in the NHL right now who were here a year or two ago that you know, we were calling games for uncovering and if Michigan State can get back to competing in the big 10 It'll make it a lot of fun to be at Munn Ice Arena on a Friday or a Saturday night, watching them take on some of these big 10 teams, I think for this year, and I liked that you brought it up.
Branden Schabath 9:38
The main focus is going to be the younger guys, the freshmen they're going to be a lot of names we've never heard have big games and score and do stuff like that. Just because there's so many new faces on this roster but that's what you need in a rebuild. That's the whole point is you're changing this entire program. You got to bring in a bunch of new people and if we can see them be competitive, and a couple of the big 10 series. If they can maybe finish second last and not last like they're predicted. It'll be a win this year for Nightingale his first year.
Nick Lundberg 10:09
And another first year head coach, a squad has been doing pretty well this year talking about Leah Johnson with the volleyball program. They're in the midst of its tough stretch currently, but they beat Maryland three to two last Friday. But after that, they lost to number 12 ranked Penn State one to three. And they'll play Minnesota this weekend, the top number 11 team in the country. They've kind of stalled out after a very, very hot start. But that's expected of a first year head coach with a new team going into Big time play.
Branden Schabath 10:38
Yeah, and volleyball. People don't realize how grueling of a schedule it is. They're going to play a bunch of matches this year. And it's pretty consistent with the travel as well. They were just out in Nebraska at Penn State on the road. They played at Maryland as well, Rutgers, and it's not easy for those players. And so when they get off to a hot start, like they didn't nonconference play, it's good. But it has to be sustainable in the big 10 play. And they're just not at that level yet. Again, first year head coach and Leah Johnson. She is doing fantastic. She She reminds me of the way, Tucker kind of jumped on to the scene when he got here. She is all about her team and promoting her team. And I don't know if any of our listeners were aware. But when you know, a couple of weeks ago, when she was in a press conference, she went to every single reporter and said, Hey, do you what's your name? What do you work for? Do you have a question for me? Because she's trying to put her team and herself on the map and, you know, bring the spotlight to them and say, Hey, we've got some really fantastic student athletes here that are doing really good things. And this is going to be a really good team. We're not there yet, but we're going to get there. I just love the attitude that she has. I think she's definitely the right woman for the job. I think Alan Haller made the right decision pulling her from Illinois State and I think she's another one who it feels like, you know, maybe not on paper right now, maybe not looking at the numbers, but it feels like this is a volleyball team, who in as little as a year or two. We'll be talking about competing for a big 10 championship.
Nick Lundberg 12:15
And I feel like especially with Leah Johnson, but with everyone else that Haller as his stretches and AD so far has been nothing short of what you can ask for out of a new athletic director. All the new head coaches seem like they've been finding their place. Like we said Nightingale's doing well recruiting Leah Johnson's hat got her team off to Hosler I know Hosler wasn't Haller, higher, but I mean, he's, they're both the same year, basically. So he's been tearing it up. And I mean, it's just great to see all these young coaches. And I mean, Tucker's only in his third year and we know what he's done but great to see all these coaches make waves, but one guy we don't have to worry about is Tom Izzo and we just want to talk about basketball real quick as Midnight Madness is coming up, and we're gonna see some scrimmages out of both the men's and women's team. And in my opinion, I really want to see how DeeDee Hagemann, Matilda Ekh, and Maddy Skorupski perform in the scrimmages because I feel like these three players are very, very important keys development wise to how the season will look for both of these teams.
Branden Schabath 13:17
Yeah, I'm really interested to see the women's team and how they look in the scrimmage. It's really hard to tell I think a lot of non basketball people or maybe pedestrian basketball fans can overreact to something like Midnight Madness kind of similar to you know, preseason football and basketball and whatnot. But there is stuff that you can take away. I don't think anybody should look at the score. should look it turned out the stats do not matter at all in any of the scrimmages, but just the eye test literally. How do players look? Do they look in shape? Do they look fast? Do they look strong? Do they look confident? That's what we're looking for out of Midnight Madness. And if we see some of that, that'll be a good sign. I think we what you really want to see for someone like DeeDee Hagermann, you want to see her dominate the ball, every possession that she's on the floor offensively, she should start with the ball in her hands. I feel like you want to see some good decision making crisp passes and for Matilda Ekh who I had so much fun watching last year and I'm really excited to get to see her play this year.
