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The State News sports reporters discuss all MSU sports.
(Bella) Hello, and welcome back to the sports roundtable podcast where we talk about all things Michigan State Athletics. I'm your host Bella Johnson and today I'm joined by my lovely friend Marin Marin, if you want to go ahead and introduce yourself,
(Marin) Hello, my name is Marin and I'm a sophomore here at MSU. I am a broadcaster for big 10 Plus on campus, I am also a producer for the Spartan sports report. And I've covered the women's basketball team for the last two years for the impact radio stations,
(Bella) lots of fun stuff, like so much stuff that we get to talk about today. back this week after Nick took over for me last week, because I was drowning, work. And some of that work had to do with the gymnastics team. So I'm going to talk a little bit about what they did the past week. They were in Pittsburgh for the regional competition, and they unfortunately missed out on nationals by point one, five. So I can't imagine that's a fun feeling. But they were incredible. In the competition. They had one of the strongest bars or rotations that I've seen them have all season. And then Gabby Steven and Laney Harkness are both gonna go to national competing or nationals competing as individuals, which is incredible. Gabby is going on beam and then Delaney is gonna go on bar. So that should be really exciting. I think I believe they're competing on April 13. So I'm excited to see that.
(Marin) Definitely. The program is just so fun to watch.
(Bella) They're so fun to watch, and they just keep getting better. I'm really excited. Next year, and more. So much news. happened?
(Marin) There's a lot.
(Bella) That was a bad transition. But I mean, there's just so many random things to talk about. Michigan State Athletics hired a new women's basketball coach. Obviously coach merchant had to step down because of her health last month. And they announced earlier this week that Robin Fralick would be taking over. She was a head coach at Bowling Green for the past five years. And she's an alchemist native. And she's been doing some great things at Bowling Green.
(Marin) Yeah, she's really she did a lot to turn that program around in the seasons that she was there. She led them to a lot of postseason appearances, I believe last season or was this season she took them to the Fab Four for the wn it. So really great things over at that program. I think it'll be interesting to see what she does with Michigan State program. I've covered them for two years, and they've had a lot happen in terms of injuries and people leaving and then everything that happened with Coach merchant this year. This team has gone through a lot. And so I'm very interested to see how that's gonna come out next season. And what plans for the cars in store for them?
(Bella) Yeah, and obviously with the new new coach coming in, there's going to be it's gonna be a very different team. We had the graduating seniors this year where Mr. macdaniel stuff Fisher and Jayla James. And then in the past few weeks, both Matilda AK and Tiger parks both announced that they were entering the transfer portal. And they were huge assets to the program. So it's gonna be interesting to see what the team's like with that. And I feel like we're going to be getting more soon. I just feel like with new coaches, you get that turnaround and obviously, like,
(Marin) I think stuff in the portal could I mean, the transfer portal is such a big thing in college sports now and seeing if any girls from Bowling Green, maybe want to follow their coach or any recruits that she had coming in, like, that's a very big thing with new coaches. It'll be interesting to see cuz losing ACC and parks hurts. ACC has always been a big player in her two years at Michigan State. She's done a lot for the team. Parks had an outstanding season. This past season did a great job for Michigan State. So losing those two will hurt. Gabby Elliott will hopefully be back from her injury come fall. So that will be big, because losing her definitely hurt the team this year. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks now that a head coach has been announced they moved pretty quick on that decision.
(Bella) Yeah, I think she's gonna be a really great asset and I am really excited to see what they do next year. And obviously transition years are hard, but I'm feeling pretty good. To be positive about the new coach.Also, some offseason moves happening. There are some lots of noise surrounding hockey transfers and recruits. Obviously, head coach Adam Nightingale, the assistant coaches, they have so many connections to players, which helps with obviously Nightingale coaching in the national team development program. Yeah. Yeah, so he's been there's been some pretty prominent people coming in, if you want to talk a little bit about that.
