Download - MSU Alumni Association - Michigan State University
Download - MSU Alumni Association - Michigan State University
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SPECIAL CHAMPIONSHIP<br />
SEASON INCLUDES FIRST-<br />
EVER SELLOUT<br />
For the first time in history,<br />
<strong>MSU</strong> women’s basketball won<br />
an outright Big Ten basketball<br />
championship. The Spartans had<br />
previously won shared titles.<br />
In her fourth season as <strong>MSU</strong><br />
women’s basketball head coach,<br />
Suzy Merchant has achieved some<br />
historical “firsts.”<br />
She earned <strong>MSU</strong>’s first outright<br />
Big Ten championship, going<br />
25-4 overall and 13-3 in conference<br />
play. <strong>MSU</strong> previously shared<br />
Big Ten titles in 1997 and 2005.<br />
She was named the Big Ten<br />
Coach of the Year, her first such<br />
honor.<br />
On Feb. 13, she oversaw the<br />
first-ever sellout for women’s<br />
basketball at the Breslin Center,<br />
where 14,797 fans saw the Spartans<br />
beat archrival <strong>Michigan</strong><br />
69-56. Merchant called the attendance<br />
milestone “overwhelming.”<br />
It marked <strong>MSU</strong>’s ninth straight<br />
win over the Wolverines and it<br />
reinforced <strong>MSU</strong>’s standing in the<br />
national top 15 in attendance.<br />
The win propelled <strong>MSU</strong> to No. 8<br />
in the USA Today Coaches Poll,<br />
one notch ahead of No. 9 Duke.<br />
<strong>MSU</strong> dominated the league in<br />
most important statistical categories,<br />
ranking No. 1 in scoring<br />
defense, scoring margin, rebound<br />
margin, steals and offensive<br />
rebounds. It was <strong>MSU</strong>’s eighth<br />
straight 20-win season, and it gave<br />
the Spartans its first top seed at<br />
the Big Ten Tournament.<br />
This year’s championship—<br />
along with a Top Ten national<br />
ranking—was largely made<br />
possible by the senior class of<br />
guard Brittney Thomas, forwards<br />
Kalisha Keane and Cetera Washington,<br />
and walk-on Jasmine<br />
Holmes. Junior center Lykendra<br />
Johnson—the Big Ten Defensive<br />
Player of the Year—also entered<br />
<strong>MSU</strong> with this group but she<br />
red-shirted one season because of<br />
an injury.<br />
“I like their leadership, certainly<br />
their talent, and their character,”<br />
says Merchant of the seniors.<br />
“And, they’re fun. It’s neat to hear<br />
stories about how inspirational<br />
this group has been to others on<br />
Photos by Matt Mitchell/<strong>MSU</strong> Athletic Communications<br />
The 2010-11 team poses with the Big<br />
Ten trophy. Suzy Merchant (inset) was<br />
named Big Ten Coach of the Year.<br />
the team. They are a hard-working<br />
group. They have a passion for<br />
the game and they love to play<br />
together.”<br />
Keane averaged 16.2 points<br />
and five rebounds a game and<br />
was named the Big Ten Player<br />
of the Year. A clutch player, she<br />
is nicknamed “Big Shot Kal” by<br />
teammates. Keane often hit shots<br />
when the 35-second clock ticked<br />
down. Most notably, Keane hit a<br />
buzzer-beater trey that beat Iowa<br />
with 0.5 seconds left and another<br />
trey to force overtime at Wisconsin<br />
with 12.9 seconds left. She is<br />
the only active Big Ten player to<br />
have surpassed 1,000 points, 500<br />
rebounds, 200 assists and 200<br />
steals.<br />
Thomas ran the team while<br />
averaging 9.1 points and 2.9 rebounds.<br />
She has 385 assists in her<br />
career, which ranks in <strong>MSU</strong>’s top<br />
five ever. Fellow senior Washington<br />
excelled on defense, nabbing 6<br />
rebounds a game.<br />
Johnson was dominant in the<br />
paint, averaging a double-double<br />
(13.5 points, 10.6 rebounds) in<br />
Big Ten play. She averaged 4.6<br />
offensive rebounds and 2.6 steals,<br />
tops in the league. In addition,<br />
Johnson had a team-best 38<br />
blocks for the season and was opportunistic<br />
in putback shots.<br />
<strong>MSU</strong> clearly excelled in the<br />
all-important category of team<br />
chemistry, as Merchant has noted<br />
on several occasions. The team<br />
averaged 13.2 assists per game,<br />
compared to only 8.7 by its opponents.<br />
<strong>MSU</strong> outscored opponents<br />
by an average of 13.3 points and<br />
outrebounded opponents by an<br />
average of 8.3 caroms.<br />
Besides the senior nucleus,<br />
<strong>MSU</strong> also got significant play<br />
from juniors Taylor Alton and<br />
Porsche Poole, sophomores<br />
Jasmine Thomas and Courtney<br />
Schiffauer, redshirt freshman<br />
Kelsey Smith, and freshmen Annalise<br />
Pickrel and Klarissa Bell.<br />
MacDonald’s All-American<br />
Madison Williams, a 6-7 freshman<br />
center, suffered a seasonending<br />
injury in the preseason.<br />
Assisting Merchant are Shane<br />
Clipfell, Tempie Brown and Terry<br />
Smith.<br />
Three of <strong>MSU</strong>’s losses were on<br />
the road to ranked-teams—Baylor,<br />
Ohio <strong>State</strong> and Iowa. It’s lone<br />
home loss was by one point to the<br />
Buckeyes, who reigned as Big Ten<br />
champions the past five seasons.<br />
“They’re eighth-year seniors<br />
with all the minutes they’ve<br />
logged in this league,” Merchant<br />
says of the winning senior class.<br />
“They’re a very veteran group of<br />
kids. They just find a way to win.”<br />
Keane was named Big Ten<br />
Player of the Year.<br />
Click Right Through for <strong>MSU</strong> alumni.msu.edu Page 49