Branden Schabath 14:21
She's just such an exciting player and she works so hard. And the way she shoots the ball is just lights out strap and I'm looking to see to see if if she's in midseason form and Midnight Madness. And if she is she's knocking down some shots, the rest of the big 10 Better take note because she's going to be someone that's in their scouting report very quickly. They're going to have to focus on the men's side. I think Mady Sissoko is a big name that you have to pay attention to again with the eye test just how does he look? Has he kind of honed in and chiseled some of those raw skills that he has as in that raw talent, I was able to go to their open practice the first one of the year, and I'll be completely honest, some guys looked good looked better than I thought. Joey Hauser looks really in shape. He looks faster. He looks more confident. I was impressed with Carson Cooper, Cooper can reach his arm halfway up and he's already touching the rim. Basically, he looks taller than 6'11, I think or 6'10 is what he's listed at. And I think he can be a nice piece moving forward. I'm bummed out, obviously, that we don't get to see Jay Aikens and Malik Hall with their injuries or Tre Holloman looked good. I thought AJ Hoggard looked a lot faster than he did, which is kind of surprising to say because he was already surprisingly fast, I think just for his body type. But Izzo had mentioned how Hoggard had lost some weight, Pierre Brooks had lost some weight. You can see that fleet that's visible for midnight madness in that scrimmage. And then the freshmen you want to see guys like Jaxon Kohler, like we said Trey Holloman and Carson Cooper, how they handle that atmosphere, how they play with fans in the building, you know, if any of them gets a wide open three, or they're gonna knock down or do the nerves kind of get to them a little bit. But yeah, I think Madi Sissoko is going to be a huge piece for this team this year.
Branden Schabath 16:18
This is a Michigan State basketball team. That seems I don't want to say boring, but maybe mundane is a nicer way to put it in the fact that they don't have anybody super exciting. They don't have any five stars coming in. There's no Cassius Winston's or Xavier Tillman's, returning to this team after a Final Four run. But you look at him last year. Tyson Walker was very exciting to watch AJ Hoggard down the stretch. Joey Hauser played his best game of his career, two games ago against Davidson, Michigan State. I believe them, I thought they were going to be Duke. They were up five with five minutes to go and I said it in my brain. I said, Wow, this is coach Case, last game. And sure enough, Duke did Duke things. But the big 10 is so wide open for basketball this year. I will not be surprised if some random team like Maryland or Northwestern or somebody or Penn State, I don't know where it's really good this year, and kind of runs away with the big 10. I think we can expect Indiana to be good. If you look down the road Michigan. They're kind of like Michigan State, they have Hunter Dickinson and he's going to do Hunter Dickinson things. And he's going to average, you know, 27 and 14 this year, whatever. But the rest of that roster has a lot to prove. And so does Michigan State and because of that, because of how wide open it is, I think Michigan State is one of those teams is not necessarily random, but they don't jump off the page at you looking at them at the start of the season. But I think come January and February we're talking about we could be talking about a Michigan State team who's second or third place in the big 10 and fighting for that top spot.
Nick Lundberg 17:56
Especially after learning from what they're going to be seeing in that conference. That nonconference schedule which is just yeah absolute gauntlet and you know, Izzo isn't scared. But to me when I look at that, it's with this roster. I'm I can't help but get nervous for to go less than 500 Because I mean, you got Villanova. I don't even know off the top. Who else is?
