The next game, Wednesday at Michigan State, would be a test of Keady’s battle cries against human nature. It was sandwiched between two marquee games, three days after the win at Michigan and four days before a game at Iowa. And the Spartans, despite their upset win over Indiana earlier in the season, didn’t figure to offer much resistance. They were 8-11 overall, 3-6 in the conference, and were coming off a 101-72 loss to Iowa. The normal “human” response to such a game would be to relax a bit. Keady, of course, didn’t want his players to be human.
They were, though. So were the coaches. Wood had come down with the virus that had struck Keady and Stallings, and a few of the players were still battling colds. The physical and emotional obstacles combined to bring about practices that were more carefree than usual.
Not that all the fun had gone out of it. One of the first things the players did upon arriving at the hotel in East Lansing was get stuck in the elevator again, this time in a glass one in the center of the lobby. But this time a few of them hadn’t boarded, and it didn’t stay stuck for as long.
