After losing two All-Big Ten players to graduation, the MSU women's basketball team has had a little bit of reloading to do this season.

While the team still has two seniors in the starting lineup— guards Rene Haynes and Victoria Lucas-Perry — the remainder of the lineup is full of players who are relatively inexperienced.

Allyssa DeHaan is a true freshman starting at center. Mia Johnson, while a sophomore, is seeing her first year of game action in the Big Ten after transferring from St. Louis. When Aisha Jefferson starts at forward, it's a sophomore in the lineup. When Myisha Bannister starts, it says senior next to her name, but Jefferson played more minutes last year than Bannister has in her whole career.

The story remains the same on the bench. Junior Courtney Davidson hasn't seen many minutes, nor has junior Alisa Wulff.

This creates an interesting dynamic for head coach Joanne P. McCallie.

"We're not a team of all veteran people that have played tons of minutes and know exactly what to do next," she said. "It's kind of a neat team that way. We're definitely getting better, but we definitely have work in front of us.

"I like the future of trying to figure out how we're going to maximize everyone's potential. It's becoming February soon, so we need to take those steps."

With the combined lack of experience, much of the team is able to go through many of the same trials and tribulations together, rather than at different times.

"In terms of experience, it's an exciting team, definitely a talented team, but definitely a team that doesn't have as many minutes as some do," McCallie said.

"That's something that's refreshing. That's something that's positive. That's something that we can build on just because people are excited."

The excitement is something McCallie hopes will trickle down from Bannister, who had two career games in a row after being placed in the starting lineup nearly two weeks ago.

But there are some resonating issues. McCallie said the team is a bit too lax at times, leading to unnecessary turnovers.

"There's a lot of casual stuff going on, and it's not the defense stealing the ball from somebody," McCallie said. "It's self-imposed by mostly our guards, but sometimes our post players have had turnovers. It's kind of been everybody."

But McCallie looks at certain turnovers differently than others.

"You have to make a distinction between what I call the progressive turnovers, and the ones that work in your favor — the ones that show the kids are looking for different things — and then there are things that you just can't tolerate," she said.

The turnovers can be traced to focus — a hot-button word with McCallie as of late. She believes the team needs to really focus on "execution, preparation and not getting sidetracked and not getting affected by individual outcomes."

Getting the team to a level to not be affected by those individual outcomes is a whole other issue.

"There's a maturity that teams have to get to to understand that every game is of equal value, every game gets you closer to something better," McCallie said.

"This team probably doesn't get that totally."

Despite that, Johnson said the team is making some serious strides.

"We've come a long way since November," she said. "I'm really proud of where we're at right now. We're definitely coming along. We've showed maturity in a lot of games; it just has to be on a more consistent basis."

Part of that maturity is the guards finding touches for MSU's post players, which involves the guards communicating with each other.

"They're getting a lot more looks now," Johnson said. "The three of us — me, Rene and Victoria — are really working together a lot more than we were in November."

McCallie said the injuries to post players Lauren Aitch and Laura Hall have made the team more resilient, as she said she's never lost two post players in one season before. It also has forced players like Bannister and senior forward Katrina Grantham to step up more than previous seasons in which their contributions weren't as vital.

Although the schedule has been tough this month, it will go a long way into molding the Spartans into what they need to be in March.

When the book is closed on January, MSU will have been on the road for six of eight games, something that has helped the team come together.

"Road games are great because you're in a room with your teammates and you're bonding," Lucas-Perry said.

"It's definitely fun getting to know them off the court, and when your bond goes off the court, you become stronger on the court."