Branden Schabath 18:21
Gonzaga? They'll play Alabama and then the winner of UConn versus Oregon. And then after that they could play Villanova again. North Carolina. Absurd. Yeah, the play Notre Dame and also to we talked about it on the green and white report here on Impact that's every Sunday from 11 to one we can't sleep on the smaller nonconference teams that they'll play to Buffalo. Always good in their conference every single year, they gave Michigan a run for their money last season. Oakland has added some nice new pieces, Rocket Watts is going to make his return to East Lansing and take on Michigan State. And then Brown is every single year competitive in the Ivy League and one of the best teams I'm very excited for that game selfishly because Daniel Friday, one of my best friends, plays for Brown and he'll get to come back to East Lansing and take on Michigan State, along with Doug Wojcik, Michigan State assistant coach, his son plays for Brown as well. So that's going to be a fun one. But I mean, you know, you like you mentioned, you know, you're nervous for this team to even go 500 I'm gonna just put it out there for hoops fans. This is a team who very well could be under 500 By the time big template starts. Yeah. And it's just because of the schedule. I think it's only going to make them better. I think the one issue that can arise in the long run hurt this team from the schedule is just the fatigue and the injuries. I think of someone I think it's going to be easy for these players to get rundown after the schedule and it's not just because of the teams they're playing. These are Division One athletes who are capable of playing tough competition night in and night out. I mean, these guys are playing AAU against the best players in the country you know, for four days a week, all summer before they get to college, that's nothing new. The differences to travel, they go to San Diego for Gonzaga, then they'll come back and then they'll go to Oregon for the Phil Knight tournament and they got to travel to Notre Dame as well. It's not going to be easy to do all this travel across the country in you know, such short time periods, they'll go to Indy to take on Kentucky in the Champions classic. That's that's a lot. It's taxing on coaches, on players on family members and stuff. And I think that could be an avenue where I don't want to say derail, but maybe kind of slows them down before big 10 play starts. And like we said, the big 10 is wide open. So I don't think anything is guaranteed for any of these teams, we can expect you know, those teams like Nebraska, Northwestern and Minnesota to maybe not be at the top of the barrel, but I won't be surprised if they're better than we're expecting them to be right now, either.
Nick Lundberg 20:53
Yeah, I feel like the conference is wide open. But we're now that all one sport we that we should talk about is football, unfortunately, but we got to mention something. The defense overall, I think the team looked better than they did against Minnesota, which isn't really saying a lot. Yeah, so do worse than that. Yeah, exactly. But being on the road against good Qb, and then a good very good pass game with arts, you know how our secondary is, but I don't need to go into that. But they only they gave up 27 They only scored 13 Thorne had that pick six that was taken away two and a half.
Branden Schabath 21:32
Which yeah, I was talking about that on the green and white report. And it's a weird penalty. It really is. And it's, I think it's easy to look at the score they only 27 and Defense look better. But and it's easy to to look at Peyton Thorne and say like, oh, he wasn't that bad. I thought this was one of his worst games in the green and white. And that that's such a strange penalty, because I think it's maybe the right call had in a defenseless receiver when Jaden Reed took that hit. But that's one of their best defensive players for Maryland, and he laid off on that hit, it could have been a lot worse. And if you just think about it, logically, it had nothing to do with the pick. That ball was getting caught and returned either way, the penalty didn't technically negate that. So Michigan State got a little lucky in the scoreboard column. And had a touchdown taken off from Maryland, I think.
Branden Schabath 21:33
Yeah, but that's one thing I've been very disappointed in this year was Peyton Thorne's. I think I believe we talked about this in the first one his decision making is just it hasn't been it hasn't improved. Like it should should be improved. If he wants to, you know, take that next step as MSUs QB.
Branden Schabath 22:39
Absolutely. And there's no as clear cut as day there's no other way to put it. I think the bright the only bright side for him this season has been the Washington game in which he kind of, you know, was the one of the only guys him and Keon basically kept Michigan State, respectable in that game and relatively close in the second half, but it was too little too late. But other than that, there has not been a lot to like from Peyton Thorne. And there are a lot of fans already clamoring for Noah Kim. And it just doesn't feel like Tucker and Jay Johnson are going to make that decision, and are really ready to give up their guy yet. But I think the biggest thing for me is not even on the field. It doesn't feel like Thorne has control of this team. It doesn't feel like they have the same chemistry. And obviously you lose the swagger when you lose three games and only lost two all all season last year. But it doesn't feel like he has control of this offense. It doesn't feel like he's a leader right now. And that's some of he's to blame for some of that. But also, it's just the fact that they're just not as good as last year and it's going to be harder to do those things when you're not winning. And winning cures all they just need to pick up a win at this point. It's gonna be really hard. I mean, they might lose six in a row, but I think they're really missing Darius Nolan, Xavier Henderson, obviously, the defense is worse off without those guys. But again, to me, it's not even on the field. It's in the locker room with leaders and with a guy like Xavier Henderson. You know, giving your pregame speeches and suited up and going out there and making plays. It's just a different attitude to have, especially if you're a transfer or a freshman trying to get used to East Lansing and this football program without them I think Thorne has had to suffer a little bit more weight on his shoulders as the leader and just hasn't really handled it ideally. And they're in a tough spot they got Ohio State coming up Wisconsin and Michigan after that.
