Chicago State guard David Holston, who was one of three Cougars to score in double digits in last year’s contest, is coming off a season in which he averaged 15 points a game — including an 18 point effort against MSU.

“It is a great team,” Gray said. “This is a different team than we played last year, so we had to go back to the drawing board, watch film and learn their stuff.”

While the Cougars were paced by Holston in last year’s contest, senior guard Drew Neitzel led the Spartans with 32 points but struggled in the two exhibition games shooting a combined 8-of-30 from the field for a total of 22 points.

“I guess if you want to go through a slump the best time to go through it during the season is the exhibition games when they don’t necessarily count,” Neitzel said.

“I’ve been getting lots of shots up. I don’t think it’s a thing where there’s something wrong with it, it’s just not falling right now. I think every shooter goes through that, and I think I’m through that now.

“I’ve been shooting really well in practice, and I think I’ll bounce back well on Tuesday.”

Gone, but not forgotten

With the regular season finally beginning tonight, it’s time to wipe the slate clean and forget the exhibition season, right?

Not according to junior guard and co-captain Travis Walton, who said the Spartans did get some positive notes out of their 85-82 double overtime loss to Grand Valley and 61-55 win over Michigan Tech.

“On a couple of plays and a couple of different things we got positive notes on, but for the most part we want to learn from it, not take it away because it could come back,” he said.

“We don’t want to wipe it away but at the same time, we want to understand that if we do this — if we push the ball right, if we defend right — we’re going to do this and this is going to happen. But if we do this, this is what’s going to happen and we’re not going to play as well.”