Spartan News & Links Roundup: 8/13

Spartan football and recruiting news has been a little dry (gasp!) the past couple days, but here are some bits of news and links from around the web. My apologies for the delay on the next installment of Spartan Ave’s Top 25 Countdown, which should be up shortly…

Spartan News & Links Roundup

• Sporting News and Sports Illustrated released their annual College Football Preview issues this week, and while both mags seem to see eye-to-eye on many of the Big Ten’s squads, the issues had varying opinions on how the Spartans will fare in 2010. SI sees State finishing fifth in the conference at 4-4 in Big Ten play and 8-4 overall, while Sporting News doesn’t see an improvement from last year’s finish, with a middle-of-the-pack 3-5 Big Ten record and 6-6 overall tally for the Spartans. Both mags seem to agree the Greg Jones will be a defensive monster for MSU, however neither gave him the nod for defensive player of the year, which was given to Iowa’s Adrian Clayborn. SN selected Jones and SO Jerel Worthy to its All-conference team and predicts MSU in a Texas Bowl appearance against Baylor, while SI believes LB William Gholston will be the Big Ten’s best true freshman to watch. It’s hard to argue with either selection for MSU, with 8-4 being a more than likely scenario, but it isn’t crazy for SN to think MSU could still be channeling the “Same Old Spartans” for a few close games in 2010, either.
• Shannon Shelton of the Detroit Free Press reports on the odd number-sharing business at camp, as William Gholston, freshman CB Mylan Hicks and WR Mark Dell could all be wearing #2 this season for MSU.
  

  Gholston rocking his #2 jersey.

• Former MSU b-ball star Shannon Brown decided to spurn the chance to play a more significant role with the Knicks and re-upped with the defending champs in L.A. The deal is reported to be worth 4.2 million over 2 years.
• Fox Sports‘ Jeff Goodman believes that Kalin Lucas‘ injury during last season’s NCAA tournament was a blessing in disguise for championship-minded MSU. Lucas hopes to be back on the court next month and believes the sky is the limit this season. “We have guards, wings and bigs. Winning a national title is our only goal,” Lucas said. “I know most people are picking Duke, but that doesn’t matter.”
• MSU AD Mark Hollis tweets that fans should expect to see new floor designs in the Breslin this season.

Tags: Greg Jones, Kalin Lucas, Shannon Brown, William Gh