Branden Schabath 24:45
Like I said I mean six in a row is on the table and maybe more I don't I don't see four more wins in this schedule. I mean, you see an avenue where the Michigan game everything before that is thrown out the door that games are always up for grabs. 50/50 coin toss, no matter what exact Illinois on the road might present more challenges than people think. You can't guarantee anything against a team like Indiana or Rutgers. Penn State looks really darn good. So you can find six wins. I think you can talk yourself into it. But right now, I don't see it. I just don't.
Nick Lundberg 25:20
I feel like that Wisconsin game could be very much a win, especially now that Paul Chryst is out. Paul Chryst. But yeah, like, like you said, I I'm on I'm on page with you. I don't see a way this team wins this weekend unless Stroud just.
Branden Schabath 25:36
it would take something astronomically crazy. For we were talking about it on our show, you know, we were we were talking about what is the line gonna be? And you know, Liam and Zack Slowik. Liam Jackson, our editor here, we're making jokes that it was gonna be 30 or 40 points. And I mean, 23 at home is still a lot and.
Nick Lundberg 26:01
It open. It opened at 26 and a half, which is the largest spread for home underdogs since 1995.
Branden Schabath 26:06
Right, and I, I won't be surprised if it's more than that. Yeah, I honestly want I think this is of this game against Ohio State has a very good chance of looking just like it did last year. But maybe even worse. I mean, I don't think Ohio State is going to run the ball on the first step. I think they're just going to pass it they don't need Stroud is going to have 27 attempts by halftime and he's going to be 25 of 27. And I think that it's going to be like last year, they'll call the dogs off in the third quarter. And maybe Michigan State does some good garbage time things. But they are that they're going to need God on their side on Saturday if they want to come out with a win or anything close to it.
Nick Lundberg 26:50
And Tucker keeps saying it's a game of inches, with the losses they've suffered so far. So if it really is, and he's really on point with that statement, then if I mean any, if anything can happen, then if they, if they fix up what he's seeing is going wrong. But I mean, I don't really see a way out of what way we come out with a win here.
Branden Schabath 27:12
Yeah, and even if it was a game of inches, you look at last year where they were fresh off the last two Purdue, but still one of the best teams in the country, still competing for big 10 title. And they went in there to the horseshoe. And it wasn't even close. And I don't think the venue matters either. I don't think Ohio State at noon is exactly a terrifying place to play. And so even if it's a game of inches, and even if you're having your best season in recent memory, it Ohio State still blew you out of the water. And I don't think they're as good as they were last year, obviously with the record and stuff like that. But I don't necessarily agree that it's a game of inches. I think this team is in the secondary leaps and bounds behind a lot of programs. And part of his coaching part of his scheme. Part of it is, yeah, the depth chart. And so it's kind of death by 1000 cuts where it's, you know, they don't have the worst. On paper secondary in the country with the players that they have. They have some guys with great skill. They don't have the worst scheme, and they don't have the worst defensive coordinator. But when not when none of them are up to par to where they should be. It leads to as a whole the defense just really suffering. And that's just kind of where Michigan State finds themselves right now.
Nick Lundberg 28:37
Needless to say the rest of the season is going to be very interesting and going forward will who knows what's gonna happen. But that's it for the sports roundtable this week. Thank you Brendan for hosting us or for coming out. It was as a lot of fun.
Branden Schabath 28:49
Yeah, always fun to be here. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
Nick Lundberg 28:52
Thanks, everyone, for listening. We'll see you next Friday for another edition. Peace out
Transcribed by https://otter.ai