After starting slowly in free agency, the Lions are finally starting to get signatures on contracts. First off, I loved the Kitna trade, not because it was a such a steal — I think Kitna has real value, even if he didn’t figure in the Lions’ plans — but because the acquisition of Anthony Henry was a great initial step toward getting Gunther Cunningham what he wants. When Cunningham arrived as defensive coordinator, he talked about his experience in Kansas City the last couple of years where he had a ton of young players and couldn’t do much with them. He wasn’t bashing rookies, just pointing out that you need a veteran core to set the example and bring some experience to the unit.

Having cut pretty much their entire secondary, the Lions were in a position where I worried they would be starting two rookie CBs. Instead they got Henry, and yesterday added Phillip Buchanon, one of the better corners in a fairly weak free agent class at the position. So now the Lions have two veterans to start on the corners, which is a huge advantage compared to the alternative. (And by veterans, I mean “players in their prime” as opposed to the Ghost of Brian Kelly we saw in 2008.) The Lions even signed another veteran corner, Eric King, for depth and special teams.

The team also signed Grady Jackson as a run-stuffing DT. And I’ll tell you what: Cliff Avril, Dewayne White, Grady Jackson and Cory Redding isn’t a bad front four. I know lots of mock drafts have the Lions taking Mississippi DT Peria Jerry with their second first-round choice, but compared to the team’s other needs, I think it barely registers. Besides, the Lions have been stocking up on project D-liners the last couple of years, and I’d hate to push DT Andre Fluellen out of the rotation before he has a chance to develop.

Anyhow, the Lions have added three solid-looking veteran starters to the defense without breaking or really even denting the bank. (I know solid-looking and solid are different things, especially when it’s the Lions, but for now that’s all we have to go on.) Add Dewayne White, Ernie Sims and Cory Redding to that list, and you have a majority of starters who have been around the block and acquitted themselves well in the process.

Suddenly the team is much closer to giving Gunther what he wants. That’s especially true if the Lions address their glaring need at linebacker, but we’ll leave the Aaron Curry crusade for another day.

The Spartans were all business last night after sweating out a 64-59 victory over Indiana to clinch their first outright Big Ten title since 1999. That makes sense in one way: a down-to-the-wire victory over the worst Indiana team in memory isn’t exactly cause for storming the court, even if the decisive play was one for Raymar Morgan’s career highlight reel. But as the team and its fans look forward to the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments, let’s make sure we don’t overlook what they’ve done.

Lots of MSU fans know that every Tom Izzo recruit who’s stayed four years has gone to the Final Four, and that streak is on the line this year with Travis Walton. (Fellow seniors Goran Suton and Marquise Gray were redshirt freshman during MSU’s 2005 Final Four run.) But plenty of Tom Izzo recruits haven’t done what this 2008-09 team has, namely win the Big Ten’s regular season title. Think about it: the Chris Hill-Kelvin Torbert-Allen Anderson teams never won the Big Ten. Same for the Paul Davis-Maurice Ager-Shannon Brown teams. After watching nemeses like Dee Brown, Deron Williams, Devin Harris, Greg Oden and Mike Conley win conference championships, State is finally back on top.

This Michigan State team is just beginning its push for posterity. But they’ve already added a nice a line to their resume.

NFL teams have been courting free agents since (at least) midnight, and Washington made the first big move, signing Tennessee DT Albert Haynesworth to a monster contract that includes $41 million in guarantees and could be worth $115 million.

The Lions, meanwhile, have somewhere between $35 and $40 million in cap space to work with — quite a bit of room. There was lots of speculation (including by the Mitten) that the team would go after Haynesworth because of his connection with new Lions coach Jim Schwartz, but at that price, no way.

Drew Sharp argues for Haynesworth at any cost in this morning’s Free Press, and he makes one good point, that a big free agent splash could give the Lions respectablity akin to when the Tigers signed Pudge Rodgriguez following the 2003 debacle. That contract (4 years, $40 million) was also outrageous, Sharp reminds us, but it was the price the Tigers needed to pay in order to attract someone of Pudge’s stature.