(Marin) Yeah, I mean, I think anyone that knows me as a reporter knows I've spent a lot of time this past season around the hockey team. I spent some time around them last season too. And seeing the difference between these two seasons has been honestly incredible. The team this season did so much in nightingale's first year, they all responded really, really well to him. They all liked his style of play. Everyone came in with a really good mindset. And I think another big reason that mango was brought in was because of his connection with the US nd P team. He has two people from the transfer portal coming in red Savage, a huge pickup fourth round draft pick for the Red Wings. He's coming from Miami, Ohio, and Isaac Howard from Minnesota Duluth. He's a first round pick for the Tampa Bay. Lightning also played with Nightingale and another really big one is the goaltender coming in now I feel like goaltending is a big question coming in losing Dillon St. Cyr, he had an incredible season, but he completely out of mode eligibility, spent six years playing NCAA hockey, so he was all done and try to gustine coming in as a freshman. He actually flipped he was committed to play for the University of Michigan. And Nightingale flipped him and he I believe committed to Michigan State early in the fall, August September because he was committed when the US team came to play Michigan State. And I know that was a really big thing. The program was very excited to have him in and see and all the US kids to see how much had changed how the atmosphere changed. And yeah, I think having those connections and another coaching connection, like you mentioned is read lobster, who played under Jared Michael, one of the coaches on the staff who came in with nine gallon he's coming from UMass Amherst and as a Massachusetts native myself. UMass Amherst has a fantastic hockey program, Jeremy Davidson transferred to MSU from UMass two years ago, I believe. And he's been a great player for the Spartans in his time here. And so, yeah, I think a huge reason they can go came in was to kind of revamp this program, and he had a lot of buzz around him and can bring in a lot of people. Gavin O'Connell, that was another one that he's another freshman coming in. From the Waterloo Blackhawks there's actually three players that are gonna be freshmen next year that all played for the Blackhawks, so they all know each other. And I mean, we saw how well that worked out this year with Carson Dorward and Danny Russel. They played together in Sioux Falls. And they had pretty remarkable freshman season on the top line with chegar, Joshua and O'Connell only played for nine gallon I think it was one game. He just kind of played like an I don't know the exact hast like they passed. And he just remembered. It was actually a story that Sam wrote for state news. But um, that experience of mango really stuck with him. And I think a lot of players can say that I've really enjoyed getting to know Nightingale this past season. I think he's a fantastic coach. He has a lot, a lot planned for this program. And I think it's it's looking really positive direction and definitely a lot of people, some people were lost the transfer portal. A lot of the graduating seniors obviously ran out of eligibility a few who still had a few years left even signed some HTML, ECE HL deals, but he has made some moves in the transfer portal, and they have all been big and coming from pretty big schools.
(Bella) Yeah, and I know you're talking about Trey Augustine, I think it's gonna be really, really interesting to watch him play. And I know I was talking to somebody about it earlier. And they were like, well, he was playing with an under 18 team, like how does that translate to college? But that team was playing college teams. We like Michigan State played them in lost at the beginning of the season,
(Marin) actually. I think they beat almost every D one college program that they played minus two, and I think it was Michigan and Minnesota who are currently at the Frozen Four and two of the best teams in the end. CAA they that program is a great program. And those are all people who go play at the World Juniors. Augustine was playing at the World Juniors and played great for the team. He had a 22 one and two record. That's, that's an insanely good record. He is a very talented goalie. And I think a lot of people who don't look at the sport of hockey as well, like, oh, he was with the USA team team, like how well can you translate to college? That team can compete at the college level? And they've proved that many, many times. And so yeah, I think it's gonna be really interesting to play this season. Also seeing their two goalies currently on the team, Pierce Charlton and John Moore. Moore hasn't really seen too much time. Charleston has seen some time he and St. Cyr split a little bit at the beginning of the season, and he split some time with deridder. And Charleston's a good goaltender he is he hasn't gotten as much time. So I think it's going to be interesting to see what Nightingale wants to do. Because I know one of his really big philosophies is looking at players attitudes. He wants players to have a good attitude coming onto the ice. And so he doesn't. It's definitely players are aware that they are fighting for time because he takes it practice by practice. And they've all said that his practices are harder than the games. He works them hard and practices and he looks at how they're playing and what they're giving him practices. And so if anyone thinks that they are immediately starting, and don't want to work hard in practice, he might he might say, take a step back for a second.
