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

September 30, 2026: It took quite a few years but finally Fred Hoiberg pulled it off. He got Nebraska to the NCAA Tournament and won a game (two actually) before falling to Iowa in the Sweet 16. At the time of his hiring, it felt like Hoiberg was a home run hire but the ‘Huskers struggled for years to be truly competitive in the Big Ten.

Last year was the breakout year where they were one of the last undefeated in college basketball going all the way until January before their first loss. Nebraska had some key personnel losses with graduations so following up last season’s success might not be so easy. However, Pryce Sandfort’s return should help their chances.

Are you looking for collegiate apparel including Spartan gear? There’s only one place we recommend you go to get your MSU T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts — Nudge Printing (https://www.nudgeprinting.com) Nudge is owned and operated by Gabe and Brittany, two MSU alums. The business is operated out of Michigan and screen prints super high quality products. They also have a large assortment of apparel for other schools as well as stickers for your wall, car, or computer. To enter the free drawing go to (https://nudgeprinting.com/win).

If you have a home in Michigan you know the importance of clearing water efficiently away from your home off the roof. Unfortunately, the outdoor beauty of Michigan means you have to deal with leaves and debris that pile up in your gutters. Sometimes, those gutters also can’t keep up with the rain or leave puddles by your foundation.

If you live in the Grand Rapids area (Muskegon to Saugatuck to Rockford to Lowell) contact Kurt Stauffer at the Brothers that Just Do Gutters. (https://www.brothersgutters.com/grand-rapids-mi/).

If you’re anywhere in the metro Detroit area the Brothers have you covered too! (https://www.brothersgutters.com/metro-detroit-mi/). They are real professionals who will clean, repair, or replace your gutters and protect your home quickly and efficiently with friendly service.

Mention Final Four to get 10% off your gutter work.

Have you wondered why the world no longer looks clear out of your windows? Maybe you need a professional to clean them. There’s no better option for your window cleaning than your neighborhood window cleaners at the Squeegee Squad. They clean residential, commercial, and high rise windows. Also, if you need power washing on your house, the Squeegee Squad will treat it with kid gloves with their gentle wash that uses low pressure and surfactants. You won’t find a better team to care for the exterior or your house or business than the Squeegee Squad of Grand Rapids (https://squeegeesquad.com/locations/grand-rapids-mi/).

Book your free estimate here (https://squeegeesquad.com/grand-rapids-mi/grand-rapids-mi-free-estimate/).

Be sure to check out Fanduel Sportsbook for all your sports betting needs. They’ve got some great mobile tools and hundreds to ways to add some extra juice to your sport watching. You can find them at https://www.sportsbook.fanduel.com

#MSUHoops #MichiganStateBasketball #MichiganState #bigtenbasketball #NebraskaBasketball #huskersbasketball

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September 28, 2026: Eric Musselman was part of the strange domino coaching carousel before the Trojans joined the Big Ten. Entering his third season, he has yet to make the NCAA tournament despite having a host of highly touted talent. Was his departure from Arkansas just him getting out ahead of the posse or was it the opportunity in SoCal?

Now he is fielding his most talented team yet with 5 McDonald’s All Americans. Will the dysfunction of previous teams emerge or will the Trojans begin to get cooking and earn a postseason berth?

Are you looking for collegiate apparel including Spartan gear? There’s only one place we recommend you go to get your MSU T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts — Nudge Printing (https://www.nudgeprinting.com) Nudge is owned and operated by Gabe and Brittany, two MSU alums. The business is operated out of Michigan and screen prints super high quality products. They also have a large assortment of apparel for other schools as well as stickers for your wall, car, or computer. To enter the free drawing go to (https://nudgeprinting.com/win).

If you have a home in Michigan you know the importance of clearing water efficiently away from your home off the roof. Unfortunately, the outdoor beauty of Michigan means you have to deal with leaves and debris that pile up in your gutters. Sometimes, those gutters also can’t keep up with the rain or leave puddles by your foundation.

If you live in the Grand Rapids area (Muskegon to Saugatuck to Rockford to Lowell) contact Kurt Stauffer at the Brothers that Just Do Gutters. (https://www.brothersgutters.com/grand-rapids-mi/).

If you’re anywhere in the metro Detroit area the Brothers have you covered too! (https://www.brothersgutters.com/metro-detroit-mi/). They are real professionals who will clean, repair, or replace your gutters and protect your home quickly and efficiently with friendly service.

Mention Final Four to get 10% off your gutter work.

Have you wondered why the world no longer looks clear out of your windows? Maybe you need a professional to clean them. There’s no better option for your window cleaning than your neighborhood window cleaners at the Squeegee Squad. They clean residential, commercial, and high rise windows. Also, if you need power washing on your house, the Squeegee Squad will treat it with kid gloves with their gentle wash that uses low pressure and surfactants. You won’t find a better team to care for the exterior or your house or business than the Squeegee Squad of Grand Rapids (https://squeegeesquad.com/locations/grand-rapids-mi/).

