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EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State used to be one of the best at the end of games, making plays on both sides of the ball and special teams to win in the closing moments.The Spartans won a lot of games that way, including 36 the previous three seasons.What we have been able to do really in the last number of years is and its exactly what I told our football team, `Weve won those fourth quarters. Weve won the games at the end of the game. Weve closed games out, Dantonio said Tuesday. Thats what we have to return to.Dantonio, his staff and their players have to figure it out fast or else a team that started the season ranked No. 12 could be the first Michigan State squad to not earn a bowl invitation since 2006 when John L. Smiths last team went 4-8 with a pair of four-game skids. Smith was fired and Dantonio was hired, coming back to the school where he was one of Nick Sabans assistants.The Spartans (2-5, 0-4 Big Ten) are losing these days because problems in the fourth quarter. That has triggered a skid that matches the total number of setbacks the program had the previous three years when it ended seasons at the Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl and in the College Football Playoff. They have lost five straight for the first time since opening the 1991 season 0-5 and are one loss away from their longest skid since starting 0-7 in 1982.Michigan States misery is not expected to win anytime soon: Rival and second-ranked Michigan (7-0, 4-0) is favored to win by more than three touchdowns at Spartan Stadium on Saturday.Dantonio, though, is sounding confident about his teams chances after beating the Wolverines in seven of the last eight meetings.Can we win? Yeah, we can win, he told reporters at his news conference. I firmly believe that. I know none of you do, but thats why Im coaching.Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh knows he has to be ready for anything against a gambling coach, who has found ways to win ranging from returning a punters fumble on the last play last year at Michigan Stadium to trick plays to even a Hail Mary.Hes one of the best, Harbaugh said. Ive known him for years. You have to make your preparations accordingly.If Michigan State doesnt fare better in the fourth, its difficult to envision a win against anyone, especially the surging Wolverines or No. 6 Ohio State next month at home.The Spartans have not come back to win any of the three games in which they trailed after the third quarter. With a lead after three quarters, theyre just 2-2.And, problems in the final quarter have been there right from the start.Michigan State didnt outscore Furman in a lackluster, season-opening 28-13 victory. In their biggest win of the year against Notre Dame, the Spartans were outscored 14-0 in the fourth but held on for an eight-point victory. A scoreless fourth seemed to be a merciful end to a 30-6 loss to Wisconsin. Indiana outscored Michigan State 14-7 to close out regulation, forcing overtime and leading to a 24-21 win. BYU turned a close game into 31-14 victory by outscoring the home team 21-7 in the final quarter.Northwestern outscored Michigan State 14-9 to close out a 54-40 win. And perhaps in the most embarrassing loss this season, Maryland blanked Michigan State 14-0 last week to win 28-17.Its just as simple as not getting locked in the entire game, getting lazy, or whatever you want to call it, but thats not Spartan football, linebacker Riley Bullough said. Were doing everything we can to get back to our roots and what got us to the point that we have been in previous years.---Online: AP college football website: http://collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25---Follow Larry Lage at www.twitter.com/larrylage and follow his work at www.bigstory.ap.org/content/larry-lage Alex Len Hawks Jersey . -- Bryant McKinnie came out of his stance and lowered his shoulder into a practice squad player, causing a crisp thud to reverberate in the Miami Dolphins practice bubble. Tracy Mcgrady Jersey . -- Chicago Bears cornerback Tim Jennings was selected Monday to his second straight Pro Bowl, while guard Kyle Long made it after a solid rookie season. https://www.thehawkslockerroom.com/Bruno-Fernando-City-Edition-Jersey/ . Cote was eligible to become a free agent Feb. 15. Cote helped running back Jon Cornish run for a league-high 1,813 rushing yards en route to being named the leagues most outstanding player. Josh Smith Hawks Jersey . LOUIS -- Alexander Steen scored a power-play goal with 59. Alex Len Jersey . Paul Pierce couldnt believe he missed at the end. Young scored a season-high 26 points to spark a huge effort from the leagues most productive bench, and Los Angeles beat the Brooklyn Nets 99-94 on Wednesday night after blowing a 27-point lead. To say Najam Sethi at the PCB has been a shade bullish about the Pakistan Super Leagues prospects would be an understatement. It is understandable, given the PSL was virtually entirely his idea, and it is a mark of his influence at the PCB that the league has come into existence at all. (The public support of Shaharyar Khan, the PCBs chairman, for the project was mystifyingly muted; was it indicative of his thoughts on the whole idea?)Sethis delight at the PSL getting underway was irrepressible. The PSL will be the biggest thing that has hit Pakistan cricket, he said in an interview. He added that, five years down the line, if the PSL were held in Pakistan, it would be far more exciting than any FTP engagement could ever be. The PSL will be more like the IPL than other leagues, he declared.Although Sethis bombastic build-up to the PSL and his