(Bella) Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I'm, I'm looking at those, the schedule that the ntdp played this year, and there's only a handful of losses that they have here. Like you said, Minnesota. Did they beat Michigan or they did not okay, lost like 516 to seven close. I was gonna say high scoring game.
(Marin) I feel Like Michigan is known to have a lot of those high scoring games because their players. I don't like saying it but it's true. Their players are outstanding players. They have some very talented players on their team. Portillo isn't the best goaltender in he's huge, which makes him Chela, huge exact,
(Bella) so that's where his his fault is if you have to lean over far to catch one can heat it
(Marin) has definitely made he's definitely had some great games made some great saves. He's a goaltender that you can get behind he's he's not Ryan Vishal. Yeah, absolutely. Who's also coming back coming back that is actually I think very much of note for every team in the NCAA because Ryan Vishal as someone who watched that firsthand at the tournament force he is quite that man is a brick wall I some of the saves he made are just unbelievable like he is yeah, like you said he's a free for all so him being in the NCAA for one more year isn't great and it's great for Notre Dame great for Notre Dame good for them my great for the big time, but they tends not gonna like it as much especially with a lot of the goaltenders in the big 10 Be upperclassmen, honestly, tillow Jr. I think St. Sears graduated. Lot of thing.
(Bella) I know. My head Soulier is I think he might have been a fifth year was he? There's some old players this past year and it was hard to keep track.
(Marin) It's so interesting, because you will see 25 year olds facing off with 19 year olds and it's it's definitely something to watch. college hockey is really unlike any other sport with players getting eligibility and the USHL and HL and everything that goes into that. It's definitely complicated. It is
(Bella) circling back to you were talking about that first line with Russell Dorward. And Joshua. Who do you think we're going to? This is really early, but who do you think we're gonna see on that top line this year?
(Marin) I was actually talking about this with Maddy. Oh, yeah, not too long ago, because we were like home, I wonder, because I would think they're staying on the top line and with the players that are currently there. Now, I can't really say much about most of the transfers. I've seen lobster play again because I've been to many UMass games. Can't really say much about the rest of them. I'm curious to see if savage might take that spot or lobster or even Mueller. I don't think I would personally be I mentioned see what he's gonna do with the lines because I'm going experimented a lot with the lines at the beginning of the season and then kind of solidified it as they got into big 10 Play a little more just because they had so many new players and new faces and brand new coaching staff. But I mean, as of right now they have five transfers and six new freshmen coming in. So come down to some hard roster decision, it's gonna come down to a lot of roster decisions, because this is pretty similar. Last year, there were six transfers six new freshmen on the team. And that top line was two of the new players plus Joshua. And again, there was a lot of mixing around so part of me thinks Nico Mueller might be getting moved up to the top line. But would Carson and Russell stay up there? Would they get dropped? It's gonna be really interesting to see what he does. And we obviously don't know how these transfers are gonna play. Exactly. And how fit in with the team mix in with the team. That's another one. James Crossman actually played with Justin Jalan at Brown. Okay, so he's coming from Brown Jalan transferred from Brown last year. Now John's out of eligibility, I believe. So he won't be there. But I just think it's interesting. David is interesting in state and I think there was one more transfer from Brown the year before that. gotten a lot of turnover from Brown. Joey Larsen, nmu, who was just announced a few days ago, from the transfer portal, and I'm sure he's played with a lot of the other players that are from Michigan. They all know each other. So it'll be interesting to see. I really it's hard to say now how lines will look just with so many new faces and a lot of talent. And I mean, you can see it from the players, nine Gil, like speed. Oh, yeah. And the player that he brings in are fast.
