San Jose State, Loyola Chicago meet in NIT
Loyola Chicago Ramblers (22-11, 13-7 A-10) at San Jose State Spartans (15-19, 8-14 MWC)
San Jose, California; Wednesday, 11 p.m. EDT
BOTTOM LINE: San Jose State squares off against Loyola Chicago in the National Invitation Tournament.
The Spartans' record in MWC games is 8-14, and their record is 7-5 in non-conference play. San Jose State has a 7-19 record against teams over .500.
The Ramblers' record in A-10 games is 13-7. Loyola Chicago has a 2-3 record in games decided by 3 points or fewer.
San Jose State makes 44.6% of its shots from the field this season, which is 2.6 percentage points higher than Loyola Chicago has allowed to its opponents (42.0%). Loyola Chicago has shot at a 45.8% clip from the field this season, 0.2 percentage points greater than the 45.6% shooting opponents of San Jose State have averaged.
TOP PERFORMERS: Donavan Yap is shooting 35.1% from beyond the arc with 1.6 made 3-pointers per game for the Spartans, while averaging 10 points. Josh Uduje is shooting 44.2% and averaging 11.9 points over the past 10 games.
Jayden Dawson is scoring 13.2 points per game and averaging 3.1 rebounds for the Ramblers. Des Watson is averaging 14.0 points and 3.0 rebounds over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Spartans: 3-7, averaging 65.2 points, 29.9 rebounds, 12.0 assists, 7.1 steals and 3.1 blocks per game while shooting 41.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 75.1 points per game.
Ramblers: 8-2, averaging 74.5 points, 33.1 rebounds, 16.3 assists, 6.2 steals and 4.8 blocks per game while shooting 44.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 69.4 points.
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Analyst states MSU has better wide receivers than rival UM; sparks debate, fan reactions
Does Michigan State have a better wide receivers core than rival Michigan? At least one analyst believes that to be the case. Popular college football analyst and social media personality Rico Rico posted on X that Michigan State has a better wide receivers core than rival Michigan this upcoming season. Rico Rico hinted that "people aren't going to like this" take and that it would generate plenty of buzz -- which is exactly what happened. Here is Rico Rico's original post on this topic: Michigan State brings back one of the top young wide receivers in Nick Marsh to lead the position group this upcoming season. Joining him are a pair of notable transfer additions in Kent State's Chrishon McCray and Middle Tennessee State's Omari Kelly. That trio should be a potent group this upcoming season, and makes me personally agree with Rico Rico about the Spartans having an the edge over Michigan in this area. Check out some of the best replies and social media reactions to this take from Rico Rico below: Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on X @RobertBondy5. This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Analyst takes Spartans over Wolverines when it comes to WRs group
Associated Press
5 hours ago
- Associated Press
Vikings agree to 3-year contract with tight end Josh Oliver
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension with tight end Josh Oliver on Tuesday, enhancing their commitment to a key part of their running game. Oliver had career highs last season with 258 receiving yards and three touchdowns while expanding his involvement in the passing attack along with his role as a run blocker. Pro Football Focus analysts gave Oliver the best run-blocking grade among all NFL tight ends who played at least half of the blocking snaps in 2024. He also got the ninth-highest overall grade in the league at his position, after he was ranked fourth by PFF in 2023. The 28-year-old Oliver has entered his third season with Minnesota after signing as a free agent in 2023 following two years with Baltimore. The 6-foot-5, 259-pound Oliver was a third-round pick by Jacksonville in the 2019 draft out of San Jose State. ___ AP NFL:
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
New Michigan State AD J Batt's priority list: Make connections, build fundraising
To say Michigan State athletics is in a transitional and transformative period is an understatement. It might be the most critical juncture for the school since the 1940s, when John Hannah, Ralph Young and Biggie Munn angled to get the Spartans into the Big Ten. Advertisement With college sports at a crossroad between their altruistic past and big-money present, MSU's new athletic director J Batt arrives from Georgia Tech with a task list that will require a sharpened sense of prioritizing from a host of major needs to move the Spartans back to the forefront in the future. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets athletic director J Batt is introduced on the field against the Virginia Cavaliers in the first half at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, Oct. 20, 2022. Batt will be publicly introduced during a news conference at 3 p.m. Wednesday, June 4. His contract is expected to be approved by MSU's Board of Trustees at their next meeting June 13 in Traverse City. But as Batt begins his job in East Lansing the week of June 16, there will be a litany of tasks on his agenda before the 2025-26 school year begins Aug. 25, with the football season kicking off four days later. Here is a list of five critical things on the to-do list for MSU's 21st athletic director (and the school's first outside hire to the position in 30 years). 1. Learn the political landscape The prevailing belief is that Batt's biggest tasks are increasing fundraising and enhancing MSU's name, image and likeness structure — and they undoubtedly are high-ranking priorities — but none of that gets accomplished without the 43-year-old, who grew up in Virginia, first learning to navigate the tricky political ecosystem that has at times been the school's biggest roadblock. Advertisement Save for a 10-year window of solace and success under Mark Hollis from 2007-17, the school's internal powerbrokers and biggest benefactors externally often have displayed a bad habit of stunting progress with infighting and insolence. Hollis, along with then-president Lou Anna K. Simon, managed to get those forces pulling in one direction before everything was undone by the Larry Nassar scandal, leaving MSU in limbo and with flagging leadership since 2018. Before their abrupt resignations, Hollis and Simon two also gave the school and athletic program a seat at the head table of college sports with their ability to politic at the national and Big Ten levels while assuaging local political and campus leadership. Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo is congratulated by president Kevin M. Guskiewicz after 87-62 at the First Round of NCAA Tournament at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on Friday, March 21, 2025. Both Hollis and Simon were MSU lifers who knew the history and potential landmines; Batt walks in as a complete outsider, as did current president Kevin Guskiewicz a little more than a year ago. They have known each other for about 25 years, Batt said Tuesday on the "MSU Today" podcast, from his time as a soccer player at North Carolina who participated in Guskiewicz's concussion research projects before he ascended the ranks of academia. Building relationships quickly in East Lansing is essential. They will rely on each other's trust, though both new leaders must lean on Hall of Fame basketball coach Tom Izzo's 40-plus years of experience at the university in navigating those sometimes-turbulent political waters. But pushing for change as an outsider also can create job-altering friction at MSU. Without the support of the right people, even with a visionary approach, the strongest-willed athletic director can wind up with his hands tied. 2. Touch hearts, open wallets That also includes connecting with donors. Advertisement Finding a way to make both the external NIL collectives externally and internal Spartan Fund financially robust will be a major priority. Batt and Guskiezicz (who in March announced a $4 billion university-wide fundraising effort) are tasked with energizing the donor base that — as is the case at many other universities — is fatigued by the growing need for more money to keep major college athletics afloat. Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo celebrates a play against Michigan during the first half at Breslin Center in East Lansing on Sunday, March 9, 2025. MSU alum Mat Ishbia, CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage and Phoenix Suns owner, stands and claps in the background. One of Batt's primary missions will be analyzing the future of Spartan Stadium and drumming up funds for upgrades or replacement. Departed athletic director Alan Haller this winter said MSU must explore selling naming rights to facilities, a move it previously balked at pursuing; Batt must also connect with the right corporate partners to give his new department as big a financial influx as possible. 3. Stabilize MSU's spending The athletic department has struggled to balance the books since before Hollis left and the coronavirus pandemic happened. Advertisement In 2023-24, MSU operated at a deficit for the fourth time in five years (under Haller and Bill Beekman before him), with nearly $180.5 million in total operating expenses to more than $163.7 million in total operating revenue, according annual documents filed Jan. 13 with the NCAA and obtained that month by the Free Press and the USA TODAY Network. The more than $16.7 million shortall came a year after operating at an $11.2 million deficit in 2022-23. The athletic department had a $16.35 million surplus during the 2021-22 fiscal year, but its deficit was $17.8 million in 2019-20 and $15.4 million in 2020-21. The most recent fiscal year report puts the athletic department's debt at nearly $91 million, up from $68.7 million the previous year. While trying to get back in the black on the budget, Batt also will have to learn to fiscally manage more sports with the Spartans — 23, to Georgia Tech's 17 — while being a 'fiery athletic director that likes to win,' as he called himself Tuesday on the "MSU Today" podcast. 4. Restructure NIL Michigan State's head coach Jonathan Smith enters Spartan Stadium before the football game against Prairie View A&M on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in East Lansing. With change potentially coming nationally to college sports, getting MSU's external donor groups on the same page will be essential. The biggest among them who have driven the direction — including Greg Williams of Acrisure, former Izzo player Mat Ishbia of United Wholesale Mortgage, Steve St. Andre of Shift Digital and those within the This is Sparta! collective — all possess financial clout individually. Reaching a higher plateau collectively will be Batt's mission, using the current benefactors as a starting point to entice more to join, then uniting them all under a new umbrella to prepare for the next pivot when the House settlement kicks in and schools will essentially become distributors of funding. Advertisement Izzo understands the need for financing in the new world he's adapting to, despite winning a Big Ten title while sticking to his principles. And in major college football, the market to pay the NFL-caliber players now required to compete for FBS championships is exploding. That's just the two primary sports and not taking into account the money needed to pay players in non-revenue sports that Haller left in good position competitively. 5. Focus on future Fans greet players coming into the tunnel for the NCAA football game at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Mich., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. MSU's biggest revenue generator remains its football program, and the stadium and on-field product both need refreshing. The excitement of the Mark Dantonio era showed the Spartans still can walk among the giants in the sport, as did the one magical year with running back Kenneth Walker III under coach Mel Tucker that was the outlier of the past decade. Advertisement Then comes hard conversations about potentially cutting more sports after Beekman eliminated the men's and women's swimming and diving programs in 2021. It is an uncomfortable topic, particularly for a former non-revenue athlete like Batt, who was a goalie on North Carolina's 2001 national champion men's soccer team and said he believes in being 'in the opportunity business' for student-athletes despite the trend toward professionalism. And that barely scratches the surface of what lies ahead as Batt leaves the declining Atlantic Coast Conference to try and bring MSU back among the elite of the power-wielding Big Ten. Contact Chris Solari: csolari@ Follow him @chrissolari. Subscribe to the "Spartan Speak" podcast for new episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at Michigan State athletic directors Charles Bemies: 1899-1900. George Denham: 1901-02. Chester Brewer: 1903-10, 1917, 1919-21. John Macklin: 1911-15. George Gauthier: 1916, 1918. Albert Barron: 1922. Ralph Young: 1923-54. Clarence "Biggie" Munn: 1954-72. J. Burt Smith: 1972-75. John D. Shingleton: 1975-76. Joe Kearney: 1976-80. Doug Weaver: 1980-90. George Perles: 1990-92. Merrily Dean Baker: 1992-95. Merritt Norvell: 1995-99. Clarence Underwood: 1999-2002. Ron Mason: 2002-07. Mark Hollis: 2007-18. Bill Beekman: 2018-2021. Alan Haller: 2021-May 1, 2025. J Batt: Hired June 2, 2025 (begins week of June 16). This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: New Michigan State AD J Batt's priority list: Build connections, funds