eagerness to associate it with the IPL come off as rather transparently insecure, the league has whipped up excitement among Pakistans cricket-starved fans in a way quite unlike anything else in recent memory. Hopes that the PSL will help bring back Pakistans glory days, even bring international cricket back to the country, fly unchecked. The extent and variety of raw young Pakistani talent on display is marvelled at. The number of international stars present is pointed to as proof of the tournaments marketability. Anything less than utter and complete admiration of everything PSL risks coming off as churlish in the extreme.Make no mistake, there is much that the PSL needs to be admired for. It has given Pakistani players the chance to participate in a lucrative T20 league. It has allowed them to gain precious experience sharing dressing rooms with international crickets biggest names, and financial incentives of the sort that have, unfortunately for Pakistani players, been severely curtailed in the past for a multitude of non-cricketing reasons, from a precarious security situation in Pakistan to an unstable political relationship with India. The PSL has greatly boosted the earning potential of young players on Pakistans domestic circuit, many of whom have had to hold part-time jobs, and often had to choose between feeding their passions and their families. It has enabled parts of Pakistan rejected by the cricketing establishment to take pride in their citys exploits. The irony of Quetta being joint top at the end of the group stage, the capital city of a province that has never seen a player turn out at ODI or Test level in Pakistans history, is not lost on anyone who loves a good underdog tale.But fans and administrators alike seem to be laying a greater burden on the shoulders of the tournament than it can possibly bear. Sethi, Ramiz Raja and Wasim Akram among many others have talked up the possibility of the PSL bringing international cricket back to Pakistan. One cannot help wonder how. Cricket did not move away from Pakistan because the countrys appeal went down in cricketing terms - indeed, Pakistan won the T20 World Cup three months after its international isolation began - but because of security issues, which have nothing to do with whether the PSL is a roaring success or a whimpering failure. The PSL could be as successful as the English Premier League and it couldnt bring cricket back to Pakistan as long as the threat of a team bus being ammbushed and attacked by bullets and hand grenades on its way to a stadium remained realistic.dddddddddddd If that is the yardstick by which the event will be measured, the PSL risks being unfairly set up for failure. Moreover, if the concept and layout of T20 league cricket is designed for entertaining, fast-paced cricket, the PSLs format could not have done more to blunt its sharpness more effectively. Five is an awkward number of teams to play in any league, but stipulating that four go through to the knockout round (which isnt actually a knockout, but thats a different story) makes the group stage almost pointless. Thats an unwelcome indictment, given the group stage is more or less the entire tournament. Therefore, all the teams needed to do to stave off elimination was ensure they didnt finish rock bottom, which meant that very soon, Quetta and Peshawar werent playing for too much at all.It also, surely, made Karachi Kings the worst team in the short history of T20 cricket to advance to a round where they were three matches away from winning the entire event. Shoaib Maliks (and then, of course, Ravi Boparas) men were so ordinary by the end of the group stage that they were guaranteed a losing win-loss record, even if they went on to win the tournament. A format that permits this to happen cannot be much more than a work in progress. Surely the only sensible format was the top two teams making the final? Make that a best-of-three if you must. It would be far more exciting to see Quetta and Peshawar play three hard-fought contests between them than the mess that is the current arrangement.The disappointing crowds at almost every game not held on a Friday, particularly in Dubai, have been a sobering reality check. The huge, lifeless stands that have become an unwelcome hallmark of Pakistans adopted home have been in full evidence for large parts of the event. A smattering of passionate support in a small part of the ground does not do nearly enough to dispel the impression of indifference to the PSL in the UAE - which Sethi put down on the eve of the tournament to a tight marketing budget. While it seems hardly fair to criticise the PSL for sparse crowds - it was an inevitable consequence of the tournament not being held in the cities whose teams featured in the league - such a strong lack of interest in the event from the people of the cities where it did take place is a solemn reminder of the work that still lies ahead if the PSL is going to last much longer than its debut season.That will be the greatest challenge of all. For the PSL to have any kind of long-term future, it needs to come back to the country whose name makes up one third of the acronym, and the unlikelihood, at present, of that happening makes its long-term prospects rather bleak.The PSL has done many things right, but there is room for improvement. (It could take on three more teams and adopt a logical format, for starters.) However, a number of factors in Pakistan cricket simply arent within the PSLs power to change, and it is crucial the tournament doesnt become a wishing wand for spectators and administrators alike. It may well fill the PCBs coffers, but it cannot fill Pakistans stadiums. ' ' '