Not so fast. Pudge’s contract was outrageous only for him — a Hall of Fame performer clearly on the downslope of his career, at a position (catcher) where dramatic drop-offs at his age are fairly common. The Tigers took a risk and got a great year out of him, followed by a couple of good ones. The parallel for the Lions is not to get into the bidding for the top free agent on the market, but to sign an aging star who isn’t getting what he thinks he’s worth on the open market. A better example would be signing Kurt Warner to a two year deal for $20 million — but that example is a pipe dream, because Warner already has a $10 million-a-year offer on the table from his current team, the Cardinals, who also happen to be coming off of a Super Bowl season.

You need to identify a star who’s not getting the attention you’d expect. At a position of need. Someone like, say, T.J. Houshmanzadeh . . . and sure enough, the Lions are interested.

So I think Martin Mayhew is playing this just right, positioning the Lions to go after mid-level free agents will quietly and nonglamorously upgrade the Lions. The key, of course, is getting guys who can actually play.

Let’s think back over some of the FA signings from the Millen era. In the “splashy” category, you’ve got guys like Fernando Bryant, Dre Bly and Damien Woody. All of those moves made me feel good about the team on the day of the signing, but only Bly made an impact worthy of the hype. In contrast, the guys who’ve actually made a significant impact have come in under the radar — Mike Furrey, Jon Kitna and Stephen Peterman come to mind. They’re not superstars, but those guys came in and represented significant positional upgrades.

And while those guys certainly aren’t sure to succeed (as the Tampa Bay castoff secondary proved last year), they’re a lot less expensive.

One last note: I like that the Lions are trying to trade for a veteran CB. They need two starters and you don’t want two rookies back there, even if they were first rounders — and there’s no indication there’s a CB the Lions are considering at the top of the board. Considering that the FA pool is weak at CB, this seems like a smart move.

This is a blog, which means I can speculate wildly with only a small connection to actual reported facts. So here goes . . .

• Fact: QB Steven Threet is leaving Michigan. Speculation: This feels like a weird time to transfer. I mean, why make this decision in February, in the middle of the second semester? And Threet hasn’t chosen his next destination, so it can’t be that he’s taking orders from his next coach. I can think of three reasons why he would transfer at this particular moment: One, Denard Robinson is the straw that broke Threet’s back. Threet was willing to battle Tate Forcier for the starter’s job, but the last-minute addition of another top QB prospect is too much to handle because it suggests that the coaching staff doesn’t have a lot of faith in him. Two, now that Forcier is on campus, maybe Threet can tell from their workouts that he won’t win the job. Three, maybe this has been on Threet’s mind for a while now and he finally made the call knowing he would want to join his next team in time for spring practice. Either way, I think the loss of experience will hurt Michigan. Forcier or Robinson may turn out to be Terrelle Pryor clones, but I doubt Nick Sheridan will be Todd Boeckman.
• Fact: The Jacksonville Jaguars cut Fred Taylor today. Speculation: This guy could be a Lion soon. Given that the Lions just added former Jags exec Shack Harris to the personnel team, this seems like a natural fit. Taylor is a veteran leader — he’s a longtime captain of the Jags — who clearly has the skills remaining to be a capable change-of-pace back behind Kevin Smith. Don’t be surprised to see Taylor sign on in Detroit if he’s willing to take a reasonable contract and come in with the expectation that he’ll be #2 behind Smith. (As opposed to either competing for the starting job a la Rudi Johnson last year or being part of a backfield committee like the one he shared with Maurice Jones-Drew in Jacksonville.
• Fact: Raymar Morgan and Robbie Hummel will both play in the MSU-Purdue showdown tomorrow night. Speculation: Neither will be deciding factors. Morgan will provide matchup difficulties for Purdue, but Purdue gets the better of the returning stars factor because Hummel was able to shake off some of the rust against Iowa over the weekend.
• Fact: the Lions’ new DL coach is Jared Allen-approved. Speculation: Considering that the D-line was Rod Marinelli’s area of expertise and also where he spent a lot of his time coaching, it will seem ironic if the Lions are better at rushing the passer and stopping the run this year. Unless, of course, the Lions sign Albert Haynesworth. Then it will be pretty straightforward.

