Merchant said she and the entire coaching staff are trying everything to solve the team’s problems as they arise on and off the court.

“We have individual meetings, team meetings,” Merchant said. “You name it, we’re doing it. I think every kid has their own qualities that they rely on.”

Before the season started, Merchant claimed to be a man-to-man coach in terms of defense, but had to resort back to the original zone defense when she saw the team was not getting it done.

“I certainly feel like we’re starting to do things differently — better — but what you thought you had in this guard, the longer you coach them the more you realize, ‘OK, that’s really not their thing, let’s tweak it a little bit,’” Merchant said. “That’s our job as coaches, especially me coming in, you can’t work with them until October really.”

Merchant expected to have to change things along the way as she started to know the players more, and said it’s all included in the learning process.

“I do feel we are where we need to be with the tweaking piece, I just feel we need to take it from tweaking to putting it into implementation and get better at what we’re doing,” she said.

It has been a roller-coaster ride of a season for MSU, alternating wins and losses for most of the Big Ten schedule.

“It’s just going to be one of those years, I think you’re looking at teams that have played quite a bit of freshmen in the Big Ten and teams that have had some interesting injuries,” Merchant said.

Sophomore center Lauren Aitch said that each loss is hard to swallow and has been on everyone’s mind.

“I think the biggest thing the team (and Merchant) has been connecting on with is that we’ve been losing,” Aitch said. “And that’s not what Michigan State does. Ever since I’ve been here we have not been a losing team, and that’s definitely something that has been hitting us hard.”

That success includes a Big Ten title and national championship game appearance in 2005 and a Sweet 16 appearance in 2006.

On top of that, the last time MSU lost more than five Big Ten games was the 2003-04 season.

“It’s like you see losing programs and you wonder how they make it through times like that,” Aitch said. “But this program is not a losing program and it’s not going to be a losing program. It’s just something right now that we have to get out of and get rolling.”

Senior guard Alisa Wulff understands changes will come with a new staff and young players and said she is embracing the situation.

“It’s obviously taken some time to get into the flow of things, and I definitely think we’re really close to putting it all together,” she said. “I think we have gotten better each game regardless of the scores.”

Former MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie had a rough first year at MSU as well. She finished 10-18 in the 2000-01 season, including a nine-game conference losing streak. In her second year, she finished ninth in the Big Ten.