The start of a season and the end of an era

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For a while last night it looked like Michigan State was going to have a lot of us looking at the calendar and wondering when basketball season starts.

As I sit here today and watch U of M virtually dismantle Colorado State, it always amazes me how much MSU seems to struggle during those early season cupcake games.

I'm not saying Western Michigan isn't a good team, but they are a totally different level when it comes to the Big Ten. You really wouldn't have known that last night.

They came out strong and both sides struggled to do much of anything for most of the first quarter. Eventually, Michigan State showed some flashes of greatness and it looked like they were going to coast through to a win (as they should have).

Unfortunately, they got lazy and the tide started to turn against them. There was a point late in the game where The Broncos closed the gap to a single score and I had a feeling that MSU was going to let this one slip through their hands.

You would hope after halftime they might get a fire lit under them and turn things around, but that didn't seem to help either. The third quarter was pretty rough for The Spartans.

Thankfully, they eventually scored again to go up 28 to 13. I still had that sneaky feeling they were going to throw the game away and I found out that Serena Williams was playing over on ESPN, so I changed the channel.

So, we missed last touchdown by MSU that put them up 35 to 13, but we also got to see the final match played by one of the greatest of all time in the tennis world.

It was sad that she ended up losing, but honestly, she was looking rough by the end of the last game. It was amazing that she kept it going for as long as she did.

From deuce to ad out, back to deuce, back to ad out, deuce, ad in, it was clearly sheer force of will that kept Serena going for as long as she did. I think the finally game clocked in at something like 20 minutes long.

Losing that set 6 to 1, she would have had a long road ahead of her to fight back and win the third and final set.

I used to be a pretty huge tennis fan. I would watch all the grand slams religiously back in the day. I remember when Venus Williams first broke onto the scene. It was amazing to watch her play. Then her little sister came along and it was even more amazing.

I really liked that she gave a shout out to Venus last night in her parting speech from center court.

Hats off to Serena for an insane 25 years of tennis and the countless generations of young ladies she has inspired to be great at whatever they want.

As for the Spartans. I don't know know what this season is going to hold for them. I like Mel Tucker and I have faith they can be a somewhat dominating force in the Big 10. However, if they play like they did for most of the Western Michigan game, it might be rough.

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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or @mrsbozz unless otherwise sourced