“I thought I had a bunch of guys with no teeth,” head coach Tom Izzo joked after the game.

“It’s hard to smile when you’re going through what we went through. It was just better on the bench and everything.

“I don’t want to get fooled by it because I know (Nicholls State) didn’t have their full group, but I want to be encouraged that it was fun to see guys pull for one another. I thought we did a great job of that.”

Wide smiles were a constant as the Spartans reeled off one highlight after another, from a one-handed jam by guard Branden Dawson on the fast break, to an alley-oop to center Derrick Nix, along with successive no-look passes from guards Travis Trice and Denzel Valentine to set up a Gary Harris dunk.

“Those plays are exciting,” Dawson said. “With (the dunk), I just wanted to get the crowd into it a little bit, get the crowd going. After that play we really got life. …We just picked it up and came out with a lot of enthusiasm and energy.”

Eight players scored six points or more for MSU, with four players scoring in double figures, led by junior guard Keith Appling, who finished with a team-high 13 points and six assists, while junior center Adreian Payne added 10 points and 12 rebounds off the bench.

“I felt like we all had fun today,” said Harris, who scored 11 points along with four rebounds in his second game back from a shoulder sprain.

“This is really how we want to play. This is a game we grew on a lot of things. We cut down on turnovers and we’re just playing freely and not really worrying about making mistakes, just having fun.

The Spartans have placed an emphasis on running more on the fast break, and there was improvement in that area as well Saturday, with 16 fast break points while only committing eight turnovers.

Sophomore guard Travis Trice described it as a step in the right direction.

“It was better than it’s been, but we’ve still got things we need to fix,” Trice said.

“Our first key is getting guys running hard and I think we were doing that today. Now, I think we need to be more disciplined on who’s got what lane, and running hard every time. But we took a nice leap forward in running the break faster and harder.”

Appling echoed his fellow guard’s statements, adding the team should be able to bring this type of energy every night.

“We should always have smiles on our faces throughout the course of the game because we’re at Michigan State. Everybody should be proud to be a Spartan,” Appling said.

“At the end of the day, we know there’s still some wrinkles that we have to iron out, some getting better to do.”