Book your free estimate here (https://squeegeesquad.com/grand-rapids-mi/grand-rapids-mi-free-estimate/).

Be sure to check out Fanduel Sportsbook for all your sports betting needs. They’ve got some great mobile tools and hundreds to ways to add some extra juice to your sport watching. You can find them at https://www.sportsbook.fanduel.com

#MSUHoops #MichiganStateBasketball #MichiganState #bigtenbasketball #uscbasketball #trojansbasketball

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

September 25, 2026: Michigan State’s 2026-27 schedule leaves plenty of room for a high ceiling—but there won’t be many easy nights along the way. The Spartans face four heavyweights in the nonconference portion, giving them an early opportunity to prove they can compete with the best in the country. And while the rest of the nonconference slate may not carry the same national profile, there aren’t many true cupcakes either, meaning MSU should be tested throughout the opening months of the season.

Then comes a Big Ten schedule filled with potential landmines and trap games. The conference is loaded with teams capable of making life difficult on any given night, and MSU will have to navigate a challenging combination of road games, physical opponents and matchups that could easily be overlooked. We break down the entire schedule, identify the biggest tests, examine where the Spartans could stumble, and discuss what this schedule could tell us about just how high Michigan State can climb this season.

OUR AWESOME SPONSORS

Every great podcast needs great sponsors. And we’re fortunate to have three that not only support the show, but also make it more fun for you guys.

First up: Nudge Printing. If you’re looking for Michigan State gear, there are approximately 47,000 places on the internet willing to sell you a green T-shirt. But we recommend going with the Spartans who actually know what they’re doing. Nudge Printing is owned and operated by MSU alums Gabe and Brittany, right here in Michigan. They make some seriously good Spartan apparel, along with gear for a bunch of other schools. And, perhaps most importantly to you, Nudge supplies the apparel and gift cards for our listener contests. So when you win something on the show, there’s a pretty good chance Nudge is the reason you have something to put on your body or spend at the mall. Check them out, support a couple of fellow Spartans, and get yourself some new gear.

Then there are The Brothers that just do Gutters. You know what gutters do? They keep water out of places where water shouldn't be. You know what we want Michigan State to do? Keep opposing players out of places where opposing players shouldn't be. That's why The Brothers are the official sponsor of our “player MSU needs to keep in the gutter” segment. It’s a match made in heaven. If your gutters are overflowing, clogged, damaged, or generally behaving like a Big Ten defense that has forgotten its assignments, call Kurt Stauffer and the Grand Rapids crew. The Brothers that just do Gutters — Grand Rapids They handle installation, repair, cleaning, maintenance and gutter guards throughout the Grand Rapids area. They also have you covered in Metro Detroit. The Brothers that just do Gutters — Metro Detroit Mention “Final Four” to get 10% off your gutter work. That's a much better discount than the one you'll get if you tell your contractor you finished second in your office pool.

And finally, our friends at Squeegee Squad of Grand Rapids. We’ve decided that if two people are going to spend an entire basketball season arguing about who is better at cleaning the glass, we might as well have a professional window-cleaning company sponsor it. Thus, Squeegee Squad sponsors our “who cleans the glass best?” competition. They specialize in residential and commercial window cleaning, along with pressure and soft washing, gutter cleaning and other exterior cleaning services. Basically, if it's dirty and attached to your house or business, they probably have a way to make it look better. Squeegee Squad of Grand Rapids And if you'd like to let someone else handle the dirty work, you can request a free estimate here.

We genuinely appreciate all three of these businesses for supporting the show. And yes, we realize there is a certain amount of irony in having a gutter company sponsor a segment about putting an opposing player in the gutter while a window-cleaning company sponsors a competition about cleaning the glass. We didn't plan it this perfectly. It just happened.

#michiganstatebasketball #msuhoops #bigtenbasketball #dukebasketball #gonzagabasketball #illinoisbasketball

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September 24, 2026: Ohio State has been a very curious program in the Big Ten since Chris Holtman took over. On paper, they seemed to have enough talent but underperformed. They lacked an identity and were largely mediocre with only occasional quick NCAA tournament appearances. Then the school fired Holtman mid season in the midst of another lackluster performance.

However, instead of seeking out other coaches, they quickly hired their interim - Jake Diebler who had some modest success finishing for Holtman. In picking Diebler so quickly they missed out on maybe Dusty May. And although Diebler finally got them to the NCAAs last year, they were again a slightly better than mediocre team and enter this season without their four year starting point guard, Bruce Thornton.

Like a lot of teams, few returning players and a lot of new faces. Will they work? Will the Buckeyes become relevant again like they were in the 2000s? Definitely more questions than answers for

Are you looking for collegiate apparel including Spartan gear? There’s only one place we recommend you go to get your MSU T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts — Nudge Printing (https://www.nudgeprinting.com) Nudge is owned and operated by Gabe and Brittany, two MSU alums. The business is operated out of Michigan and screen prints super high quality products. They also have a large assortment of apparel for other schools as well as stickers for your wall, car, or computer. To enter the free drawing go to (https://nudgeprinting.com/win).