Today’s High Five:

• Lions: Shack Harris is officially on board. There are some other personnel tidbits here as well — Jason Hanson, for instance, isn’t going anywhere despite his free agent status.
• Tigers: Tom Gage runs down Detroit’s issues heading into Spring Training.
• Pistons: Drew Sharp uses the All-Star break as a chance to assess (bleakly) the state of the Pistons.
• Red Wings: The Wings have righted the ship, and already they’re knocking on the door for the top spot in SI’s power rankings.
• CBB: Joe Rexrode points out a couple of key moments from MSU’s victory over Michigan.

Today’s schedule:

• NHL: Minnesota at Detroit, 7:30pm (Versus)

It’s the Mitten’s first ever free association column, a group of disjointed thoughts on college basketball following last night’s MSU victory over Michigan at Crisler Arena.

• Michigan State seems really to have taken the Penn State and Northwestern losses to heart. Specifically, if there’s a defensive weakness to a typical Tom Izzo team, it’s on the perimeter, where the Spartans are vulnerable to a lights-out shooting night from opposing guards. Kevin Coble and Talor Battle both exploited that weakness. But State’s defenders have looked much better on close-outs since the Penn State game, holding Michigan to 35% shooting (17% from 3); Indiana to 31% (19% from 3) and Minnesota to 29% (25% from 3). Michigan’s shooters missed some good looks, but the lion’s share of the credit has to go the defense for causing a 17% 3-point shooting night from a team that emphasizes the long ball. Most nights, you don’t have to face a red-hot jumpshooter; but in the NCAA tournament, you probably will.
• The Spartans’ frontcourt is coming into its own. If you’re looking for signs that this isn’t the same MSU team that got pounded by North Carolina, start there. It’s not just Goran Suton, it’s the emergence of Delvon Roe and Draymond Green. Add Raymar Morgan back into the mix, not to mention Marquis Gray, and this is an exciting group. The only weakness here is that Green and Roe are scoring on putbacks and great feeds; only Suton has shown the ability to score consistently as a back-to-the-basket post threat. If only Roe could get that baby hook going . . .
• Michigan’s NCAA hopes are dimming, but the Wolverines aren’t playing bad basketball. The defense looked good last night, and the offense just needs to add another dimension so that opposing defenses can’t concentrate so hard on taking the Wolverines’ shooters out of the game. MSU’s defense was extended, something Michigan exploited with nice drop-step moves from the free throw line by DeShawn Sims and later Zack Gibson, but U-M needs a genuine post threat or a guard who can get to the lane consistently to force defenses to adjust. If that happens, Michigan can turn the corner. (Or re-turn the corner, since it seemed to have had the corner turned earlier in the season with the big wins over UCLA and Duke.)
• It’s especially encouraging for State fans to see these smothering defensive performances without Raymar Morgan. Both because Morgan is an outstanding performer and because the guys replacing him — Durrell Summers and Chris Allen — aren’t known for their great D. Neither will yet be mistaken for Travis Walton, but they’re making strides.
• Now MSU has a week off to prepare for Purdue. That’s a tough game, on the road in West Lafayette. But if State can come away with a victory, it would put a chokehold on the Big Ten race. It would be nice for MSU to wrap the regular season conference title up early, so it can focus on tournament play. But considering how many times State has finished on the cusp in recent years, the race will exact a heavy emotional toll on MSU if it goes down to the wire.