Elite college basketball teams don't just win exhibition games, they dominate them.
That's what the No. 13 MSU men's basketball team is hoping to do this exhibition season, starting with Grand Valley State at 7 p.m. tonight at Breslin Center.
"These exhibition games, Duke's winning by 50, 60 points," junior center Paul Davis said of the Blue Devils, whom MSU plays on Nov. 30.
"We have to start trying to dominate teams, no matter which team it is. I'm not just talking about Grand Valley, I'm talking about going into Duke, we're going to try and dominate games," he said.
Tonight's game will be the first of two exhibition games for MSU. The first regular season game is on Nov. 19 against Florida A&M at Breslin.
Last year, MSU split its two exhibitions. The Spartans lost to the Harlem Globetrotters, then beat Nike Elite.
The exhibition season is a crucial time for the Spartans, who need to improve their defense and rebounding before the regular season starts, head coach Tom Izzo said.
After losing to the Globetrotters last year, MSU is not taking any exhibition games lightly. Even if Grand Valley, which finished 14-13 last season, isn't used to facing traditionally strong teams like MSU.
"We can't look past Grand Valley because they're going to come out fired up, wanting to beat Michigan State," sophomore guard Shannon Brown said. "If they beat us, wow, that'll be great for them."
The matchup will be MSU's first action against an opponent this season. The team's Green and White game was Saturday.
"For two, three weeks now, we've been going hard at each other," freshman point guard Drew Neitzel said. "So it's going to be fun to have everybody on the same team and go against some other guys."
Not only is Neitzel anxious for a taste of college-level competition against another team, he is also looking forward to the simple things freshmen experience in their first exhibition game.
"Just putting on that Spartan uniform, I've been looking forward to this, putting that uniform on, since I was a freshman, sophomore in high school," he said. "So it's been a long time coming."
While Neitzel is all but guaranteed playing time this season, his fellow freshmen are not all in that situation.
The other three freshmen, forward Marquise Gray and centers Idong Ibok and Goran Suton, could possibly be redshirted this season. A player designated for a redshirt season cannot play see a single minute of game action, including exhibitions, barring injury.
Suton, who is recovering from a knee surgery, definitely will not dress, Izzo said. But Gray and Ibok are expected to dress, which doesn't factor into redshirt eligibility.
Izzo will also be looking to solidify a starting lineup. Heading into tonight's game, Izzo sees six players capable of making up the starting five: Davis, Brown, senior swingman Alan Anderson, junior guard Maurice Ager and senior guards Kelvin Torbert and Chris Hill.
"In some ways, they all deserve to start, but in some ways, nobody's stepped up there either," Izzo said.