If you have a home in Michigan you know the importance of clearing water efficiently away from your home off the roof. Unfortunately, the outdoor beauty of Michigan means you have to deal with leaves and debris that pile up in your gutters. Sometimes, those gutters also can’t keep up with the rain or leave puddles by your foundation.

If you live in the Grand Rapids area (Muskegon to Saugatuck to Rockford to Lowell) contact Kurt Stauffer at the Brothers that Just Do Gutters. (https://www.brothersgutters.com/grand-rapids-mi/).

If you’re anywhere in the metro Detroit area the Brothers have you covered too! (https://www.brothersgutters.com/metro-detroit-mi/). They are real professionals who will clean, repair, or replace your gutters and protect your home quickly and efficiently with friendly service.

Mention Final Four to get 10% off your gutter work.

Have you wondered why the world no longer looks clear out of your windows? Maybe you need a professional to clean them. There’s no better option for your window cleaning than your neighborhood window cleaners at the Squeegee Squad. They clean residential, commercial, and high rise windows. Also, if you need power washing on your house, the Squeegee Squad will treat it with kid gloves with their gentle wash that uses low pressure and surfactants. You won’t find a better team to care for the exterior or your house or business than the Squeegee Squad of Grand Rapids (https://squeegeesquad.com/locations/grand-rapids-mi/).

Book your free estimate here (https://squeegeesquad.com/grand-rapids-mi/grand-rapids-mi-free-estimate/).

Be sure to check out Fanduel Sportsbook for all your sports betting needs. They’ve got some great mobile tools and hundreds to ways to add some extra juice to your sport watching. You can find them at https://www.sportsbook.fanduel.com

#MSUHoops #MichiganStateBasketball #MichiganState #bigtenbasketball #ohiostatebuckeyes #ohiostatebasketball

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

September 21, 2026: What appeared to be a solid yet underwhelming year for the Hawkeyes - .500 Big Ten record, up and down play but a NCAA Tournament bid - turned into so much more as they had probably the most improbable of tournament runs where they knocked off top seed Florida in the second round and made it all the way to the Elite 8 where they lost to Illinois.

Although the regular season was nothing like the postseason, it showed that Iowa may have found its coach as they established an identity that will probably hold up in the league assuming they can land the right players. Ben McCollum is entering his second year and the look of the team is changing as they move from a smaller and less physical lineup to one of length and strength. It will be interesting to see if the Hawkeyes can maintain a level of consistency and maybe contention over the next few years in the Big Ten.

Are you looking for collegiate apparel including Spartan gear? There’s only one place we recommend you go to get your MSU T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts — Nudge Printing (https://www.nudgeprinting.com) Nudge is owned and operated by Gabe and Brittany, two MSU alums. The business is operated out of Michigan and screen prints super high quality products. They also have a large assortment of apparel for other schools as well as stickers for your wall, car, or computer. To enter the free drawing go to (https://nudgeprinting.com/win).

If you have a home in Michigan you know the importance of clearing water efficiently away from your home off the roof. Unfortunately, the outdoor beauty of Michigan means you have to deal with leaves and debris that pile up in your gutters. Sometimes, those gutters also can’t keep up with the rain or leave puddles by your foundation.

If you live in the Grand Rapids area (Muskegon to Saugatuck to Rockford to Lowell) contact Kurt Stauffer at the Brothers that Just Do Gutters. (https://www.brothersgutters.com/grand-rapids-mi/).

If you’re anywhere in the metro Detroit area the Brothers have you covered too! (https://www.brothersgutters.com/metro-detroit-mi/). They are real professionals who will clean, repair, or replace your gutters and protect your home quickly and efficiently with friendly service.

Mention Final Four to get 10% off your gutter work.

Have you wondered why the world no longer looks clear out of your windows? Maybe you need a professional to clean them. There’s no better option for your window cleaning than your neighborhood window cleaners at the Squeegee Squad. They clean residential, commercial, and high rise windows. Also, if you need power washing on your house, the Squeegee Squad will treat it with kid gloves with their gentle wash that uses low pressure and surfactants. You won’t find a better team to care for the exterior or your house or business than the Squeegee Squad of Grand Rapids (https://squeegeesquad.com/locations/grand-rapids-mi/).

Book your free estimate here (https://squeegeesquad.com/grand-rapids-mi/grand-rapids-mi-free-estimate/).

Be sure to check out Fanduel Sportsbook for all your sports betting needs. They’ve got some great mobile tools and hundreds to ways to add some extra juice to your sport watching. You can find them at https://www.sportsbook.fanduel.com

#MSUHoops #MichiganStateBasketball #MichiganState #bigtenbasketball #iowahawkeyes #iowabasketball

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.