“We’ve won with less talented teams, we’ve won with more talented teams,” Izzo said. “Mentally, it’s hard, that’s a harder one to rate. I can look at a guy and see how strong he is, I can watch him play and see how tough he is. You don’t know what is going through a kid’s mind mentally.

Izzo, an outspoken adversary for Twitter and other social media, thinks that those platforms might be part of the problem.

“It goes back to Twitter, it goes back to what these kids are hearing, goes back to all those things,” Izzo said. “Are they able to handle those things? Are people all over the country able to handle those things?”

Whatever the reasoning is behind the team’s apparent weakness, it has affected the offense. MSU was stagnant offensively against Illinois this past weekend but after seeing a couple shots fall early against Northwestern, the Spartans ended up hitting a season-high 13 triples. In the first half especially, MSU's ball movement and transition game led to wide open looks along the perimeter.

Izzo has been happy with his team’s rebounding and defensive performances in “90 percent” of the team’s losses, and he’s also been pleased with the way his team has taken care of the ball.

“I think, to be honest with you, it all comes down to if the ball goes in the basket,” Izzo said.

On Tuesday night, shots were dropping for MSU. Senior guard Travis Trice worked off the ball more as a shooting guard en route to 16 points on 4-of-6 shooting from three-point range.

It’s unclear whether the blowout road win could be the start of a mental turnaround across the team or just another high-point in an oscillating season. Either way, it was a necessary conference victory.