# 2003–04 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team

The 2003–04 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team represented Michigan State University in the 2003–04 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Spartans played their home games at Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan. They were coached by Tom Izzo in his ninth year as head coach. MSU finished the season with a record of 18–12, 12–4 to finish in a tie for second place in Big Ten play. The Spartans received a bid to the NCAA tournament for the seventh consecutive year where they lost in the First Round to Nevada.

## Previous season

The Spartans finished the 2002–03 season with an overall record of 22–12, 10–6 to finish in fifth place in the Big Ten. Michigan State received a No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament, their sixth straight trip to the Tournament, and advanced to the Elite Eight, their fourth trip to the Elite Eight under Tom Izzo.

## Season summary

The Spartans were led by sophomore Paul Davis (15.9 PPG, 6.2 PRG, 2.0 APG) and juniors Chris Hill (13.8 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 3.9 APG) and Kelvin Tolbert (10.7 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 2.0 PAG). The Spartans began the season ranked No. 3 in the country and faced a difficult non-conference schedule. MSU fell on the road to No. 6 Kansas in the second game of the season. Two wins followed the loss before a murderer's row of a schedule which included three straight losses to No. 6 Duke, in overtime to No. 14 Oklahoma at the Palace of Auburn Hills, and to No. 8 Kentucky at Ford Field in the Basketbowl. The Spartans followed this losing streak by losing two of their final four non-conference games including at No. 17 Syracuse and dropped out of the rankings. They finished the non-conference slate at 5–6.
After a loss to open Big Ten play to No. 21 Wisconsin, the Spartans recovered to win seven of their next eight and six of their last seven Big Ten games. They finished in a tie for second place in the Big Ten at 12–4 and 17–10 overall. A win over Northwestern in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals was followed by a third loss of the season to No. 17 Wisconsin.
The Spartans received a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, reaching the tournament for the seventh consecutive year. But, for the second time in three years, the Spartans were knocked out in the First Round, this time by Nevada.

## Schedule and results

| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site city, state |
| Exhibition ||||||
| Nov 2, 2003 2:30 pm, ESPN | | Harlem Globetrotters | L 83–97 | | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Nov 13, 2003 | | Nike Elite | W 85–81 | | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Non-conference regular season ||||||
| Nov 21, 2003* 7:05 pm | No. 3 | Bucknell | W 64–52 | 1–0 | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Nov 25, 2003* | No. 3 | at No. 6 Kansas | L 74–81 | 1–1 | Allen Fieldhouse (16,300) Lawrence, KS |
| Nov 29, 2003* 2:00 pm | No. 3 | Pennsylvania Spartan Classic | W 77–52 | 2–1 | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Nov 30, 2003* 4:10 pm | No. 3 | DePaul Spartan Classic | W 89–81 | 3–1 | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Dec 3, 2003* | No. 5 | No. 6 Duke ACC-Big Ten Challenge | L 50–72 | 3–2 | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Dec 6, 2003* | No. 5 | vs. No. 14 Oklahoma Spartan Clash | L 77–80 $^{OT}$ | 3–3 | The Palace of Auburn Hills (18,123) Auburn Hills, MI |
| Dec 13, 2003* 4:00 pm, CBS | No. 21 | vs. No. 8 Kentucky Basketbowl | L 74–79 | 3–4 | Ford Field (78,129) Detroit, MI |
| Dec 16, 2003* | | South Florida | W 73–60 | 4–4 | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Dec 20, 2003* | | at UCLA | L 58–64 | 4–5 | Pauley Pavilion (12,433) Los Angeles, CA |
| Dec 30, 2003* 7:00 pm | | Coppin State | W 78–72 | 5–5 | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Jan 3, 2004* 12:05 pm, CBS | | at No. 17 Syracuse | L 60–73 | 5–6 | Carrier Dome (25,869) Syracuse, NY |
| Big Ten regular season ||||||
| Jan 10, 2004 11:01 am | | at No. 21 Wisconsin | L 64–77 | 5–7 (0–1) | Kohl Center (17,142) Madison, WI |
| Jan 14, 2004 8:00 pm | | Penn State | W 76–58 | 6–7 (1–1) | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Jan 17, 2004 3:45 pm, CBS | | Michigan Rivalry | W 71–54 | 7–7 (2–1) | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Jan 21, 2004 7:00 pm | | at Northwestern | W 73–61 | 8–7 (3–1) | Welsh-Ryan Arena (5,743) Evanston, IL |
| Jan 25, 2004 2:00 pm, CBS | | at No. 23 Purdue | L 70–76 $^{OT}$ | 8–8 (3–2) | Mackey Arena (14,123) West Lafayette, IN |
| Jan 28, 2004 8:00 pm | | at Minnesota | W 79–78 $^{OT}$ | 9–8 (4–2) | Williams Arena (12,601) Minneapolis, MN |
| Jan 31, 2004 8:00 pm | | Indiana | W 84–72 | 10–8 (5–2) | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Feb 4, 2004 8:00 pm | | Iowa | W 89–72 | 11–8 (6–2) | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Feb 7, 2004 12:00 pm | | at Ohio State | W 84–70 | 12–8 (7–2) | Value City Arena (17,337) Columbus, OH |
| Feb 10, 2004 8:00 pm | | at Illinois | L 51–75 | 12–9 (7–3) | Assembly Hall (16,618) Champaign, IL |
| Feb 14, 2004 12:17 pm | | Minnesota | W 69–58 | 13–9 (8–3) | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Feb 17, 2004 7:00 pm | | Purdue | W 62–55 | 14–9 (9–3) | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Feb 21, 2004 | | Northwestern | W 66–56 | 15–9 (10–3) | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Feb 24, 2004 7:00 pm | | at Michigan Rivalry | W 72–69 | 16–9 (11–3) | Crisler Arena (13,751) Ann Arbor, MI |
| Feb 28, 2004 12:15 pm | | at Penn State | W 67–47 | 17–9 (12–3) | Bryce Jordan Center (11,777) State College, PA |
| Mar 2, 2004 | | No. 17 Wisconsin | L 64–68 $^{OT}$ | 17–10 (12–4) | Breslin Center (14,759) East Lansing, MI |
| Big Ten tournament ||||||
| Mar 12, 2004 , ESPN Plus | (3) | vs. (6) Northwestern quarterfinals | W 68–55 | 18–10 | Conseco Fieldhouse (15,178) Indianapolis, IN |
| Mar 13, 2004 , CBS | (3) | vs. (2) No. 10 Wisconsin semifinals | L 66–68 | 18–11 | Conseco Fieldhouse (15,903) Indianapolis, IN |
| NCAA tournament ||||||
| Mar 18, 2004 , CBS | (7 E) | vs. (10 E) Nevada First Round | L 66–72 | 18–12 | KeyArena (15,827) Seattle, WA |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Eastern Time Source. ||||||

