“It’s not over yet,” Saxton said. “We can still surpass last year’s win total. I think we have matched up with teams very well. We have gone in and competed very well with pretty much every opponent in the Big Ten.”

Saxton and his team plan to continue their practice regime throughout the end of the season. Saxton said that identifying a problem and using practice to find the solution is the best way to stay on track.

“The drills and exercises we do (during practice) are related to areas we need help in,” Saxton said. “We did a lot of scoring and finishing work going into the Wisconsin game.”

Saxton is pleased with his team’s performance and the effort they put in day in and day out.

“I am absolutely happy with (the team’s) effort. I’m not always happy with how they execute. They have stayed amazingly positive through the six-game stretch,” he said. “It comes down to execution.”

This season has been especially difficult for the Spartans because of the schedule.

“Because of the way our Big Ten schedule was set up … I knew that the stretch we went through would be a very demanding stretch,” Saxton said. “We competed hard, we just didn’t make the plays we needed to.”

Also not helping the Spartans’ cause is the fact that they’ve played four of the top five teams in the conference from Oct. 5 through Oct. 14.

“We have been absolutely able to match up with every other team we have played other than maybe Penn State and Purdue and I think we played those teams pretty strong,” Saxton said. “That’s why it has been such a tough stretch.”

Saxton encourages his players to focus on the games at hand and not to dwell on things that are out of their control.

“While we now have a mathematical chance to get to the post season, we are now counting on a lot of other results that are outside of our control,” he said. “What we can control is how we play these last three regular season games.”

Looking back on the beginning of the season, Saxton said the team’s downfall is that they have allowed other teams to “capitalize” on their mistakes.

“I think our effort has been there every game and our talent matches up. Some of it is just unexplainable,” Saxton said. “There hasn’t been a game that we have come to where I said ‘our team didn’t show up today.’”