(Bella) And you could see from the beginning of the season to the end, the players that were already on the team got faster, which was huge. You could see that.
(Marin) you can see it you you could tell in their practices. So I was lucky to get to sit in on a lot of practices, see how they worked, because it was very it was I love that I got to that was very helpful for when I'm broadcasting games. And they get worked in those practices. They work hard and yeah, so you could see the differences in the returning players to not that they and also the change. Yeah, like the big scores. My first year working with the team. Were really Eric Mittendorf. Jeremy Davidson, Jessie Tucker. Yep. And it really dropped off with calls after that. Yeah, you waking.
(Bella) up Jesse Tucker. He transferred to flex Clarkson's going to Clarkson. Yeah, yeah, that that was a bit of an interesting one. Some of the other Divinsky was also another one that I didn't really expect. I was kind of expecting Dubinsky. And I think towards the end of the season, I had originally thought that Jessie Tucker was sick, and that's why he was scratched. I later found out that he was a healthy scratch.
(Marin) He was I mean, this graduate Tucker was always because no one's obviously going to tell you Yeah, so there's a lot that could be assumed but we really don't know why Tucker wasn't playing. He was a healthy scratch. He was skating and all the practices. So that's once I learned that he was a healthy scratch and there was another reason that's why him entering the transfer portal. I feel like didn't surprise me as much he wasn't playing as much.
(Bella) I didn't find out he was a healthy scratch until after he transferred Okay, so at first I was shocked and then somebody was like, no, like,
(Marin) See, I learned pretty quick that he was a healthy scratch. And so, Dubinsky shocked me more he was playing a lot he was getting good minutes he was one of our him and Dorward were our two top guys on the circle. And so seeing him the portal was a bit shocking, but it looks like Nightingale was bringing in again a lot of new players and these players other than Howard and Larson are all we have to fifth years read Savage is gonna be a junior and Howard and Larson will be sophomores Minnesota Duluth that's another program that you're definitely getting worked hard. So yeah, it will be interesting to see how they come in and obviously if you've played for Nightingale you're gonna know his coaching style so the players that know Nightingale but yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be something to see how the team's looking next year I'm really excited for the season.
(Bella) selfishly I am very excited that red Savage is on the team because I am a Red Wings fan and he is a Red Wing I know all the red rocks.
(Marin) Icredibly excited see no fruit no Bruins prospects on the team for fortunately but do we want that? No, it's fine. I mean looking at the Bruins right now you might want that but no read savage I was very excited for because I he's a pretty well known player in the NCAA think and he's spending time in Michigan. I've gotten to learn who he is. Some of those red wings prospects are so I had heard of him before. And he was very good player and he played great against MSU when they played Miami, Ohio. In November, I think it was a pretty, it was an early game. Yeah, sometimes it's hard the away games and like, all the home games, I knew I was right there.
(Bella) I want to say Miami, Ohio was a random streaming service to I don't think it was big time.
(Marin) it was and I remember that, because I got a day pass to that streaming service. So I could watch. It was expensive. It was it was and I was like, I'm gonna do it. Part of it was prep, because I was calling the game the next weekend. I was like, watching their prior game is a lot of preparation. Like, it's a lot of the ways I prepare. So I do remember doing that actually, and watching it at the airport. Um, fun fact. I'm very committed, I guess, but very committed. Yeah. I'm very excited to see how all these new freshmen coming in and all the transfers.
(Bella) We've got. Michigan State has some very, very interesting moves that are going to lead to some very interesting seasons next, or yeah, very interesting. Next year. Well, thank you so much for joining me and giving me a little bit of your insight to what's going on with these teams. I really appreciate it.
(Marin) Thank you so much for having me on.
(Bella) Yeah, and as always, I this has been the sports roundtable podcast. You can get it wherever you find your podcasts.