The Spartans are in the thick of another grueling practice. For the past week, their coach has publicly criticized their defensive intensity, and now he demands improvement.
"Get a hand in his face," head coach Tom Izzo shouts with the authority of an army general.
Players in green jerseys, mostly starters, shuffle side-to-side with their arms extended as the white shirts, mostly walk-ons and bench-warmers, pass the ball along the perimeter, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack their teammates' defense.
The practice squad struggled to find a hole in the defense but, recently, opposing teams have attacked MSU's defense with alarming success.
"If you want to win a championship, if you want to get in the NCAA Tournament and make a run, there's certain things you still have to do," Izzo said. "In my mind, you still have to defend better than we're defending."
Prior to Tuesday's loss at Illinois, MSU had been winning despite its mediocre defense. MSU had won four straight, mostly on the strength of its offense, which seemed almost too good to believe.
The Spartans are on pace to become the second Big Ten team to lead the conference in three prominent offensive categories. They lead the league in field-goal percentage (54.6), 3-point field-goal percentage (47.1) and free-throw percentage (77) in conference games. Indiana has achieved that feat twice, in 1983 and 1994.
Throughout the winning streak, Izzo would praise his players' offensive success while refusing to overlook their defensive shortcomings. Even when MSU shot 73.3 percent - nearly a Big Ten record - in its 84-70 win against Ohio State last Saturday, he harped on MSU's defense.
Izzo wasn't the only one to notice the disparity between MSU's offensive and defensive commitment. During that Ohio State game, one of the television announcers compared the Spartans to the Dallas Mavericks, an NBA team known for lighting up the scoreboard while playing lackadaisical defense.
"I think if there's a question mark most people would have with Dallas is, do they guard well enough to really win a championship?" Izzo said of the comparison.
MSU's defensive stats back up Izzo's concerns. The Spartans are eighth in the Big Ten in scoring defense (69.3 points allowed per game) and sixth in field-goal percentage allowed (45.1).
Against Illinois on Tuesday, MSU found out just how important defense is. The Spartans' previously stellar shooting didn't show and their defense didn't either - again. The result: a 75-51 loss.
Izzo knows it takes a strong defensive commitment for a team to win a championship. The teams he led to Big Ten championships, from 1997-2001, including the 2000 National Championship squad, were built on toughness and vicious defense.
"We have not had that look where you come out of a huddle, or when you come into a huddle and somebody says, 'They ain't scoring,'" Izzo said. "And I've been involved with teams that have done that and I think that's what it takes to compete to be the best."
What has been perplexing is that MSU has the athletic guards and strong inside presence to play good defense and it has a coach that is known for teaching defense. Further complicating the issue is that the players want nothing more than to answer Izzo's pleas and play suffocating defense.
"It's not the offense that's going to get us to where we want to get to," junior guard Chris Hill said. "We've got to find a way to be more intense and just clamp down on teams on defense."
During games, when Izzo's instructions can be muffled by crowd noise, it is up to the players on the court to communicate with each other on defense. If communication breaks down, especially on screen plays, the defense suffers.
Whatever is plaguing MSU's defense, Izzo said one thing is certain: A lack of effort isn't the problem.
"The only thing I can come up with is I'm not sure it's a sense of urgency for those players yet," he said.
"We've made some little steps defensively - now, we got to make a big step."
