Or we’ll point to the summer as a time when an impressive assortment of talent failed to build the chemistry needed to win at the highest level of college basketball.

Because as the past two seasons of Spartan basketball showed us, talent doesn’t ensure success. And an apparent lack of it doesn’t guarantee failure, either.

At his season wrap-up press conference Tuesday, head coach Tom Izzo said the not-so-big-of-a-secret to his team’s success this season was its chemistry and leadership. Everyone knows senior forward Draymond Green became one of the great leaders in school history this year, but what he did to help a bunch of pieces become a team played a major factor in MSU’s run to a share of the Big Ten regular season championship, conference tournament title and No. 1 seed.

All of that — or at least the majority of the chemistry part — happened this summer.

Going to open gyms, working out and simply spending time together during the offseason made it possible for Green to lead a bundle of newcomers to a memorable basketball season.

In order to replicate that next year, the Spartans will need another productive offseason. And that offseason starts now, beginning with the difficult process of replacing what Green brought on and — most importantly — off the court.

Center Derrick Nix, MSU’s only senior next year, and soon-to-be junior guard Keith Appling are the de facto captains right now, Izzo said. But this spring will be used as an evaluation period. Izzo and everyone involved with the team will be watching for the next month so the 17-year head coach knows he has the right players leading his team.

“In a couple weeks period of time, two or three, we’ll see what they do in the weight room,” Izzo said. “Who is coming in, who is spending time, who is trying to be a better teammate, who is trying to pick up the slack. I think that’s going to be a critical part of this team.

“But we sure have a nice measuring stick to do that with now and something to point at and something to look at.”

Nix and Appling will have the advantage of watching Green operate this season, and both continue to mature the longer they’re in the program.

They also might have the advantage of a foreign trip the team could take this summer to play more games and have more time to build a chemistry.

College programs are allowed to take their teams abroad once every four years. And considering MSU hasn’t used its chance to do so, Izzo is strongly considering taking his team somewhere in August. “It might be overseas, but it might be in Canada,” Izzo said. “I think this is a year with all the young players we’ve got, the freshmen and sophomores, it will be a great year to do it.”

The Spartans will be loaded with talent next season. Incoming freshmen Denzel Valentine, Matt Costello, Kenny Kaminski and Gary Harris all have dominated at the high school level and come in highly regarded. Put them in a group with the likes of Nix, Appling, sophomore center Adreian Payne and freshman guard Branden Dawson, and the potential is through the roof.

They’ll need the offseason to put it all together, though, and 10 extra practices and four games provide the perfect opportunity.

And next year’s team, no matter how talented, will need to take advantage of every chance it has to grow together.

Fortunately, the blueprint is in place. It will just be a matter of following it — all summer long.

Jeremy Warnemuende is a men’s basketball reporter for The State News. He can be reached at warnemu3@msu.edu.