He told himself he would stay out of foul trouble — something he couldn’t find a way around for the past three games.

Ironically enough, he still committed four fouls, yet found a way to swat six Wildcats’ shots — a career-high for MSU’s all-time blocks leader. He posted 10 points and eight rebounds as well.

Naymick mentioned after the 70-55 win that he doesn’t have many games left in an MSU jersey. If he continues to commit fouls, many of those remaining moments will be experienced on the bench.

And he’s not having any part of that.

“With three home games left, I’m just trying to play as hard as possible and get the absolute most out of the games as I can,” Naymick said.

When asked what he’s going to miss most after the Spartans’ final home game against Indiana March 2, he didn’t skip a beat.

“The crowd and the students are as good or better than any place that we go to,” he said. “They’ve got your back. Their timing of the shots is spot on and they do a good job with the shot clock, switching it up half to half.

“It’s electric and it’s unbelievable — I’m really going to miss that.”

MSU head coach Tom Izzo said he understands his seniors — Naymick and senior guard Drew Neitzel — see the light at the end of the tunnel.

And it’s time for them to step up and continue playing like team leaders do, especially if the Spartans want to make a run and do great things together.

Successful deception

The Spartans would go up by four points then watch the Wildcats scratch and claw their way back into it, not allowing the Green and White to pull away easily.

Backdoor screens leading to easy baskets — that was the name of the game for Northwestern.

“We struggled defensively at times and I would have guesses that they shot 50 percent,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “When I saw they shot 38 percent — I was amazed.”

Despite stretches of sloppiness, the Spartans still managed to outrebound (33-26) and dish out more assists (18-14) than their opponent, while protecting the ball, turning it over only 10 times — just MSU’s fourth time with 10 or fewer all season.

But sophomore forward Raymar Morgan put it into perspective — saying the team looked more complacent than they actually were.

“I think with all this practice this week, we were over anxious and just too hyper in the beginning,” he said. “It hurt us and got us down a little bit. But once we gained the lead and Drew (Neitzel) got it going, we pulled away.”

Drew’s on the ballot

Neitzel’s ability to find the bottom of the net isn’t the co-captain’s only impressive attribute being looked at.

His 3.27 grade-point average has earned the interdisciplinary humanities senior a spot on ESPN The Magazine’s Academic All-District IV team — made up of student-athletes from Division-I schools in Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.

The all-district squad includes Belmont’s Justin Hare, Western Michigan’s Joe Reitz, Jacksonville State’s Will Ginn and Kentucky’s Mark Coury.

Members of the College Sports Information Directors of America nominated Neitzel because he fit the criteria of being a starter or important reserve and carrying a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher.

His name now appears on the Academic All-America ballot.