## Player statistics

Individual player statistics (Final) :
| | | Scoring | Scoring | Total FGs | Total FGs | Total FGs | 3-point FGs | 3-point FGs | 3-point FGs | Free-Throws | Free-Throws | Free-Throws | Rebounds | Rebounds | | | |
| Player | GP | Pts | Avg | FG | FGA | Pct | 3FG | 3FA | Pct | FT | FTA | Pct | Tot | Avg | A | Stl | Blk |
| Ager, Maurice | 30 | 254 | 8.5 | 87 | 225 | .387 | 37 | 106 | .349 | 43 | 61 | .705 | 96 | 3.2 | 20 | 12 | 8 |
| Anderson, Alan | 30 | 243 | 8.1 | 78 | 167 | .467 | 17 | 48 | .354 | 70 | 87 | .805 | 93 | 3.1 | 96 | 29 | 5 |
| Andreas, Jason | 30 | 85 | 2.8 | 38 | 69 | .551 | 0 | 0 | | 9 | 10 | .900 | 69 | 0.5 | 15 | 6 | 6 |
| Bograkos, Tim | 30 | 28 | 0.9 | 13 | 24 | .542 | 1 | 5 | .200 | 1 | 3 | .333 | 24 | 0.4 | 12 | 8 | 4 |
| Brown, Shannon | 30 | 237 | 7.9 | 88 | 195 | .451 | 15 | 44 | .341 | 46 | 57 | .807 | 75 | 1.3 | 38 | 33 | 1 |
| Cotton, Brandon | 3 | 3 | 1.0 | 1 | 3 | .333 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 1 | 2 | .500 | 0 | 1.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Davis, Paul | 30 | 474 | 15.8 | 163 | 287 | .568 | 5 | 15 | .333 | 143 | 179 | .799 | 187 | 2.0 | 59 | 44 | 19 |
| Hamo, Anthony | 5 | 2 | 0.4 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Harvey, Andy | 6 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 0 | | 1 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hill, Chris | 30 | 415 | 13.8 | 141 | 282 | .500 | 84 | 185 | .454 | 49 | 65 | .754 | 84 | 2.8 | 118 | 46 | 1 |
| Johnson, Rashi | 27 | 19 | 0.7 | 7 | 19 | .368 | 0 | 6 | .000 | 5 | 10 | .500 | 14 | 0.5 | 12 | 4 | 0 |
| Naymick, Drew | 22 | 13 | 0.6 | 4 | 10 | .400 | 0 | 0 | | 5 | 6 | .833 | 21 | 1.0 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Ockerman, Justin | 15 | 6 | 0.4 | 3 | 6 | .500 | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 0 | | 8 | 0.5 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Rowley, Delco | 14 | 17 | 1.2 | 7 | 13 | .538 | 0 | 0 | | 3 | 5 | .600 | 16 | 1.1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Torbert, Kelvin | 30 | 321 | 10.7 | 109 | 204 | .534 | 31 | 64 | .484 | 72 | 90 | .800 | 108 | 3.6 | 60 | 23 | 7 |
| Trannon, Matt | 17 | 21 | 1.2 | 8 | 13 | .615 | 0 | 0 | | 5 | 11 | .455 | 28 | 1.6 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
Source

## Rankings

Ranking movement Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. (RV) Received votes but unranked. (NR) Not ranked. :
| Poll | Pre | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 | Wk 13 | Wk 14 | Wk 15 | Wk 16 | Wk 17 | Wk 18 | Wk 19 | Final |
| AP | 3 | 3 | 5 | 21 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | N/A* |
| Coaches | 4 | 3 | 6 | 20 | 25 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
*AP does not release post-NCAA tournament rankings

## Awards and honors

* Paul Davis – All-Big Ten First Team
* Paul Davis – NABC All-District Team
* Chris Hill – All-Big Ten Second Team
* Chris Hill – Academic All-American First Team
* Kelvin Torbert – All-Big Ten Third Team (Coaches), All-Big Ten Honorable Mention (Media)
* Shannon Brown – All-Big Ten Freshman Team