Davis, Ager, Brown or get out of town.

MSU's Big Three — senior center Paul Davis, senior guard Maurice Ager and junior guard Shannon Brown — once again dominated the scoresheet Sunday, accounting for all but nine of the Spartans' points in their 78-71 loss to Indiana.

MSU got just three points from its bench — all from freshman guard Travis Walton, who played 32 minutes in place of injured senior forward Matt Trannon.

The Hoosiers, meanwhile, got 16 points from their bench, including a game-tying free throw by Errek Suhr and a game-tying layup by Roderick Wilmont in the game's final minutes.

But MSU head coach Tom Izzo insists he's not looking to his bench to score more.

"We don't have a great bench — I told you that in September," Izzo said. "And we don't have a great scoring bench. But there's a lot of teams that don't have great benches."

Over the last six games, the Spartans' bench players have combined for 32 points — two more than Ager had by himself on Sunday.

Izzo said he's relying on players like junior forward Delco Rowley and redshirt freshman center Goran Suton to help make scoring easier for the starting five.

"They have to play their roles," Izzo said. "Their roles are to screen and their roles are to rebound.

"This is the type of team we have — it's not going to change."

Too much Drew

Izzo said the biggest burden from the Spartans' lack of depth has fallen on sophomore guard Drew Neitzel, who played 38 minutes Sunday and has been on the floor for all but four minutes in the Spartans' last three games.

"And has the ball in his hands all the time and has to guard the other point guard," Izzo said. "That's even more draining."

Neitzel looked tentative all day Sunday, missed three shots in the final 4:02 and finished with just five points and three assists.

"I think it was more fatigue as far as Drew is concerned," Izzo said. "It's hard to expect more (from him)."

But Neitzel insisted the struggles he had down the stretch Sunday stemmed more from bad decision-making than fatigue.

"Everybody's tired," Neitzel said. "That's no excuse."

Message for Davis

It wasn't a huge surprise to see redshirt freshman center Idong Ibok play the last two minutes of the first half in relief of Davis.

What was surprising was that Ibok started the second half on the floor, as well.

Izzo said he was sending a message to Davis, who was 3-of-8 from the floor in the first half and didn't get to the free-throw line once.

"I wanted to make a point to Paul that he has to take the ball to the basket and he's got to quit taking those fade shots," Izzo said. "I guess I haven't done a very good job of that this year, so I reverted back to a way I know best."

Davis appeared to take it to heart.

"He didn't have to say anything for me to know that," Davis said. "Just realize what I had to do to for us to be successful, and that's get in there and score and pick my spots."

When Davis did get back on the floor after 3:10 on the bench, he hit 4-of-5 shots for the half and consistently established better position down low.

And while he still didn't get to the free throw line, Izzo said Davis' aggression was what enabled the Spartans to come back from a 16-point deficit.

"We were running everything through him," Izzo said. "It was kind of fun to do for once."